Audible audiobook
Author: A. Jade
Narrators: Erin Mallon and Teddy Hamilton
Phoenix Walker and Lennon Michael couldn’t be more different: he’s the cool, talented bad boy all the girls want and all the boys want to be. She’s the nerdy, fat, geeky loner everyone loves to bully. They were never supposed to cross paths. Lennon, like every girl in school, finds him irresistible, but completely unattainable. Phoenix doesn’t let anyone get near. But he’s failing a class and won’t graduate unless he gets a tutor to help him and the teacher assigns him Lennon. She’s always known he was special. Now he’s making her feel like she is too. Until he destroys her using what’s most dear to her. And she vows to never see him again.
Fast forward to four years later and Phoenix has indeed become a star, an uncontrollable star. No one can handle him because they all fall for his charm, so the best person to do it is someone who hates him. Lennon never wanted to see him again. Now she will make him pay.
Boy oh boy… Thanks @jpbooklife for recommending this one and for listening to me rant and scream (and swoon too). I felt deep for Lennon. ALL the feelings. If you ever wore a piece of clothing bigger than a size 10 you will get her. Even if, like myself, you were never bullied, you will get all the insecurities and the self-image issues. Some people say that she has no backbone, but it’s so much more complicated than that. Yes, Phoenix is an asshole and betrays her in a horrible way, but (not defending here, just explaining) he was 18 and and absolutely disoriented because he NEVER knew what love was until he met her. With his own feelings of no self-worth because of his dyslexia, his only lifeline is his music… and he sacrificed Lennon for it.
It’s a hard story. These two are broken and their relationship is toxic at times, but they have deeply loved each other because they got to know each other’s souls. It had to be messy to get to their HEA. It’s a brick of a book (over 700 pages and more than 16 hours of audio) but it’s worth every page.
Narration: Erin Mallon is superb, bringing all the vulnerability to Lennon and Teddy does the same to Phoenix. A thousand stars.
Rep and possible triggers: MMC is severely dyslexic and FMC is plus-sized. Child abandonment, child emotional and physical abuse, domestic abuse, bullying, grief, secondary character has early onset dementia, secondary killed in car accident, drug use, surprise pregnancy (secondary character)
