C.R. Jane
Soulmates. I believe in them. I was lucky enough to have two of them at one point.
The only problem. My soulmates happened to be twin brothers.
Caiden was the light to Jackson’s dark. And after all that I had been through, the light was what I thought I needed.
When I chose Caiden, I lost Jackson.
Feeling like half a person after Jackson left, I barely survived when tragedy struck and I lost Caiden too.
It took me years to admit to myself that I had chosen wrong from the beginning. I’m ready to admit it to Jackson…only problem, he hates me.
I’m ready to fight for my happily ever after.
But there’s a reason they call him the Heartbreak Prince.
Everly James was best friends with twins Caiden and Jackson since she eight years old. An accident has left Caiden in a coma, Everly with guilt, internal injuries and an injured leg and Jackson with love/hate for her he can’t overcome.
They all planned to attend the prestigious Rutherford Academy together, although the twins were a year ahead of her. She had gone on the tour of the school with them, and they had all been accepted to attend from junior year on. As a result of her injuries, Everly deferred her entry until senior year, having done her junior year remotely. Although she regularly heard of Jackson’s exploits since he started attending right after the accident.
Her first day she meets Landry Evans as she literally bumps into him outside the admissions office. Unfortunately, that encounter makes her late. She also meets Lane, who would be her guide that first day. Of course, the inevitable happens and she sees Jackson, but he ignores her, well mostly.
Her roommate Melanie is a piece of work and walking in on her with a guy wasn’t the best introduction. That resulted in a bed soaked with water and a not so good night’s sleep.
The next of her trials was something very few folks know about, her fear of snakes. Someone let a snake loose in her shower stall while most everyone was at a party. Jackson knew about snakes, but he used to save her from them, he wouldn’t do that would he?
Now in spite of seeming to run into him everywhere she turns, she also finds she has a class with him. She had to submit a writing sample to get into the Creative Writing class and she wasn’t going to let him chase her out of it.
Although that first assignment was something she didn’t want to relive, her first kiss. That was with Caiden after she found out Jackson had kissed someone else.
This is a favorite scene later that night.
A loud banging on the door had me bolting upright, my heart beating a million miles a minute.
“Who the fuck is that?” groaned Melanie as she pulled her pillow over her head. I’d been sleeping with one eye open the whole night since she was in the room tonight, and the rude awakening was not welcome.
“Everrrrrrrly,” Jackson called through the door, and I didn’t know it was possible, but my heart started racing even faster, until I was sure that I was going to have a heart attack.
“Open up,” he sang. He was drunk.
The old Jackson was never drunk. He loathed losing control too much to have more than a few beers at a time.
He sounded trashed right now. I glanced at my phone, it was two in the morning.
I hurried to the door and opened it just a few inches.
“Little angel, let me in,” he whispered loudly and my traitorous heart clenched at the nickname I hadn’t heard since before the accident.
“Jackson, it’s two in the morning,” I said before reluctantly opening the door and letting him in.
“Is that Jackson Parker?” Melanie almost squealed as she sat up in bed looking far more alert than she had a second earlier. She immediately started to run her fingers through her hair like she had a chance of impressing him. I growled internally at the thought.
“Out, Loose Lips,” he snarled drunkenly at her as soon as he noticed her, and she gasped, affronted. The derogatory way he said it made me think that he wasn’t talking about the lips on her face when he called her that.
“Fuck you, Parker,” she said halfheartedly, since we all knew she would fuck him in an instant if she could. She grabbed a sweatshirt and pulled it over her as she darted past us. Melanie gave me an appraising look as she walked out, a look that spelled trouble for me. She pounded on the door two doors down, and a girl I’d seen her walking with sleepily opened the door and let her in.
“That wasn’t nice, Jackson,” I said quietly as he walked in and immediately made himself at home on my bed. He had an adorable look on his face as he sighed against my pillow. I closed the door and locked it behind me before staring again at the intruder who’d taken over my bed.
“Come here, little angel,” he said seductively as he moved over to give me space on the bed.
Yes, he was drunk. Maybe drunk wasn’t the right word. Wasted was probably a more apt description. But I couldn’t stop myself from getting into that bed with him.
It was like a missing piece of myself slid into place as he pulled my back towards his chest and wrapped his arms around me. His chin fit perfectly tucked against the top of my head, and I had to take a deep breath to ward off the tears that were threatening from the familiar move.
“Why are you here, Jackson?” I finally asked quietly, and he groaned.
“Have you been thinking about that kiss since class too?” he slurred. And my heart stuttered.
“What kiss?” I pressed him, a terrible suspicion coming over me.
“When I kissed you at my birthday party. Your first kiss. It was the best kiss,” he commented in a singsong voice.
Fuck, my heart hurt. Had he really thought this whole time that he’d been my first kiss?
“Tell me it was the best kiss, Everly,” he ordered as his voice shifted into an almost dream-like state. His hands caressed my throat, and it was like I’d forgotten how to breathe.
“It was the best kiss, Jackson,” I answered softly.
But he was already snoring. So he couldn’t hear how badly he had broken my heart once again.
In a better world, he would have been my first kiss.
In a better world, I would have answered that text of his and never met Caiden under the bleachers.
In my dreams, that kiss at his sixteenth birthday party had been my first kiss.
I fell into a deep sleep despite my best efforts to stay awake.
And when I woke up, Jackson was gone.
And I’d never felt more alone.
Jane, C.R.. Heartbreak Prince: A Bully Romance (Broken Hearts Academy Book 1) (Kindle Locations 1151-1190). Kindle Edition.
From here we get to know more of what happened in the past and let me say it wasn’t quite what I expected.
Everly is subjected to more torture scenarios, and wonders if Jackson is behind them all, since he knows all her secrets. Still, she is drawn to Jackson like a moth to a flame.
There is so much emotion in this book, some misplaced but there just the same. So many ups and downs and I’m so glad Everly has a friend in Lake.
I really can’t wait to read the conclusion of this duet.
5 Contented Purrs for C.R.
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I’m a wife, mother, and author! Writing has always been a passion for me and publishing my first series is a dream come true. I drink too much caffeine, never sleep, and my imagination is always churning out ideas. Eva and her men have been in my head for a while, and I’m so glad to finally take you with me on this journey!
Carol Kittie Reviews 