*Review* Boys of Brayshaw High 🏀

Foreword

• Theme: A sexy, dramatic New Adult/Contemporary high school romance with a dark twist.
• Nature of Review: I actually started by reading Fumbled Hearts (also by the author, Meagan Brandy) and loved it, so I went ahead and got Boys of Brayshaw (and daresay I loved BOBH more!)
• Release Date: Boys of Brayshaw High is currently out to buy (also currently on SALE for 99C!) on Amazon, iBooks, Nook and Kobo. The sequel, Trouble at Brayshaw High, is set to release May 28, 2019!
• Warnings: Content waaaayyy too sexy, boys so hot they’ll burn the page, blush-worthy scenes and enough swearing to expand your colorful vocabulary. But it was fun 😉

“Careful big man… that sounds a lot like a king falling. The ground isn’t soft at my feet.”

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

My Thoughts

Raven is a girl who learned fast how to survive the dark, twisted ways of the world. As the daughter of a prostitute, Raven had to defend herself from her mother’s manipulations and her client’s wandering hands. When she gets taken from her home and put into an all-girls group home, you’d think life would get better.

Enter the Brayshaw boys, a gang of sorts consisting of three brothers: “Big Man” Maddoc, flirty and funny Royce, and strong and silent Captain. Raven has entered their town, their world, their school, their domain, and she’s ready to start trouble for the Brayshaw Boys; after all, she isn’t one to scare easy. But while the boys are trying to tame her and force her to stand down, no one expects to start having real feelings.

Isn’t it awful when things don’t go to plan? 🤷🏻‍♀️

“People who can lay their heads down and fall asleep with ease don’t understand the struggle or how bad those of us who can’t wish we could.”

Let me just start by saying I LOVED Boys of Brayshaw High (BOBH), more than I thought I would. Never once did I get bored or want to stop reading this book. I was pulled right into Raven’s world, felt her fear and her pain, and understood every second that she hid her true feelings and put on a brave face and stood up for herself.

Raven is such a strong character who is true to herself, she knows her limits and isn’t scared to defend herself (which is where the trouble comes in). There was nothing about her I disliked: she was so entertaining, never strayed from her character (which could be irritating at times- but CONSISTENCY!) and strikingly loyal to those she loves.

“We have to wait for our time, create our own fucking life after we let go of everything in the one we were forced into.” 

The Boys were easy to love, each with their own personality, though I have to say (unpopular opinion maybe?) that I disliked Maddoc the most. I thought he was just a little too irritating sometimes, but I loved the slow-burn romance between him and Raven, and the relationships he shared with his brothers, that ultimately extended to Raven as the story when on. Each Boy is layer on layer of emotional backstory that made them who they are, with their own unique walls that they put up to protect themselves in their dog-eat-dog world.

The world building was good- but I definitely thought this was more of a character driven story (all my favorite ones are!). Given that it is a contemporary romance, it’s set in present day USA. The town Raven moves to is divided into the Brayshaws and the Gravens, two warring families stuck in a circle of backstabbing, blackmail and secrets. There are no easy-peasy solutions or happily ever afters. Honestly, the only thing I wasn’t crazy about in this book was the backstory between our two gangs/families. It seemed a little too simple for this hardcore group of characters.

“The fact of the matter is, in the end, the only way to walk away … is to make sure there’s nothing you’re reluctant to leave behind.” 

In this novel, there is jail time, fist fights, coercion and all the fun things that come along with real-life crime wars. It was a dark, twisted, sexy side of the rich Boys club, and it was a wild ride that ended in a cliffhanger that had me dying for the next book (and screaming “WHYYYYYYYY!!!!” and throwing my kindle across the room but let’s not focus on that). 🙈

I have no doubts that book two, Trouble at Brayshaw High, will continue on the sinister, seductive path that book one took us down. I’m ready for more catfights, sexy times with the Boys, smackdowns and, based on that cliffhanger, angsty gang action.

*All quotes were taken from Boys of Brayshaw High by Meagan Brandy