3.5⭐️ 1🌶️
MOOD: dark, challenging, adventurous, mysterious, tense
TROPES: gender switch, enemies to lovers (to be seen), friends to lovers (to be seen)
GENRES: bully and academy romance
FAV QUOTE: 

MAIN CHARACTERS: Wyatt Farely (FMC), Jacob Hudson, Ulysses Cardwell III, Percy Blackborne,  Montgomery "Monty" Langley 

Overall, I think this is a decent start to a series but it needs both more bullying from the boys and more preying from the girl. Keep in mind I typically don't read Academy romances cause I don't prefer 17-year-old characters and the setting doesn't make sense to me cause the characters never go to class.

THE GOOD: I like this more than I thought I would given that I usually don't enjoy bully romances even though I like enemies-to-lovers. Most of the main and supporting characters are well described (there are some gay stereotypes) as well as the environment of Somerhaven Academy - so you do get quickly immersed in this fairly unwelcoming world. It was humourous (an realistic/grounding) that there were a couple of characters that didn't fall for Wyatt's disguise and knew she was a girl - that gave the story a little more realism in this world of secret societies and over-the-top wealth & teenagers w/o consequences. This was a quick read, with the second half grabbing my attention way more than the first half and really only took a day once I got into it. I also think the ending was in a good spot so that I look forward to reading book 2 and I'm not annoyed which is how I usually feel about cliffhangers.

THE NEUTRAL: The first half of the story drags. There isn't much personality differentiation between the three guys (Percy, Monty, and Ulysses) in The Pride so they come across as generic rich guys and I hope that changes in book two. It wasn't a deal breaker but I was not a fan of how Wyatt's arousal was described - it felt really over the top, like I was reading an Omegaverse story - and given the small amount of sexual content in this book, particularly between main characters, it felt out of place.

THE MEH: I didn't like Wyatt. Her story could have been really interesting and there are snippets of that when she has flashbacks but once she gets to Somerhaven, she has no plan at all - it's clear she didn't have one prior to getting there - and, even she acknowledges, she all of a sudden boy crazy. This book isn't that dark - there is a note in the TW that this book is rather light compared to the ones that will follow so I hope that's true. The bullying is really inconsistent across the story.

CW: (provided by author) dubcon/noncon, violence, sexual assault and violence, bullying, drugs, alcohol, mentions of murder and death
DISCLAIMER: I received an advance review copy. This is my honest review.