Savage Start (Hidden Valley Elite Prequel) by Isla Vaughn – Review by Shea Gilkerson 2/11/23

Savage Start: A High School Bully Romance: Hidden Valley Elite Prequel by Isla Vaughn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Riley and Cole seem like they’re going to be a safe haven to one another through the wild storms their lives bring to them. While from different backgrounds, they both have surprises behind closed doors that no one would guess at.

Riley, a con artist teen who is used to moving frequently, changing her appearance to blend in and who learned everything she knows from her mom, is a teen wondering what her mom has up her sleeve this time. They have moved again to a new location, and she still hasn’t switched her appearance to fit in with the crowd. However, she has never lived close to a beach before and takes advantage of spending as much time as she wants wandering and thinking. While on a stroll, she caught sight of a house party and found her way in to get a sense of the crowd. She meets Cole as she tries to filch something small to make herself feel more comfortable.

Cole, a local rich kid with everything people could imagine they’d want, has a lot of skeletons in his closet. He is attending the party at his cousins house that Riley sneaks into from the beach. As he catches her coming out of one of the upstairs rooms, he corners her. Inexplicably, they’re both feeling a strong draw and wild attraction to one another.

As the story progresses, you see more about how resilient and tough these teens are, and the screwed up things that can be happening that no one else realizes. This was an excellent way to introduce the series and I can’t wait to read deeper into their stories and watch their relationship build!

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