BULLY KING by Andi Jaxon
Release Date: October 15th
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Blurb:
I’m the pastor’s son.
He’s the star quarterback for a small Kentucky high school.
While the town worships him, I pray for God to take my life.
He makes my life a living hell by making me his victim.
This perverse game we play could end us both.
How can something that feels so right be so wrong?
The price if the truth is discovered is death, but I can’t stop.
Neither can he.
No one can know.
Can I risk it?
Is Roman King worth dying for?
**This story is a m/m bully romance including dubious consent, assault, talk of suicide, and is intended for readers 18+. Please proceed with caution.**
Sunny Shelly’s Review: 3.5 Stars
There was a lot of buzz in the book world leading up to the release of Bully King. And the book was okay. I didn’t love it, but it was pretty good.
This M/M romance takes place in the Bible Belt of Tennessee, between a high school football quarterback, Roman, and the son of the new preacher in town, Jonah. Roman at first is interested in Jonah’s sister, Mary, and she eventually turns out to legit be the beard in the relationship as the cover girlfriend. As the book starts, Jonah knows he’s gay, but won’t come out because his own father is a God-fearing man who says homosexuality is wrong. Roman, meanwhile, seems to have a past as a manwhore, but all of a sudden can’t get the new kid in town out of his mind. But as he starts to fall for Jonah, Roman won’t come out because he’s revered as a football God, and a gay couple had previously been beaten to death by the rednecks in town.
I really tried to look past all of the things that made Roman and Jonah’s relationship so forbidden. I understood why it was, but I felt like there was just way more than necessary with the townspeople being against gay men and Dad’s religious diatribes. Looking past that, I tried to focus on Roman and Jonah’s relationship… and there wasn’t much of one. Other than the physical aspect — which was dubious consent most of the time and quite forceful — there wasn’t much of a personal relationship. I knew going in that there was dubious consent, and that didn’t even bother me. I just didn’t feel like I got enough out of Jonah and Roman as people spending time together and building a relationship to then ship them as a couple. I thought Roman was a dick unnecessarily a lot of the time — and I really hated him after the situation with his best friend Taylor. Like, WTF?? And it wasn’t even Roman being a jerk because his dad beats him. Roman was just a jerk. I thought he was an incredible coward, and didn’t find much redeeming about him. I just wanted MORE from him as a character.
There are also several inconsistencies in the timeline. One chapter, Jonah, Mary and Roman are at the movies, then Roman says it’s been a few days, and then Jonah and Mary’s mom is asking them how the movie was “yesterday”. Hopefully this was fixed in the final version, but there were several inconsistencies like that which made me shake my head.
In the end, I thought that this story had a great base to it, but it could have been executed better. I’m really interested in Taylor’s story, and whether he finds love again. Would love to see him get a book of his own. I received an advanced copy and voluntarily left a review.
About the Author:
Sarcastic and snarky, I love to laugh and read dark fucked up shit. I write about tortured pasts and hot sex, a happily ever after that has to be worked for. My stories tend to be a little dark but with some comic relief, typically in the form of sarcasm.
I like to dabble in a little of everything when it comes to stories. Romantic suspense, MM, a bit of erotica, with plans for Greek retellings, maybe some fairytale retellings, and some shifters. I write broken people who fight for their happily ever after, in all the many forms it takes.
I married a sexy man in uniform who let me spawn and am now raising a mutinous army of hell raisers that I created myself, all while he defends our country. I drink too much coffee and am sexually frustrated for your freedom. If you see me online, I’m probably sitting in a closet, hiding from my kids.
I have a ridiculous addiction to Archer, Sherlock, Supernatural, and The Big Bang Theory. I live my life spewing TV quotes and sarcasm. I’m a self confessed ass, not easily offended, and I love to laugh, almost as much as I love sleep. My laundry is rarely folded or put away and I have probably only showered once this week.
I hate schedules and planning, I have calendars, planners, and my phone yet can’t remember anything. Somehow, I’ve managed to keep 3 kids alive but I really need to become an adultier adult.
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Sunny Shelly Reads 