| Title | : | Bad Boys Break Hearts (The Boys #1) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 372 |
| Publication | : | First published May 24, 2020 |
Rich.
Hotter than sin.
The campus’s reigning bad boy.
We knew each other once upon a time, but even if I’m named after a princess, it doesn’t mean my life is a fairytale.
My plan is to keep my head down, get my degree, and leave this town.
But the moment Mascen Wade recognizes me all my carefully laid plans come crumbling down. He’s decided he wants to make my life a living hell. But I’m not so easy to push around and won’t put up with his bully playground antics. Too bad for me I’ve never been able to resist him.
Bad Boys Break Hearts (The Boys #1) Reviews
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Bad boys can break my heart and my back.
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take my word and read this, enemies to lovers masterpiece methinks
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DNF @ 26%
Yeah...no. I’ll admit my funk has made me intolerant for certain things lately and that could be the case here. If I’m being frank (or bitchy 🙈), this felt like a book that wanted to ride in on the success of bully books like
Vicious but didn’t quite work. The reason for his attitude was downright stupid, so I felt like he was just being a jackass for no reason. I didn’t find the h all that likable either. I got to him stating “because you don’t belong to him” after she is hanging out with his best friend (who he thinks she slept with but didn’t) and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes and call it quits. Was that sexy and I missed it? It felt dumb...they were friends when they were young kids. The last time they saw each other she was 8 and he was 10! It’s not like they had some great romance that was cut tragically short!
I’m over it 🤦🏻♀️🙄 -
DNF
So we have the main guy Mascen who is the rich popular guy in College.
Then we have Rory who is the poor scholarship student, who has to beg to get a job as a waitress once she joins college.
Okay so Mascen and Rory were childhood besties, until one day Rory had to leave.
Now years later they meet again and Mascen hates her. Why? Because after so many years they have met again and how did they meet? He bumped into her while she was leaving his best friends room.
Honestly, over the years I’ve forgotten about her. She became a memory, just someone I used to know. But when my eyes lit on her in the hallway I recognized her instantly, but the shock and awe gave way quickly to anger, because she was leaving my best friend’s room. It was dumb, childish anger that roared inside me, this primal feeling of I saw her first and it hasn’t dulled since this morning. It also didn’t help when I realized she’s the girl I almost ran over yesterday. I don’t know how I didn’t recognize her then, but I guess I was too lost in my head.
So now Mascen is like I need to stop thinking about Rory, so what does he do? Calls one of his bimbo’s and they end up going on a date to the same place Rory works. Surprise surprise. And coincidentally the go and sit on the same section Rory is responsible for.
And then they both proceed with “insult” worthy exchanges. I just don’t understand why he is behaving this way. It makes no sense to me. He is just being an asshole.
As I’m walking away I hear his date ask what’s going on with all the nicknames and if he slept with me or something. I’m too far away to hear his reply. What a shame. I do give my eyes a hard roll though at the preposterous idea of the two of us ever bumping uglies. Mascen is wealthy. I’m the hired help.
So yeah I stopped reading after this. This book was just not for me. -
TW suicide
I love a brooding hero who is angry at the world. Also, when the girl is his best friend's girlfriend? Bring on the angst!! From the beginning, Mascen treats Rory horribly. Rory and Mascen were best friends when they were little, but after Rory's family falls apart, her family moves and Rory is basically left to fend for herself. Now, she's doing her best to do well in college and make new friends. I really loved her relationship with her roommates and how different they all were from each other. They were fun and I loved how they helped her out when it came to dating and going out, especially since she hasn't had the time to let loose and have fun. Mascen is immediately hard on her when he realizes who she is, but Rory really connects with his best friend. This became super angsty because Mascen starts falling for Rory, even though she's completely off limits. I really loved how they reconnected and started falling for each other again. Mascen also had to confront his relationship with his rock star dad, which I enjoyed as a side plot. Even though this is technically a bully romance, Rory never let Macsen push her around and she stood up to him when he was being mean. I really loved her character and seeing what she came from. I'm excited to move on to book two and read Cole's story! -
4 stars
Another Micalea Smeltzer book, another win for me! Bad Boys Break Hearts is a new adult friends to enemies to lovers story.
Rory is starting her first year of college and she’s so excited to get away from her mom and her life. She had something traumatic happen to her when she was eight and her life was forever changed. She had to move away from her best friend at the time, ten year old Mascen, and hasn’t seen him since.
Until she ends up at his house… coming out of his roommates room. This ends up being a bit of a bully romance, but super light on the bully which I appreciated. I loved seeing Mascen and Rory get back that friendship they lost so long ago and become friends (and then some) again.
