Release Launch: Very Wicked Beginnings and Very Wicked Things by Ilsa Madden-Mills‏: Reviews, Teasers, Excerpt, and Giveaway

It’s not.

But, ESPN did rank me as a four star recruit, calling me one of the best defensive players since Briarcrest Academy opened its esteemed doors. So yeah, with football and a stellar GPA, my future seemed good.

Then Dovey Beckham shows up in her short skirts and ballet shoes. Driving me insane. Making me want to beg for her attention.

But that wouldn’t happen, because Cuba Hudson didn’t beg for anything.

She walked around BA like she owned the place, and most days she looked right through me…the one girl I couldn’t have.

So, of course, I made it my mission to claim her, to put her notch on my bedpost.

Because no girl can resist the Heartbreaker of BA.

But I never planned on destroying her.

I never planned on wrecking the one thing that could save me.

Welcome to Briarcrest Academy, where wicked love begins…and ends.

Add Very Wicked Beginnings to your Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22024061-to-be-announced-may-5th

B&N http://tinyurl.com/lmymlpz iBooks http://tinyurl.com/mxop7os 

Review

There’s always a beginning to every couple’s story, and Very Wicked Beginnings is the explanation of how Cuba and Dovey, two people who couldn’t be more different in living and social status, end up together. But the novella provides readers with so much more than their first encounters; it provides much needed insights into what makes Cuba and Dovey who they are – what shaped them and ultimately changed them. It’s the perfect set-up for the true story of their past and present – Very Wicked Things.

Cuba’s actions and personality are all a facade to hide a painful past and tormented present. The guilt he feels over his mother and sister eat away at him on a daily basis and the only way to shut down his brain is to wreak havoc on his mind and body in both constructive and destructive ways.  During football practice one day, he spots a beautiful ballerina and can’t stop thinking about her, and no matter how much he believes he doesn’t deserve any kind of happiness in his life, when he finally crosses paths with her again, he can’t help but make her his.

Dovey definitely knows who Cuba is, but she doesn’t understand why he wants anything to do with the girl from the wrong side of the tracks, and frankly, she really doesn’t want to find out. Dovey has spent her whole life fighting to merely survive while the wealthy students of Briarcrest Academy get everything handed to them. Her one saving grace is ballet; she lives and breathes it, and she’ll be damned if she’s going to let some hot rich boy fill her head with dreams she knows will never be hers, especially when Dovey is holding secrets that she’s not willing to risk anyone finding out about. But if there’s anything readers learned about Cuba from Very Bad Things is that whatever Cuba wants, he gets, and now that he’s set his sights on Dovey, it’s not a matter of if but when he will have her.

Very Wicked Beginnings is essential to understanding not just how Cuba and Dovey’s relationship begins but also what baggage both characters have in their lives that cause them to think and act the way that they do. Because Ilsa Madden-Mills gives readers their dual point of views, it’s easier to understand why perhaps the heartbreak that they experience throughout Very Wicked Things is inevitable.

Bring on Very Wicked Things!

I received a complimentary copy from the author/publisher in exchange for an honest review.

4 poison apples

 Synopsis

Ballerina Dovey Beckham is a scholarship student at Briarcrest Academy, determined to prove she’s more than just a girl with the wrong pedigree. She does whatever it takes to succeed in her endgame, even if it means surrendering her body but never her heart.

Until the day she meets him, and he rips apart all her well-laid plans. Suddenly, the girl everyone thought unbreakable might just shatter.

Cuba “Hollywood” Hudson is rich, spoiled, and a star football player. With his fast cars and superficial girlfriends, he lives the high-life, hiding his secrets from the world.

Until the day he meets her, and she offers him something he’s never tasted…love.

But once in a lifetime kind of love doesn’t come easy…especially when dirty money, past sins, and old flames threaten the very fabric of their lives.

Welcome to Briarcrest Academy, where sometimes, only the wicked survive.

Add Very Wicked Things to your Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18709986-very-wicked-things

Review

I haven’t felt as much heartache and anguish while reading a book as I did reading Cuba and Dovey’s story in quite some time. I don’t even know how to explain it…my heart literally hurt reading about what both of them went through after their break up, both separately and together.

Ilsa Madden-Mills gives her readers two main characters who have to grow up too fast too soon, and the damage caused by this is life altering. In Very Wicked Beginnings, we are given some of Cuba and Dovey’s background, which allows us to understand the damaged boy behind the playboy persona and the broken girl underneath the beautiful dancer, but Very Wicked Things makes us face the depth of their torment and the true essence of how they see themselves and their situations.

Cuba

I don’t think there has ever been a character that I have wanted to strangle and hug at the same time more than Cuba. As much as he doesn’t want to feel anything, he wears his guilt and anger like an albatross around his neck, and he can’t break free from it. It is literally suffocating him. He can’t forgive himself for actions he committed that he truly believes took his sister and his mother away from him, which solidifies for him that he only hurts those he loves. From that perspective, he feels he doesn’t deserve Dovey, so he does the only thing he feels is right – he breaks her heart. He thinks he’s saving her, but what he doesn’t realize is that he’s simply destroying the one person that could be his saving grace.

