I am on a binge read of S.E Green books cause I finally found another RH author I can vibe with

1000000🌟stars: absolutely my favorite

⚜ rating 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
⚜Genre: Contemporary RH Romance
⚜Theme: Second-Chance Bully Romance
⚜Targeted audience: Adults
⚜Characters: Mira, Max, Vincent, Ethan.... and the Son of a billion bitch Danny
⚜Representation: mental health (coping mechanism)
⚜Pace: medium
⚜TW: domestic abuse, marital rape, bullying, gaslighting, violence, kidnapping
⚜ tropes: Why-choose, redemption
⚜ POV: multiple first-person BUT ONLY FROM THE MEN'S POV
⚜ spice 🌶🌶🌶
⚜standalone: yes
⚜Ending: HEA
⚜Book read: KU

I have no words to describe how beautifully written this book was
Donny, Max, Vincent, and Ethan grew up friends next to Mira's house. For some reason, Danny had it for Mira and encouraged the guys to bully her. The bullying continued throughout the years. Suddenly, Danny marries Mira and the guys fall out of touch. Five years later, Max and Ethan has an organization that helps DA women (ironic), and Vincent is a cop (another irony). Mira is trying to get out of her marriage, the 3 guys are helping her, discover how shitty they were when they were kids and queue in the groveling and redemption.

There was one thing I wished we got an answer to and that is "Why was Danny so obsessed with Mira that he forced her to marry him?" We get hints and speculations, but it is all theory

However, this minor thing did not take away from the exquisite story

1- To begin with, it was written solely from the Men's POV. I am a firm beleval that Romance of any kind should be dual POV. But since we rarely get books from the men's POV and because we needed to see the results of their actions and how they are redeeming itself, it worked to have only their POVs. This did not diminish Mira's part. We still get her personality.

2- Mira: although she did not get a POV (she did get the epilogue), we totally understand her background and reasons for her actions. Mira, though manipulated by her parents and Danny, is not a weak female. The fact that she was gathering evidence and photos and documentation to build a case against her husband proves how strong-spirited she is.
Why did she marry her bully? she was raised in a strict religious house. Her father forced her to marry. Danny was obsessed and manipulated her. She was helpless as a child and teen. But she reached a point where enough is enough. I loved how she did not fall for the guys immediately, how she stood up to them, and how she made them work for her love.

4- The background: We get a step-by-step from the past to the present of all the terrible things the boys did to Mira. We understand her trauma and some of their reasoning (none is excusable). When we reach the present, it is logical then that the guys had to work hard for Mira.

5- The mentality of a bully: I would like to fehemently state that there is NO EXCUSE FOR BULLYING. having said that, the book presents bullying as not a Black/White state but a grey one.
Some bullies are pure evil, like Danny. You can sense his hostile nature and his desire to physically harm since he was a kid. This type of bully is encouraged by their supportive parents and their deceptive friendly nature with others. Danny easily gains friends and can manipulate them to do his bedding. The bullying turns to abuse as adults. He was able to make two cops help him.
On the other hand, not all bullies are evil, some are good but resolve to bullying by peer pressure and their domestic circumstances. They are kids doing stupid things dictated by others. These typically reach a point where they know what they are doing is bad and stop. We can see that later they seek ways to redeem their past.

6- The spice: If you go into this book thinking it is full of spice just because it is RH, then stop. The spice scenes happen after the 81% mark. I absolutely loved that because the author did not sacrifice the plot, character development, or the medium-burn build up to get to the smut.