Boys That Tease by Betti Rosewood
Series: Lords of Wildwood, book 1
Genre: YA/NA, bully romance
Publisher: self published
Publication Date: June 3, 2019
Rating: ★★★1/2
Boys That Tease is an angsty, love/lust-fueled, and emotionally charged bully romance. Set in an elite, upper-crusted, prep school, this drama inducing atmosphere was the perfect setting for this YA/NA love story. Not having read this trope in a really, really, long time, it was refreshing to go into this story with my eyes wide open.
The book introduces you to Tinsley and Crispin, both teenage actors working on a TV show together. Their cute and flirty friendship started out like any typical teenage romance does…Girl like boy, boy likes girl. But after a shocking scandal rocks both their lives, they find themselves on opposite ends of a controversial battlefield with little hope of saving what they almost had.
This story had a lot going on…teen angst, HS drama, family issues, jealous classmates, a secret society, a mysterious disappearance, and much more. I love a good book that keeps me guessing as to what would happen next, and to what secrets will finally be revealed. This book does not lack in story. But while the progression of the story line flowed great, it didn’t seem to match up with the development of the characters. I felt that Tinsley and Crispin played the same back-and -forth animosity card throughout most of the book. And although the book was dual POV (which I loved!), the feelings of hostility and the actions of tenderness and compassion gave me too much whiplash. Granted, this story is about teenagers in high school. But I was hoping for a little bit more respective maturity growth in their characters. By the end, I felt like they finally DID reach that point, but it came to that conclusion a little too quickly and a little too late in the story line, in my opinion.
Overall, Boys That Tease was a good read. The story line established in this book built the potential to expand in the next books to come in the series. For a debut novel, Betti Rosewood did a great job.
3.5 Stars!
~Kelly
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Synopsis:
We’re young. Privileged. Dirty. And we ruin lives for fun.
She knew being the new girl at Wildwood would never be easy, considering who she is. But nobody warned Tinsley Sullivan we’d be doing everything in our power to make her high school experience one of the most horrible times of her life.
They say my name like I’m their king. 𝐶𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑝𝑖𝑛 𝐷𝑎𝑙𝑡𝑜𝑛. Teachers and students worship the ground I walk on. They all follow my lead… Except for ℎ𝑒𝑟.
I didn’t think she’d have it in her to fight back. It’s kind of adorable that she won’t budge, refusing to break for me, to submit to my cruel desires. Except I’ll never stop pushing for more. I’m ready to make her life so miserable, she’ll be begging me to stop hurting her.
There’s just one thing that’s messing it all up.
Tinsley is off-f*cking-limits.
And I need to keep that in mind when I kiss my girlfriend… her best friend.