I’m super excited to read Cole’s book which I think is next in the series. This wasn’t my favorite Micalea book, but still a solid read for me. And the narration was 10 out of 10. Erin Mallon killed it and Jacob Morgan did an incredible job as well.
Audio book source: Audible
Story Rating: 4 stars
Narrators: Jacob Morgan & Erin Mallon
Narration Rating: 5 stars
Genre: New Adult Contemporary Romance
Length: 9h 20m -
2.75⭐
Oh, look who just took a fucking forever to finish this snooze fest?
Things I liked:
•The dialogues.
•The girls' friendship.
•A girl named Mallory.
•Maddox Wade (Mascen's good dad) naming all his hedgehogs such as Pokehontas, Quill Smith, Edgar Allen Poke, Winston Churchquill, Quillie Nelson, Quilliam Shakespeare.
•Aurora nicknaming Mascen with ridiculous villain names every other sentence.
Things I didn't like:
•The lack of punctuations (yes, I'm a Grammar Nazi and it's a published book).
•The unnecessary drama Mascen created and making it seem like his dad's a bad guy.
•The nickname, Princess, Mascen had for Aurora (because I refuse to call her Rory).
•Mascen having more chemistry with Mallory than with Aurora, our fucking main character.
•Aurora not brushing her teeth and hair in hurry and leaving her dorm for the rest of the day. Like have you not heard of hygiene?!
•The fact that Mascen wasn't even a bad boy.
So, in conclusion, it was boring. *yawns* -
dnf @ 70%
i just couldn't with this book. the writing and the story felt very juvenile which lead to me rolling my eyes the entire time. this story reads fanfiction with a lot of telling and not enough showing. i wanted a fun and quick new adult romance, but this was just not it for me. since i made it more than 50% of the way through, i am going to rate it and give it 1 and a half stars. -
dnf@60%
ms. smeltzer should release an april fool's edition of this book where the plot is actually eventful and the characters are not so typical
i hate dnfing books these days but with this one, i 😭 just 😭 can't 😭 -
I was this 🤏 close to DNF-ing. Whoo! I should get a medal for finishing it. Maybe I’m exaggerating because it wasn’t that bad.
It just dragged for a bit. The concept was really good. Some of the dialogue was corny and cheesy and sounded so fake. It didn’t flow properly. It felt like too much of a mouthful. Too many words.
As for the story at one point I really thought the mcs should have ended up with different people. I felt so bad for Cole. Ah he has my entire heart ❤️
Mascen needed to grovel more. She didn’t even stand her ground. But I was so ready for this book to be over. Had to rush read the ending. -
It was cute but nothing to write home about. Honestly even at the end I didn't know what the hero's problem was during the whole book. So he didn't know how to communicate to daddy dearest but that was no reason to be the way he was? Come on, you are almost a grown up! Grow up!
The heroine, was cute but she too was too forgiving and the way she backlashed I thought she would fight more, make him work for it but nope. Nada.
Eh, one to the next... -
Not a fan
What started as such a sweet beginning (that had me so excited) went downhill quickly, and stayed there. Cheating is kind of a hard limit for me. I feel like it makes the person untrustworthy and I don’t really care about their happiness at that point. I think the author was trying to go for the “badass” type girl. That would be great if authors could get it though their head that being slutty and not caring about other people isn’t what makes the character badass. I couldn’t get over the fact that the h dated the H’s friend basically to rub it in his face. Then she cheats on that guy with the H and I didn’t see a trace of guilt. She broke up with him later but it was because of the H not because she realized she was wrong. Since I know someone will want to know, she hadn’t slept with the friend but had been dating him for a month. I guess points for telling her friends that she’s used plenty of guys for sex but she knew he wanted more so that’s why she didn’t. I didn’t really know what to do with that conversation. Honestly that it made me laugh (it wasn’t supposed to be funny) because it was such an “author trying to hard to make something work that doesn’t” moment. There was another similar scene before she went on date, because she told her friend she didn’t know how to do that. Yeah, apparently she usually just screws the guys. The author seemed to be trying to flip the characters and make the female the “manwhore” in this book. Some people may like that but I don’t. I am an equal opportunity judgey ass. Her being one doesn’t make him any better. Besides in the book all he did was go on a couple of fake dates to get her attention. She got into an actual relationship with his friend to screw with him and then cheated on the friend. And before anyone crucified me for “slut-shaming” it’s not just the sleeping around, she was also just a bad person. The friend that she used was a decent guy, and she was a slut that screwed with his feelings and caused a rip in his friendship. If the hero had done that, he would be torn apart. I can’t even think of a book in this genre that had the man start dating her friend and cheat on her friend with her. That a douche line that the even the more riske authors don’t bother doing because they know that’s a line that shouldn’t be crossed: I’m torn because after a read this bad I’d usually just accept that they have no talent and move on. But this author did write another book that I liked so I’ll wait and see. And honestly I think I know what happened. I’ve seen