Indie Review: Laced in Malice by Riley Gray

Laced in Malice

by: Riley Gray

Now Available!!!

Source: Purchased Kindle e-book

Synopsis courtesy of Goodreads:

Behind the creepy castle like exterior of Birchtree academy is the sound of gossip, back stabbing and malice. When Zara’s dad takes on the new principle job at the elite boarding school, Zara knows she’ll be an outsider. She dreams of true love and marriage instead of possible frenemies and secrets. Definitely not Birchtree material.

In the cusp of everything are the twins. Oliver and Elizabeth (Lizzie) Nixon are renowned for their different – yet equally effective – methods of torture. And both have their eyes set on goody, goody Zara. Oliver wants to date her and Lizzie wants to befriend her?

At first, Zara is caught in the Nixons spell, but it’s not long until cracks begin to show through their dazzling façade. An anonymous email account, which targets students with their own secrets, has focused its energy on Zara using weapons only the Nixon’s could have provided. But have they turned on her? Is there a hidden agenda behind Lizzie’s interest in Zara? It’ll take four months, three warnings, two released sex tapes, and one dead body for Zara to finally learn the truth. And the truth can either destroy the boy she’s fallen for – and his twin sister – or save them both.

My Thoughts

Edit: I apologize to those who saw my earlier review in which a LARGE portion was missing. Grr Blogger I will be more careful next time. Hope you enjoy the review!

A-MAZING!!! 

Laced in Malice is the perfect example of why I love the fact that I own a Kindle. I first heard about this debut from Wendy Higgins on her blog. Riley helps Wendy with the British lingo in her work.

While I'm not a huge fan of the cover, it does do a great job at foreshadowing the tone of the book- it's dark, and a lot of the characters in this book are twisted- I'm glad I went to good ol' Public School haha. There's one scene (or incident) in particular that I found myself disgusted with in this book, Zara seemed appalled by it as well, but NO ONE took any action over it- rape is a serious matter, no matter WHO is the attacker and I'm disappointed in all the characters in this book for passing the incident over like it was just a cruel prank, and further continuing on to bully the victim instead. Needless to say, this upset me a bit. 

I've seen many reviews comparing this title to the movie, Cruel Intentions and rightfully so, this book reads a lot like fan fiction to that film, but keep in mind Cruel Intentions was a remake itself.

I was conflicted with Zara a bit- I like that she has strong morals but at the same time I wanted to smack her for being so weak when it came to Oliver (not that I could really blame her). I actually was shocked at the amount of sex that went on at this Private School, I mean just because you're 17 and haven't had sex doesn't make you a goody goody. I don't recommend this read to those under the age of 16, there's tons of sexual dialogue and content. Riley certainly knows how to write some sexy times, let me tell you. 

And she also knows how to write some complex characters, especially the famous Nixon twins! Liz is not at all who she portrays herself to be, and as a reader you just want to smack her, but she has more going than what is portrayed on the surface, leading you to empathize with her- although I still hold her accountable for A LOT of things.

Oliver, *que sigh* he is so Ryan Phillip in Cruel Intentions big time womanizer, that no one can tame, until now at least. You want to smack him a lot of the time for the way he treats Zara, but than you get butterflies in the pit of your stomach for the way he treats Zara. If this last statements seems confusing that's because Oliver is such an enigma, but one I fell for never-the-less. There's another beau on the hunt for Zara's heart, but we're not entirely sure of his intentions, yet. 

If for no other reason, you must read this one for the steamy chemistry that Riley has created between Zara and Ollie- it's A-MAZING!!!

I think I've gone on long enough with this one, if you love a complicated romance with steamy scenes, than definitely give LACED IN MALICE a try. It was like kindle crack for me, I keep going back to the same few scenes over and over haha. Book #2 please!

Happy Reading!!!