Brutal Days (Hidden Valley Elite Book 3) by Isla Vaughn – Review by Stephanie Runyon

Brutal Days: A High School Bully Romance by Isla Vaughn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Isla Vaughn created Brutal Days to continue her Hidden Valley Elite series. The book features Skylar McCormick and Damon Savage. Skylar has promised to help her friend, Gia, to get her senior year goals: get invited to the underground fight club where all the cool kids were; get a popular boyfriend; lose her virginity; and become prom queen. However, Skylar knows that this will not be as simple as Gia attempts to make it sound. The following day, Skylar is watching the football team practice since it assigned her to write an article for the school’s blog. Damon approaches her and tells her to come to the barbecue with him. He wasn’t asking since he knew almost every girl in Hidden Valley Academy wanted him. Skylar told him no. Unfortunately, Gia zeroed on Damon Savage as who she wanted to date.
Skylar had propositioned Damon on behalf of Gia. She offers to do all of Damon’s homework as long as he dates Gia. Damon told her for every date he had with Gia then she would have to pay him back by doing him “favors.” Skylar thought she could resist Damon’s charm, but find it attracted her to him. She finds she will go further with Damon than she ever imagined.

The story has several steamy moments, however; I had struggled with what actually made Skylar decide to lower her guard. I couldn’t imagine how she could claim to be loyal to Gia when she was happy with paying Damon with her own body. The end of the book was perfect in leaving readers hanging and wanting to read the sequel. I felt bad for poor Tucker- Cole beat him up for being around Riley and then Damon beat him up for being friends with Skylar.

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