it with other authors. She sees this genre that’s getting popular and thinks she can write a book like that. But then she tried to hard to imitate what these authors have done and tried to do something similar. Apparently she’s read some reviews as well, because she flipped some things, if she had done them well it could have really worked, but she didn’t). The biggest problem with the authors that imitate is that they are missing the heart. They try to plug in the pieces together like it’s a formula, but they don’t fit together. That is exactly what happened here. The parts that should have been positive or girl power just didn’t work because A, they were a little gross and B they were insincere and C what I already said about sluttyness not being what makes someone badass. I did like that the yes hero had went through a manwhore phase but had stopped before the book started and she ever came along. Yes having him been one at all would have been better, but she certainly wasn’t prepared to stop. I guess I really shouldn’t care, because I definitely stopped caring if they got together. Lord knows one of the characters should have to be decent enough to root for. All of the the sweetness at the beginning was wasted. I hope another author writes something similar but with an enjoyable story. -
I saw the promo for Good Guys Don't Win and I had to get my grabby hands on it. Then I read the first few pages and felt like I was missing out on something, so I checked on GoodReads and realised it was book two in the series. Since I had some time with our current Covid restrictions I decided to one click this on KU and read it first and I'm glad I did.
From the start I loved Aurora, AKA Rory. She was so strong and competent and after everything she had been through, I wanted everything to work out perfectly for her. And honestly despite the fact that I wanted Mascen to get a junk punch for most of this book the chemistry between them was electric.
Mascen really had no reason to be the jackhole that he was, which kind of frustrated me. Obviously, it added to the story but the fact his life had been awesome while Rory's fell apart and he was the bitter one annoyed me. Then he would do something sweet or have a silent epiphany and I would be putty in his hands again.
And now I get to dive into Cole's book which already has me so excited. Especially since he was so awesome in this book. -
I DNF’d 50%, i couldn’t😵💫
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I've finished reading this a few days ago! And this book gives me the right amount of angst, tension a friend turns to enemies to lovers trope! This book is sexy- Mascen & Aurora's chemistry is off the chart!
Micalea Smeltzer is a new author for me, but after reading this I crave more of her books now. This will not be the last.
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Nice really nice
Predictable but nice like iced water on a heated sunny day -
a cute, cliche read! Not my favorite, but it passed the time.
3.5 stars ✨
tropes: childhood friends to strangers to lovers, bully romance, college, enemies to lovers -
4 Stars
While this is supposed to be a sports romance, I wanted more sports. -
I definitely saw potential but there was too much that bothered me with the actual storyline for me to rate it any higher.
I think they were too young when they parted to have really had the memories and feelings they had that drove the story to be what it was. If they were 13/15 instead of 8/10 I would have believed it more.
I also thought the ‘enemies’ aspect was a bit forced and the first half of the book could and should have been avoided and not even have happened.
But besides for the actual building blocks for the entire story… it wasn’t a bad read. There was great banter between both characters, I felt the chemistry and I think it has a solid buildup. Also the writing style made it very easy to fly through.
I probably would have liked this a lot more if I read it when I was a little younger and had less books under my belt… so I wouldn’t have been as picky. I’m definitely going to continue with the series because I’ve heard they each get better and better -
I can’t say much about this book. It was an okay childhood friends-to enemies-to lovers college romance read. Just a decent read, nothing more. I’m not sure if I’ll read the rest of the books in the series. 3 ⭐
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What was that 🤦🏼♀️
OK, I give this book 1.5⭐️ and this is only because I managed to read it all.
If I was playing a drinking game, taking a shoot every time a word “princess” was used, I would be already heading to the rehab...
It felt like fanfiction written by a teenage girl. I’m not a native so perhaps it’s not my place to judge, but some sentences in this book felt so superficial as someone just took a “recipe” for a sentence and put some words in it - take this:
“Despite how things started out I think we were headed this way the entire time.
With breakfast done we cleaned up the last of the mess together despite his protests.”
Congratulations, we used “despite” in two different ways in two consecutive sentences👌
This story was full of unnecessary descriptions and these little additions which were spoiling me any pleasure I had in reading .... some examples:
“I drag my fingers over the wall, heading closer to the sound. Whoever is playing is talented. I’m not musical genius, but I know when someone is good or not”
➡️Why, please why did someone put there this last sentence?!?
“She reaches up, snatching my baseball cap and planting it on her head backwards.
