NA Review: Bully by Penelope Douglas

Bully (Fall Away #1)

by Penelope Douglas

 

Blurb by Goodreads

 

My name is Tate. He doesn't call me that, though. He would never refer to me so informally, if he referred to me at all. No, he'll barely even speak to me.

But he still won't leave me alone.

We were best friends once. Then he turned on me and made it his mission to ruin my life. I've been humiliated, shut out, and gossiped about all through high school. His pranks and rumors got more sadistic as time wore on, and I made myself sick trying to stay out of his way. I even went to France for a year, just to avoid him.

But I'm done hiding from him now, and there's no way in hell I'll allow him to ruin my senior year. He might not have changed, but I have. It's time to fight back.

I'm not going to let him bully me anymore.

***This novel contains adult/mature young adult situations. It is only suitable for ages 18+ due to language, violence, and sexual situations.

 

 

 

 

A good friend told me I had to read Bully, but I was unsure about it and she lent it to me. I tend to read novels that the synopsis catches my attention and very rare do I read a novel that I am not sure about. The idea of reading about the hero bullying the heroine did not catch my interest. To my surprise I ended up loving Bully. I enjoyed Penelope Douglas writing voice and the smooth flow of Bully. I had a hard time putting it down and when I did all I kept thinking about was Tate and Jared. I had to know what was his reason for the bullying, if and when the bullying stops would they ever be able to rekindle their friendship. Happy to say all my questions were answered.

Jared is your car racing, tattoo wearing bad boy who has girls eating at the palms of his hands. I am still on the fence if I like him or not. We have a hate/love relationship at the moment. There are times I wanted to beat him over the head but then there times he did have swoon moments. At first his reasoning for bullying Tate was not what I would of thought. There is never a good reason to bully anybody but I was not expecting his reason. Then there also was another reason and it did make more sense as why he did it. The summer he came back from his fathers I had an idea of what happened to him so it was no surprise when he told Tate.

As for Tate loved her character. She took her friends advice when she came back from France to not take Jared, Madoc or anyone else’s bullying. Wow can she throw a mean punch and hold her own. Her new attitude is not over the top and was able to see her break down a few times from Jared’s actions. The more she went head to head with Jared the more she felt like she was becoming a bully as well. She found herself hurting the one person she has ever loved and hated it after. Jared hurt her feelings and broke her heart many times but he never brought her deceased mom or dad in the picture. As for Tate she brought in the worst hurt ever to Jared by bringing in his parents and upbringing. That was not her and she hated the person she was becoming. One minute she would hate Jared but the next she would love him. Her off and on worked well for me as Penelope Douglas did a great job with flashbacks of their happy times as best friends.

Bully reads more like a Mature YA/New Adult novel with the heat factor on the hot to steamy side, with strong language and partying. But it also reads like a YA novel with all the high school drama. As for me the drama worked most times with never really knowing what was going to happen next. Happy I took a chance and read Bully as now I am a new fan of Penelope Douglas.

Jared moved his head from side to side trying to catch my eyes, his lips inches from my face. "If I ever lay my hands on you," he said low and husky, "you'll want it." He brought his lips even closer.

"I want to touch you." His words were against my lips now. "I want to feel what's mine. What's always been mine."

Add To Goodreads