Anne E ♡ emo + OTT Hs's Reviews > Bully King

**Sexual History SPOILERS is on my review of Book2 **

My advice: Just skim up to 85% of this book (Book1). But read the last 15%.

This is my 1st J.A. Huss book and I hope her other books read better than this. Because this book:

#1. lacked substance
It's a full-length book plus a 2nd book to complete this Duet. So, it has lots of details about going-ons in the school and the different characters involved. BUT it sorely lacked focus and details of significant information re: 18yo gardener’s daughter h and 21yo elite-college senior H’s past romance/relationship and their current one and exactly how H’s 2 male BFFs were involved. Significant details from 3 years ago glossed over (i.e., h’s 4-some with H and his friends when she was only 15yo and they 18, how their r/s progressed from non-existing to bullying ad stalking to smexxing then to nothing for 3 years despite them being in the same school location). Lots of head-scratching from me. And that's never a good sign.

#2. lacked emotion and romance
Everything felt even-keeled, even when the details were sad, upsetting, or shocking. It wasn't h's numbness to her mom's sudden death 2 weeks earlier. I can handle numb but I have to understand it and feel why she's numb from grief. So many things in this book were glossed-over. Including h's abortion 3 years ago. Even after reading the details of it in Book2, there was still a lack of emotion over it (i.e., was that a hard decision for her? did she regret it? did she feel guilty over it or glad? was she more upset about getting an abortion or H leaving her after?). I still don't know.

#3. Lots of telling and not showing.
And the telling wasn’t consistent (i.e., h’s POV says that she liked being a loner to being socially dependent and needing social approval from the elite people @ the school, h and H hating and worse, disregarding each other for the past 3 years to suddenly being in love and what not).

#4. inconsistent characterization of h and H’
For example, h described as innocent and a shy loner who was sheltered via homeschooling by her parents. Then, we get some fuzzy details about her already being a non-virgin when she was 15yo, when she and H and his friends started making out and eventually smexxing. If she was homeschooled and only had her parents as her friends, who was/were her previous lover/lovers? How did she meet them, when her POV showed that she was a loner and didn't have friends? If also didn't make sense re: how comfortable she was with public sexual activities in front of strangers. She's supposedly shy and socially inexperienced before she 4-somed with H and his friends.

She was also described as a simple girl who didn’t aspire for wealth and fame yet that’s the very thing she ended up doing due to her lack of escaping the cult-like elite school when she had the freedom to do so for and was consistently encouraged to do so (even given $200+k to do as she wished). Instead, she allowed herself to be humiliated by literally made to kiss H and others’ toes and crawl around and be sexually touched by others based on the elite-students’ orders. It just didn’t make sense why she stayed and subjected herself to all of that, when her POV and such showed that she was sick of being bullied and didn’t like the students and hierarchical structure there and could’ve freely moved anywhere.

At least, H’s character as an irresponsible/selfish/immature and mostly-clueless bully was consistent. But I can't take 21yo H seriously since he still acts like a spoiled teen and says things like "As if!", like Cher in the teen movie "Clueless". They both acted immature 3 years ago when they were younger teens. And they continued to act immature while playing adult games as young adults.