NicoleeK

Goodreads Synopsis:

Perception is everything to sixteen-year-old Olivia Brown. With her freakishly hot boyfriend, volunteer work at the local animal shelter, successful beauty channel on YouTube, and well-earned spot on X Factor Cheer's elite level five Diamond Girl team, Livvie's the girl every other girl wants to be. At least, that's the illusion she's aiming for.

But Livvie's seemingly perfect life is anything but. Lying about the bruises her boyfriend gives her, and cowering beneath his raging temper becomes a regular way of life until she unwittingly witnesses her drunken neighbor beating his step-son, the town bad boy, Reid Tate.

For Reid, vulnerability is the enemy. Opening up, and letting people in gives them the power to disappoint. Growing up with a co-dependent mother and an abusive alcoholic father, Reid has endured all the disappointment he can stomach.

But when his pretty, do-good neighbor witnesses his step-dad beat him to within an inch of his life, and not only call the cops, but keeps quiet at school about what she saw, Reid wonders if maybe, just maybe, he's found someone he can finally trust.

Review:

This was much better than Ex-Factor! It had all the elements of the first book that I loved romance, friendship, cheerleading but with the added element of having the characters portraying the message instead of being told.

This book brought awareness to domestic abuse without going over the top. Reid has had to live with an abusive father all his life until one night he went too far. Then we have Livvie who thinks she has a great relationship but she doesn’t realise her boyfriend is actually abusing her mentally and emotionally. I couldn’t believe the things he would say to her and how he expected her to look perfect every second of every day. I really wanted to tell him where he could shove his comments. Although he never physically hurt her while they were together I couldn’t understand how she thought it was okay for him to treat her like that.

I also couldn’t understand how when JP started to become threatening and physically hurt her how she didn’t tell anyone and kept making excuses as to why she wouldn’t tell her mom! Even though Reid and Nev knew they really needed to tell an adult and have him dealt with.

Reid’s character was totally swoon worthy <3 Always love a bad boy with a big heart! I also loved Reid and Livvie’s relationship and how sweet and protective Reid was of her. Although I did have to make myself forget the fact that this whole story took place in the space of a week. It would have been a little more realistic had it taken place over at least a month.

This was a really strong sequel that I just could not put down and devoured in only a few hours! I especially loved the references to Taylor Swifts songs! Definitely my favourite of the series.