His choices had me shaking my head constantly. I found myself screaming at my kindle because I just wanted him to “get it.” I wanted him to realize that there was still time to fix it, even after he broke Dovey’s heart and ignored her for over a year, but he kept digging his heels in and forcing himself to hurt her again and again. Their story was one that I didn’t see how a happy ending could be in their future due to the shitstorm that surrounded them.

Dovey

The amount of poise and grace this young woman has is amazing. For those she loves, she gives so freely of herself, never asking for anything in return but to be loved back. She risked a great deal giving her heart to Cuba, and even after he does exactly what she felt in her heart he would do, she can’t stop loving him…stop thinking about him…stop needing him. But there are more complications in her life than just a boy who broke her heart. She has goals and dreams and hope for a someday that doesn’t seem to be ever coming because no matter how hard she tries to overcome her background and environment, it keeps knocking her down, and it’s unforgiving in what it expects from her. She’s always thought about being brave and strong like Joan of Arc, but she’s never seen herself as a girl capable of such acts, but readers see her that way…her true family sees her that way…even Cuba does.

How much penance should someone have to endure to rid themselves of the guilt they feel? How much self loathing can someone withstand until it drowns them? For Cuba, those are not easy questions to answer, but Ilsa Madden-Mills does a fantastic job of illustrating his attempt, which at times is misguided, to do so. Very Wicked Things is definitely an angst filled journey that will have readers wondering how Cuba and Dovey can be together after all that has occurred. Be patient and let Ilsa’s writing take you on their quest for personal redemption and hopefully, their happy ending.

Very Wicked Things is an AMAZING read. I don’t want to say it’s better than the first one because Nora and Leo’s story is beyond special to me, but this story is just as special. It’s darker and more complicated…at times, I wanted them to get over their shit already but then when everything was laid out…I got it…their journeys separately were more important than their journey together. That was the only way they could truly be together without the baggage. I’m so glad they got their someday.

Ilsa, thank you so much for allowing me to read this before its release. It’s brilliant!

A complimentary copy was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

5++ poison apples!

Excerpt from Very Wicked Things

I got out of the shower and dressed hurriedly, anxious to get back to Cuba.

The door opened, and like he did it every single day, he stepped inside the steamy bathroom.

“Think I need a shower, too,” he said, his fingers easing off his football practice shirt.

What? Now?

Trying to play it cool and failing miserably, I moved my eyes off his naked chest and checked out his track pants and the obvious bulge he sported.

Oh. Did his lower body match the rest of him? Was it all sinewy muscle and big?

Just, yeah. That thought got stuck in my head and went round and round.

 “You staying?” he asked, a grin working his face. Pleased at my open admiration, probably.

“No,” I said, but made no move to go. ‘Cause I had no shame when it came to catching a glimpse of his muscular body.

“Good,” he said, his smile broadening.

He pivoted to turn on the shower, and my eyes betrayed me again, admiring the muscles in his back, checking out how they twitched and rippled when he moved. Football and rowing had been good to him. My fingers itched to know how they’d feel underneath my hands. Which was stupid because we had nothing in common. Not a rich Highland Park boy and a poor girl from Ratcliffe.

And most importantly, he was a player, not to be trusted.

He hooked his thumbs into his pants, paused a moment—maybe waiting to see if I’d run from the room?—but when I didn’t budge, he slid them and his underwear off. My mouth opened. Cuba Hudson, the most popular guy at Briarcrest was standing right in front of me, naked and beautiful. And like the cocky bastard he was, he posed for me, his big-ass biceps and chiseled abs making me vibrate all over. Need for him slammed into me.

Did I say he was hot?

Well, I was wrong.

He was off-the-charts, no-holds-barred, freaking going make-me-lose-my-mind-right-there delicious. The ultimate man-candy, the kind I knew to stay away from, yet here I was, ogling him.

“Still leaving?” he asked huskily.

“Any minute,” I said in a weak voice, backing up to the wall and propping myself up. “Just chillin’. Shower wore me out. I might need to hold this wall up for a sec.”

“I want you to stay,” he said, eyes at half-mast, glowing with heat.

“Why?” I said, aching to touch him. But that was crazy. I was a virgin, and I didn’t know jack about touching a guy’s you-know-what.

“Look at me, Dovey.”

I tore my eyes from his manhood, blushing.

His eyes burned. “There’s a sense of urgency in my head. Like our time is limited.”

I nodded. Yeah, same here.

“And, I’ll be honest, I don’t want to rush you, but I’m dying to sink into you. I want to set you on fire with need for me.” He ghosted his hands over the steel rod between his legs. Once, twice, and—holy shizzle, he didn’t stop.

My chest rose faster and faster, and I tried to chill-out, but I couldn’t.

He lowered his voice. “Kiss me again, Dovey.”

Oh. “That’s a terrible idea, Cuba. Cause you’re naked, and I’m turned on because you’re naked. And you’re touching yourself. And you’re naked.” I sucked in a sharp breath. “Not a good combo. Odds are we’ll end up in that shower together or back in your bed doing the double-backed monster.”

“Then join me in the shower. I’ll be good. For you.” He arched his back, his hands still doing that back and forth that was driving me insane.

Liar, liar, pants on fire, I thought. No way he would he be good.

Because he was the Heartbreaker of Briarcrest Academy. And one wicked boy.