Cruel Start (Hidden Valley Elite) by Isla Vaughn – Review by Ayla Phipps

Cruel Start by Isla Vaughn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Determination. With each book in this series, I fall more and more in love with Isla Vaughn and her incredible work. This is book 4.5 in the series and serves as the prequel to Phoenix and Aspen’s story.
It’s their last summer before they start college in just a few short weeks and one-night changes both of their lives. Phoenix is a football star excited to get to Thane with his cousins Cole and Damon and twin brother Shane, one party, one surfer girl alters his plans in an unexpected way. Aspen is excited and sad about going to Thane for college and leaving her younger sister home with their parents who are in the middle of a nasty divorce. One chance encounter at the cove has both haunted by the other in their dreams, then the party when karma decided to repeat history. Both have a similar story as far as their parents. Both having a young pregnancy on the verge of life changing career moments. The only difference is the decisions the fathers made. For Phoenix his father walked away at the first chance, for Aspen her parents married “doing the right thing” but unhappy and unhealthy relationship over the years. Never a fan of love, Aspen tells Phoenix that she feels he deserves to know but tells him he’s off the hook it’s her responsibility now. Not having positive female influences in his life, mother is great but works too much, aunt was manipulative, needy, and damaged and Tracey, brother’s girlfriend one track mind gold digger. He refuses to do the “relationship” thing and trapped like his cousins and brother with the distraction of a girl. Wants in the NFL and has plans on how to get there.
How will Phoenix handle the news of being a father and “off the hook”? How does being pregnant as a freshman in college affect Aspen’s life? Can they reach an agreement moving forward? While the previous books had slightly more niche complications or story arcs this one has one that I feel many people can relate to. Being the product of a teen pregnancy where my father chose not to stick around, I have always related to Phoenix and Shane in that aspect of their lives. Though history is serving up a seismic level dose of karma for both Aspen and Phoenix, can they find a better way to make it through than their parents did? Now the long wait for the first book in the duet Cruel Hate, August 31st, 2023, to discover what the journey holds next for Phoenix and Aspen.

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