5 Smooches
Synopsis
My name is Tate. He doesn’t call me that, though. He would never refer to me so informally, if he referred to me at all. No, he’ll barely even speak to me.
But he still won’t leave me alone.
We were best friends once. Then he turned on me and made it his mission to ruin my life. I’ve been humiliated, shut out, and gossiped about all through high school. His pranks and rumors got more sadistic as time wore on, and I made myself sick trying to stay out of his way. I even went to France for a year, just to avoid him.
But I’m done hiding from him now, and there’s no way in hell I’ll allow him to ruin my senior year. He might not have changed, but I have. It’s time to fight back.
I’m not going to let him bully me anymore.
***This novel contains adult/mature young adult situations. It is only suitable for ages 18+ due to language, violence, and sexual situations.
Review
Wow, where do I start other than saying I do not know why I waited so long to read this book. It was absolutely amazing and unique. I bought Bully a while ago and it has been staring at me on my kindle for a good long time and after some pushing from my co-blogger, Amie, telling me how great a book this was, I finally picked it up this week and gave it a shot. OH MY! Why did I wait so long? I am a New Adult lover and this book had everything I want and love in a book. It was filled with angst, wit, unanswered questions, drama, supreme sexiness, and characters I could both love and hate.
Jared and Tatum were childhood best friends who did everything together until one fateful summer when Jared went away and when he returned he was a complete ass to Tatum. He and his friends literally went out of their way to make her life a living hell and they succeeded. Needing a change of pace, Tatum decides to spending a year abroad as an exchange student will finally make her high school career survivable. When she returns she isn’t surprised that the bullying and relentless picking on her picks right back up. But now one thing is different . . . Tatum! She isn’t taking it and when she finally develops a backbone her whole world changes. There are so many questions between them and if they could actually act civil around one another long enough to talk maybe they could actually get answers.
Penelope Douglas has a wonderful way with words. I was drawn in right away and the story was something so different I had to read until I knew how it would end. I loved how this story tackled real issues that are being faced by kids today. This was not a subject taken lightly. It takes a great writer to make you hate a character so much with your whole being and then suddenly also fall in love with him at the same time. Going into Bully I absolutely hated Jared and wanted to hurt him badly. He was everything I hated about high school. He was petty and mean and not afraid to publicly humiliate Tatum seemingly for his own pleasure. How was I supposed to root for him when I could barely stand to read about him. But that is where Penelope shines in her writing and the way she describes things makes anything possible. I honestly think any New Adult lover should read Bully and I personally am looking forward to a re-read in my future.
~Miranda
