Cruel Start (Hidden Valley Elite) by Isla Vaughn – Review by Christie Mitchum

Cruel Start by Isla Vaughn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Cruel Start is another great installment in the Hidden Valley Elite Series, and now it’s Phoenix’s turn to share his story with readers, and he didn’t disappoint.

Cruel Start is a great title for this book as it is somewhat of a cruel start for Phoenix and his “surfer girl,” Aspen! The chemistry between these two is electrifying, but they have a lot of things to overcome before they find their happily ever after!

This book is a little different from the previous books as now the characters I have come to love have now moved on to college, and I actually liked Phoenix a lot earlier on than I did the male characters in the earlier books. He wasn’t all that nice to Aspen in the beginning, but now that he knows she is pregnant, he has no intention of shirking his duties as a father.

What I have come to discover about Aspen, I like. I don’t know as much about her as I do about Phoenix because I have gotten to know him just a little bit in the previous books. Both are going to be complex and complicated characters because of the parents they have. Each has issues with relationships and love because of their parents, with the exception of Phoenix’s mother, but I am hoping they work through those for the sake of their relationship and because I like them as individuals.

The book isn’t very long as this serves as a prequel for the upcoming books, but Vaughn packed a lot of things in those pages that just give us a little taste of what is to come. Looking forward to getting to know more about these two in the next few books!

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