07 May 2014

Very Wicked Things by Ilsa Madden Mills - Book Review

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Ballerina Dovey Beckham is a scholarship student at Briarcrest Academy, determined to prove she’s more than just a girl with the wrong pedigree. She does whatever it takes to succeed in her endgame, even if it means surrendering her body but never her heart.

Until the day she meets him, and he rips apart all her well-laid plans. Suddenly, the girl everyone thought unbreakable might just shatter.

Cuba “Hollywood” Hudson is rich, spoiled, and a star football player. With his fast cars and superficial girlfriends, he lives the high-life, hiding his secrets from the world.

Until the day he meets her, and she offers him something he’s never tasted…love.

But once in a lifetime kind of love doesn’t come easy…especially when dirty money, past sins, and old flames threaten the very fabric of their lives.

Welcome to Briarcrest Academy, where sometimes, only the wicked survive.
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“I gave you my heart, and you destroyed it.”

I am so in love with Dovey! She’s a brave, brave girl who knows what love and sacrifice is all about despite being neglected as a child and being betrayed by one person she had offered herself to.

Since I’m giddy to start my review, I am just combining my review for both the prequel and the story itself. I thought reading the prequel had me prepared for what was to come in this book. But no, I just took a very, very tiny bite of the whole pie and haven’t really got to taste the whole thing. Nevertheless, I was glad I read it, I read the first time Cuba saw Dovey, how he wooed her, charmed her, - so perhaps that’s why I wasn’t prepared when he broke her. It was just awful – and I was wondering, why?! Why would he do it? I thought he liked her?!

Dovey Beckham wasn’t rich unlike most of the population at Briarcrest Academy. She came from the bad side of the town who sees violence like it was part of their normal routine. But this girl? She has ambitions, she has the determination to make the most out of her life, and she wanted to get out of that side of town and make a better of herself. So, she danced. She danced with all her heart and soul, as if it was the last thing that she can do.

If she was dirt-poor, Cuba was very, very, very rich and not to mention very, very, very handsome, popular and (add another VERY) dangerous. He’s the star football player who likes his car fast and lives his life to the fullest. But what other’s don’t know is behind that façade is a dark secret no one else has access too. Every day, he tries to soften the blow of his guilt.

Until boy meets girl – and his world was never the same again. She was a great girl who offered so much to him – herself, her heart, her soul. Her love was something he didn’t expect, but he had savored it because in his lifetime, it was a rare chance to fell the kind of emotions that she had stirred in him. But this kind of love only gets its happy ending in fairy tales. Guilt, betrayals, old flames, and the past tries to catch up on them and tries its best to ruin their HEA.   

Yes, the characters are great but at some point, I hated them, questioned their choices, their decisions. It hasn’t been easy reading them do the things they did, it was crushing my heart bit by bit – but it was done out of desperation –I don’t know how Ilsa managed to make something horrendous, easily forgivable. Perhaps it was because the ends justify the means. But at the end of the story, you will adore the characters more than you did the first time you have met them. They have developed throughout the pages, turned into mature individuals.

It was a wonderful rollercoaster ride – that will really give you UPS and DOWNS. Yes, it will give you the bliss of falling in love, but Ilsa sure knows how to burst your bubbles when it’s time for the hurt to creep it. The series has only gotten better, because the second book had given me one heck of a book hangover. I think I left my heart somewhere between the pages, and I still couldn’t find it.

Very Wicked Things is about love, second chances, forgiveness, and sacrifice. It’s one of those books you could not put it down – and for a while, the hairs in my arms are still up from the chills some of the scenes had caused. With wonderful characters, very interesting plots, rapid twists and turns – you will not have the heart and the courage to put this one down! I assure you, this is a must-read!



✪Complimentary Copy was given in exchange for an honest review.✪


Ilsa Madden-Mills is a loving wife and mother, a loyal friend, and a teacher. When all that is done, she writes. Obsessively.

She spent several years teaching high school English, but now hangs out at home with two small kids, a neurotic cat, and her Viking husband. She collects magnets and rarely cooks except to bake her own pretzels.

When she’s not typing away at a story, you can find her drinking too much Diet Coke, jamming out to Pink, or checking on her carefully maintained chocolate stash.

She loves to hear from fans and fellow authors.

Very Wicked Things is Book 2 of the BA Series.

Very Bad Things is currently available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iBooks.

Connect with Ilsa:  Goodreads  |  Website  |  Facebook  |  Twitter

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