“I could have lice you know”
“I’ve had your dick in my mouth. I think I’ll take my chances.””
➡️yes, It is a real quote! No comment😂
“I don’t have time to panic too much before Mascen grabs my arm pulling me up. How he manages to do that, I know I’m not the lightest person, is beyond me. He must have Thor-like strength. It would make sense considering he seems to think he’s god.”
➡️🤦🏼♀️why oh why do we mention Thor?
And the last thing, I really believe that this book would benefit from having only Single POV. The author clearly did not know how a man in his early twenties thinks and behaves. So we have this broken bad boy who clearly has some issues (although like all people who actually read this book, I don’t get what his issues were) and this is what he thinks:
“(finishing talking to his mom on face time) She blows a kiss and like always I grab it, pressing it against my heart”
Do NOT recommend, perhaps only if you want to have some fun and laugh out loud!🤦🏼♀️ -
3.5 Stars
Childhood best friends until, at ages eight and ten, a tragedy occurs that separates them. Ten years later by purse accident the come face to face -- and it turns to an enemies to lovers storyline. Oh and he's the star pitcher on the college baseball team, rich and king of the campus driving around in a Range Rover. Of course, she's the poor girl who has no family to speak of and drives around in her grandpa's old dilapidated pickup truck and borrowing clothes from her roommates. But she is also very smart and works for everything she has while attending a preppy college on scholarship. He's Satan and she's Princess. And it's a romp between the bad boy athlete and the girl he lost at ten years old.
It follows pretty much the same path most of these types of tropes take. It was well written and had some dynamite witty banter and over-the-top name calling. I found it entertaining and a fast read. -
DNF @ 21%
Yea. This book doesn’t make sense. I’m really confused as to why the H hates the h? Apparently his parents were really open about why the h had to move away suddenly when he was 10 and she was 8, so I’m struggling to understand his animosity? It’s not like she had control over whether she could say goodbye or keep in touch when she was EIGHT. And we’re not talking about a mild dislike, he legit HATES her. It makes absolutely no sense. This book would be way more believable as a second chance romance, but as enemies to lovers, it just doesn’t jive.
Unfortunately, I don’t recommend this book. -
just your same old story where the hero and heroine were childhood best friend and then heroine moves out of town. now when they’re in the same college, and they meet after 10 years, the hero hates her for leaving... yeah no <3 pretty boring nothing new <3
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this book was so nasty omg if it has one hater i am one of them if it has no haters that means i no longer exist if the world loves it i am against the world etc you get it
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Wow
So this was a love hate for me. I loved the story and the ending, I hated the dragging to get there though. It was worth the read and you should take a look, but I could have done without some of the angst. -
Am I getting to old for NA romance?
I hated Mascen! What did Rory See in him?! He was throwing himself a pity party every other day and after a while I just wanted to smack him up the head -
meh…it was pretty basic and nothing new to the genre but i also still liked it
wasn’t the best and wasn’t the worst.
I liked the easiness to the book. it was okay -
3.5 stars. Bad Boys Break Hurts is the first book in the Boys series by Micalea Smeltzer. I grabbed the audio of this one and enjoyed it! This has a college setting, the heroine is just starting school and she runs into the hero who she knew growing up, she actually starts dating his roommate/friend first. This is slightly sports romance, the hero is the star pitcher for the school’s baseball team, but the sports part is super light/barely there (I actually wanted more sports time lol).
Rory is just stating her first year at Aldridge University on scholarship and she’s so ready for a new beginning where people don’t know her or her family’s history. She’s been the responsible one after a family tragedy when she was young and she was left to pick up the pieces. On her first night she ends up going to a bar with her new roommates/friends and wakes up the next morning in a guy’s room (the guy she was dancing and making out with at the bar). Nothing ended up happening but on her way out she runs into his roommate who happens to be Mascen, someone she grew up with! While it’s been 10 years since they’ve seen one another, Mascen definitely feels territorial about Rory and can’t keep away from her, even though he tries to since his roommate starts dating her.
This one was angsty, with Rory dating Mascen’s roommate for about the first half of the story. They are more friends though and do end up splitting which is when Mascen invites Rory home with him for Thanksgiving and winter break. Mascen has a complicated relationship with his dad which is explored in the book, his dad was a famous drummer in a band. I did think the relationship/romance part was slow and once they got together I wasn’t as invested as the buildup of the “are they/aren’t they” type setup we had in the first half when she was dating his roommate. I did like how he calls her “Princess”. And I’ll probably continue on in the series because the audios were good and I do want to see some of the other character’s stories, including his roommate she dumped. Lol
CW: suicide (loss of a parent)
