ARC Review: THE PEER AND THE PUPPET by B.B. Reid

THE PUPPET

Borrow the bike. Win the race. Collect the cash. It should’ve been an easy job. Ran out of town with a broken leg and a lawsuit, my mother’s latest flame swoops in like a knight in gilded armor. Blackwood Keep is a place I don’t belong, and I’m not the only one who knows. To the boy across the hall, my savior’s only son, I’m a stray looking for a bone.

He’s lord of the manor.
King of the academy.
And number one on my shit list.

THE PEER

I have no intentions of becoming a happy family with the social climber and her wild daughter. A bottle of Jameson and a cracked skull gets my problem shipped to reform school, but I didn’t bank on her returning.

Four’s out to get even, and she almost had the perfect plan: expose the privileged kid moonlighting as a gangbanger. She’s smart, but she’ll have to be smarter. Sending her away won’t be good enough this time. I’m going to have to tame the little troublemaker. To the girl across the hall, the one without a name, I’m nothing without my silver spoon.

She’s lady of the trailer park.
Queen of the swamps.
And my new favorite pastime.

The Peer and the Puppet is a standalone romance, however, the series is one story. The plot introduced in Four and Ever’s story will continue in the following novels. No cliffhangers.

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Review

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

B.B. Reid has the extraordinary ability to perfectly capture the adolescent experience, even in unrealistic ways. Her stories bring me back to my youth and remind me of who I was and how I acted. It's not always a pretty picture, but it's always fun. I used to think I was invincible, all-powerful and all-knowing. And watching these characters act like that was beyond entertaining.

Four Archer - The Puppet - was her own person. She loved to ride, she loved to race, and she felt that she had her life and her future all figured out. Until an accident blows up in her face in more ways than one and she and her mom are moved into her mother's latest lover's mansion. It's a new way of life for a girl who was used to struggling and finding her own hustle. A life full of prep schools, uniforms, expensive cars, and snobby peers. But Four's a survivor and she's adept at rolling with the punches. But what she never counted on, or rather who, was Ever.

Ever McNamara - The Peer - was a force of nature. Underneath his stoic and fierce countenance was a heart of gold. He was inherently kind and considerate, loyal and honorable, and he was absolutely incredible. At first he considers Four his nemesis and treats her as such. He makes her life hard to enjoy and eventually proves how far he's willing to go to be rid of her. What he never counted on was how much Four would come to mean to him. She became his everything.

Amidst the drama and angst normally found in teenage romance, a mature love started to bloom. It was intense, it was heavy, and it was so freaking hot! I'm not a huge fan of the ending because there is so much more to this story and I don't believe there was enough resolution to Four and Ever's tale, but I'm also very interested in seeing more of Jamie. He was a fantastic side character and deserves to be in the spotlight as well. So I'll be staying tuned to continue reading more about these intricate and complex characters.

Release: July 22, 2018 | Genre: YA Contemporary Romance | Dual POV - 1st person | Heat: 3.5 | Standalone - When Rivals Play