Rina Kent: Cruel King

 Royal Elite Book #0 

Astrid is happy to fly under the radar, she's not popular, she spends a lot of her spare time watching her favorite show "Vikings" and creating art.  She's way out of her comfort zone at her school and has been ever since her mum passed away in a car accident and she had to move in with her wealthy, stuffy father. 

 Her best friend Dan (who is on the football team) talks her into going to a party after school with the popular kids and pretty much immediately ditches her to go find some ladies... on her own she ends up drinking unknowingly at that point something had been dropped into the drink and she runs into one of the "King's" of the school --> Levi King is wealthy, entitled, he's the football captain and he is used to getting his way with anyone he wants and he sets his sites on Astrid... only to find out her last name this is where we find out there is some beef between his Uncle and her Father (they were both told to stay away from each other)... Astrid ends up in trouble when she is locked out of the house on the run from some unknown Pursuer(s) it's dark she's in the woods and lost she ends up getting hit by a car.

After several months of Rehab we find our FMC back in school and continuing to run into this "Cruel King" but the longer she spends time with him she realizes that he has reasons for coming off as cold and calculated even though he tells her to drop the case she wants justice and to find out who hit her... the doctor's think she'll get her memory back but she has a block when it comes to that night.

Astrid has to deal with troubles at home with her evil step mother and step sister, her dad always takes their side... her mom would never have done that, and now she is finding it harder and harder to fly under the radar since being in line of site of the "King" and he doesn't want to let her go... she is his even if she doesn't know it yet.  Thankfully her best friend Dan is still there for her when she needs him.  

Will they ever be able to have a true relationship if there are dark secrets surrounding their whole relationship?  Will Astrid ever remember what happened the nights of the accidents (hers and the MVA she was in with her mum)?  Will the truth destroy the fragile relationship they have built and would their families even be ok with them being together?  

*High School *Bully  *Virgin FMC  *Spice  *trigger warnings  *family drama  *rich/elite life

*dark secrets  *sports romance (Football/Soccer) MMC  *touch her and 💀 *enemies --> More

*Posessive MMC  *loss of parents (for both MMC and FMC) *mystery *forbidden romance

Thoughts:

I really felt for Astrid she was still grieving over the loss of her mum and learning how to deal in a world she's not from with her stuffy new family who goes out of their way to make her feel uncomfortable (wicked step mom/step sister vibes).  Levi had been through a lot he was tired of being under his Uncle's thumb and was often acting out against his uncle to try to take control of his own life... mainly he would like the opportunity to go pro if given the option that would be a great option for him.

The story was often cringy they were all teenagers but Levi being possessive and trying to assert dominance over everyone on his team and Astrid felt more on the ridiculous side, he's a young man I kind of just wanted to give him a hug and tell him that things would be ok.  

That being said... for whatever reason I couldn't put it down, it was dramatic, there was a few mysteries going on, they had a hot/cold on again off again... wtf is happening with their relationship situationship going on and I wondered throughout if Levi was still playing head games with our girl or what... He's the hot, badboy I totally would have had a crush on in high school but would have never approached.  

I wouldn't recommend this to everyone but if you enjoy bully romance you might enjoy this one, there were definately some things going on throughout this book that weren't usually my type of reads... but I had to find out where this was going and I'm looking forward to reading the next in the series.