B. B. Reid

Angst! Adrenaline! Sexy times! The Peer and the Puppet had me salivating for MORE! My favorite since Fear Me. -- Tijan, NYT Bestselling author 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. Alternate Cover Edition. The Peer and the Puppet is an interconnected standalone and book one of the When Rivals Play series. Content suitable for 18+.

A High School Bully Romance

The Peer and the Puppet

JoLee

The Peer And The Puppet (When Rivals Play #1) by B.B. Reid is an amazing story. Slow burn with a good amount of push and pull from Ever. He is the a-hole that I had a hate to love with. B.B. Reid writes the best of them that I can never get enough of. Four I really felt so bad for her as her mom was a piece of work. She had some good sass and can hold her own. I looked forward to the notes left from Ever. Loved that not only there was a rival gang but also a bit of rivalry within family, with Ever and his cousin Jamie. Ever and Four story might be HEA for now but the over all plot I still need answers.

Highly Recommend 
* New Adult
* Enemies To Lovers 
* Bully Romance
* Slow Burn
* Angsty Romance

Nedu

"You constantly bring up my family's money as if it's what truly separates us. Would you like to know the difference between you and I, little troublemaker? You run from your demons. I chase mine."

The Peer and the Puppet is the first book in the When Rivals Play series and it introduces us to Four Archer and Ever McNamara. The story starts off with Four being the target of a dangerous gang after a race gone wrong. As a result, she has to move and inevitably bumps head with her mum’s boyfriend’s son. Their first meeting is a disaster ending in Four kicking Ever in the balls and running away and thus ensues a game of rivalry.

What I love especially is the character development of Ever. At no point does he try to pass off his initial treatment of Four as something acceptable and even takes responsibility and apologises for his actions. Four is a character you can’t help but fall in love with. 

The relationships in this book are *chefs kiss*. Four’s relationship with Gruff, a father figure for her is sweet and her friendship with Tyra is the cutest. Ever protecting Bette from her parents, Jamie being mad at Ever but still having his back when push came to shove, Vaughn being so soft for Tyra and the angst between Jamie and Bette.

This book also does a great job of setting up the future books in the series and I am highly intrigued to read more about Vaughn, Tyra, Jamie and Bette. Jamie and Bette’s trope is so great and I will be so over the moon if VaughnTyra becomes canon (*fingers crossed*).

Review originally published here

Raven Dean

***6 Stars***

Phenomenal and very different story line with very likable characters. I loved the push and pull between Four and Ever. Gave us just enough angst that will keep you on the edge of your seat. B.B. Reid is definitely becoming one of my all time favorite authors!!

celeste

i don't remember the last time i was this enraged when finishing a book. this book tested the patience that i clearly do not have. so why did i keep reading it, you'd wonder? i don't even know because everything in this was so goddamn infuriating!!

to sum up, everything in this book was ridiculous. the characters' names were fucking ridiculous (barbette, and the worst....four and ever...yes, you got that right, the main couple's names are FOUR AND EVER /FOREVER/ UGH). the plotline was ridiculous too and i'll get into that later. the actions these characters made were ridiculous. but that wasn't what turned me into a murderous bitch ready to punch anyone in my vicinity after reading this. it was the fact that NOTHING HAPPENED NOR GOT RESOLVED! cases in point down below (there might be some spoilers)

* the main character was hellbent on finding his mother who had left him and his father but that plotline was completely discarded. what happened? did ever just suddenly forgot he literally joined a gang of MURDERERS for the sole reason of finding his mother but after falling for four he decided to just forget about it? make it make sense

* when four comes back from her stay at a boarding school overseas for a year she comes home with a vengeance: she wants to get back at ever. oops, that whole plotline also gets thrown overboard because she never once did anything to really get back at him. and every time he was a complete asshole to her she just...let him? and accepted him back every time he started kissing her because 'she couldn't resist'. have some backbone honey, she didn't even make him work for it at all!!

* the whole exiled (the gang) plotline went nowhere. yes, ever had been made out by wren but still...it just went nowhere. what happened with nathanial fox?? is ever just not gonna keep looking for him? sighs..

* there were a few specific scenes blatanly indicating the possibility of ever not actually being thomas' son (four saying she didn't remember ever's mom having a cleft chin when noticing it on him, then her finding the picture of thomas, his brother, and best friend steve who oh so happens to have a cleft chin too and four thinking he looks so familiar she actually thought it was a relative and jaime giving her a look as if he was also in on the secret). this whole plotline didn't go anywhere either. why mention it if you're not gonna follow through with it?? another story arc discarded as well.

* the whole barbie and ever deal. the book ended and we don't know what the fuck they're gonna do with their engagement. are they gonna be forced to marry? are they gonna be able to buy time until she's 18 so she's free of the arrangement they made? who knows!

* on the epilogue, they are all going to have thanksgiving dinner together with gruff, so the whole engagement thing was obviously gonna come up and we don't get to see that? why mention it at all??

i also got pretty tired of the push and pull between ever and four when it was clearly stretched out to create unnecessary drama because there was obviously no reason why they could not be together. the hatred they had for each other was literally founded on nothing but saying 'ugh i hate him/her'. so i grew tired when the relationship between both of them got stuck in that push and pull for like 90% of the book. especially because it enraged me that four never gave him much of a fight. she would refuse him for a second and then give in to him the next minute. idk i really wish her character would have been more strong-willed when it came to him; she let him get a free pass on a lot of fucked up shit he told her...the worst one being after she loses her virginity with him, like what kinda asshole says those things??

i swear i've never been more pissed at a book for not giving me the answers that should have obviously been in the book. i'm disappointed because i really enjoyed this author's previous duology, but yikes this ain't it. not really sure if i'll continue the series and if i do it'll be solely for jaime and barbie's book because i kinda wanna know how their story ends.

The Peer and the Puppet A High School Bully Romance

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