Freestyle: 1 (Academy of Stardom)

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I just don’t get why characters can’t be honest and dish shit out before letting it get blown out of control.

Actually, I’m fairly sure I’m a born again virgin, and my hymen has grown back for all the lack of use. You are left with some unanswered questions, including the motivations of the Breakers, and a GIANT cliffy- HOLY SMOKES, that final scene! It kept me entertained, it was fun, it was intriguing, it was mysterious, I loved the plot and I loved the characters. Some of that is forgivable because this is the first book in a series and it makes sense to save things to reveal and develop in later books. And while the first book is the tamest of them all, it’s in Lyrical, book two that things start to heat up.However, since the rest of this book is so similar to a lot of other RH books, I think more of a focus on the dance plot rather than the gang plot would have made this stand out more. These guys are so well articulated, so intimately defined and developed- unique, dimensional, each completely compelling- which is HARD for RH.

But Pen herself answer my question in that part of the book saying that they did not battle this because they respected Xeno and might've lose him if they did.

Now back together, Pen has to decide if she will forgive, if they can forgive her and if they can love each other again. This is former best friends nearly lovers turned enemies with second chance to fight for each other, with gangs and dance. I hope the next books will rely less on flashbacks and obfuscation and I can get a better sense of what is happening in the present.

They can't just own up to mistakes they make, or maybe admit not knowing the full in's and out's of the truth. As I said the first book in the series Freestyle begins with the protagonist’s, Penelope or Pen, audition for a chance at a new life, at a dance school. And the reason the guys are pissed at her is so petty, like omg they just believed her when she "lied" to protect her sis and from David s´the pshycho brother.

At the start, it took me a while to understand who was who, but it honestly didn’t take long and wasn’t a big deal. I just wanted her to be a baddie and not show them any emotions she obvs still has for them and be a cold motherfucker. Took me a while to get familiar with all the characters and remember what name goes with what character but after I did, I rolled into the story without much trouble. I think a lot of reverse harem series, this one include, have a lot of similar plot points with one thing that's supposed to set them apart. Bea Paige lives a very secretive life in London… she likes red wine and Haribo’s (preferably together) and occasionally swings around poles when the mood takes her.

If you love dance, your men on the criminal side, alpha hot holes and the friends-to-enemies-to-lovers trope, this is for you. Pen and her men have a messy past and this is truly a love to hate to love romance and it was done so well. I was loving getting to meet Pen and her guys, Xeno, York, Dax and Zayn trough her flashbacks and all. I was doubly that an artform so VISUAL, so experiential, and so tied to music could be adequately conveyed in writing. It was a really interesting contrast; Pen’s reaction to seeing Xeno, York, Zayn and Dax again – she couldn’t decide if she loved them or hate them – and that made everything much more interesting.

I also kinda hated how before Pen showed interest in them when they were younger they were parading girls around her all the time and yet of course she stayed pure and didn’t even date.