~**~ Blog Tour for The Peer & The Puppet (When Rivals Play #1) by B.B. Reid w/ Excerpt & Review ~**~

Blog Tour for The Peer & The Puppet (When Rivals Play #1) by B.B. Reid w/ Excerpt & Review

THE PUPPET

Borrow the bike. Win the race. Collect the cash. It should’ve been an easy job. Ran out of town with a broken leg and a lawsuit, my mother’s latest flame swoops in like a knight in gilded armor. Blackwood Keep is a place I don’t belong, and I’m not the only one who knows. To the boy across the hall, my savior’s only son, I’m a stray looking for a bone.

He’s lord of the manor.

King of the academy.

And number one on my shit list.

THE PEER

I have no intentions of becoming a happy family with the social climber and her wild daughter. A bottle of Jameson and a cracked skull gets my problem shipped to reform school, but I didn’t bank on her returning.

Four’s out to get even, and she almost had the perfect plan: expose the privileged kid moonlighting as a gangbanger. She’s smart, but she’ll have to be smarter. Sending her away won’t be good enough this time. I’m going to have to tame the little troublemaker. To the girl across the hall, the one without a name, I’m nothing without my silver spoon.

She’s lady of the trailer park.

Queen of the swamps.

And my new favorite pastime.

The Peer and the Puppet is a standalone romance, however, the series is one story. The plot introduced in Four and Ever’s story will continue in the following novels. No cliffhangers.

Book Links

Goodreads | Amazon US * UK * CA * AU

THE PUPPET

I was having a dream. A very good dream. A dream I’d never in a million years admit to having under any circumstances. Not even torture.

Sadly, my dream ended, and I was jarred awake drenched in sweat. The T-shirt I’d worn to bed was bunched around my waist, showing off my cotton panties. I blushed when I recalled in vivid detail what caused such disarray.

And then I froze when I realized I wasn’t alone.

A quick glance at the foot of my bed showed a figure in dark clothing leaning forward with his forearms casually resting on his knees. The scream that tore from my lips was silenced when the figure leaned over and calmly rested his palm over my mouth.

“My father is a light sleeper,” Ever calmly warned. “And I’m sure you don’t want to explain to your mom why I’m in your bedroom at three in the morning.” My heart continued to race even after he lifted his hand, but I didn’t scream. “Good girl.”

“Why are you here?” I hissed while scrambling to pull down the T-shirt still bunched around my waist. I lifted the comforter I must have kicked away in my sleep and covered my lower half.

Oh, God, he’d seen everything. I felt like I had been caught red-handed considering he’d been the one I’d—

Fuck my life.

“You told my father I went to the store for deodorant.”

“And?” I sounded as exasperated as I felt.

“He didn’t buy your story.”

I could imagine considering he was sitting in my room fully dressed at three in the morning. It didn’t take seven hours to buy deodorant.

“Not. My. Problem.”

“But it is. We made this deal together, and we’ll honor it…together.”

I sighed. “So, what did he do to your highness? Take a spoon?” I mocked.

“Grounded,” he grunted.

“Poor you.”

I didn’t expect his smile. It was soft. Indulging. My overly large T-shirt had slipped from my shoulder, so he trailed his finger over my skin. “I’ll have to punish you, Four.”

“Punish me?” That was laughable. “I’m not your child.”

“No, swamp girl. You’re a puppet. My puppet.” He stood from my bed and headed for the door. “If I’m grounded, so are you.”

I told myself I was still dreaming and that he wasn’t actually saying these words. “What does that even mean?”

“It means I’ll have fun anyway.”

Too exhausted to argue, I sighed and met his gaze. “Get out of my room, McNamara.” I thought there was nothing else he could say or do until his parting words.

“You sound lovely when you come, Archer.”

***4.5 Stars***

This was one of those situations where I’d heard of the author, but never had the opportunity to read her and then an author I do read, and pretty much stalk (fangirl here) shared this one and my interest was peaked and decided to give it a go, because I’m always down for new reads, especially when it’s the first in a new series. So, I dove in and I will say that it took me a bit to truly become invested in the story, and I will admit I was a bit worried there for a minute, but then THAT moment came and I was absolutely invested, even with ALL the Teen drama/angst, I was hooked and it was all over. This one gave me a huge case of whiplash, HUGE and I’m still thinking over certain things going “But...why? But you could’ve…” but I’m hooked. I’ve willingly jumped down the rabbit hole and NEED more.

Ever and Four, and, yes, that is our MC’s names, gave me whiplash and yet I loved them both in that weird way where you want to hug and high five them while Gibbs smacking them with a 2x4 at the same time.

Four is impetuous, which was both a good and bad thing. I loved her sass, how comfortable she was in her own skin and how stubborn she was, as well as how she did her best to stick to her guns ~ even if she didn’t always succeed. But on the flip side, some of her choices drove me BSC because she simply reacted instead and made things harder for herself.

Ever was interesting. He is all kinds of arrogant, controlling and can be a huge asshat and yet...There is a deep and titanium solid core of honor to him that causes him to be that way and also has him being quite sweet, and that honor, that loyalty he has to those he calls his own, is both a blessing and a curse and made him absolutely fascinating.

Every and Fours enemies to lovers journey gave me whiplash. It did.The constant push and pull ~ as well as some craycray and OTT issues that popped up throughout made my eyes hurt from rolling around so much, but for whatever reason, I couldn’t wait to see what would happen next. Because when they were pulling towards each other and allowed themselves to just be, they worked for me.

As I stated at the start, Ms. Reid is a new to me author, and though the start was a rough one for me once I hit a certain point, a couple of supporting characters were introduced and the cray cray plot lines were taken out of the cone of silence realm, I was all in. Now, I also said that I had many, many “But, but...why…?” moments because some of the stuff going on was just OTT, hands down, but their OTT-ness fascinated me and I now NEED to see how everything works out, even if it drives me even more BSC. And as for the supporting cast of characters, I have to admit that Jamie is the one that interests me the most, this isn’t to say that he’s my favorite, but he’s the one who’s head I want to dig around in the most. My fav is Gruff...hands down. But I really liked Vaughn, Tyra and Jay D (of course). And then there is that little sneak peak of The Moth and The Flame, I will admit I was hoping for another couple to be the MC’s of the next book, but with that set up? Alls I can say is that I ain’t mad at it and cannot wait to get my hands on that baby!

~ Copy provided by the author & voluntarily reviewed ~