[ARC REVIEW] “The Revenge Pact” By: Ilsa Madden-Mills

Official Synopsis:

River Tate is a god on campus.
The king of football.
A tattooed bad boy with gunmetal eyes that see right through you.
The only chink in his armor is HER, the girl he pretends doesn’t exist, the forbidden one with the shy smile and lavender hair.

Anastasia Bailey is a nobody.
The queen of nothing.
An outsider with the face of an angel and a body made for sin.
The only chink in her armor is HIM, her boyfriend’s frat brother, the football player who hates her.

But when Anastasia’s life comes crashing down, River’s the one who sweeps in and picks up the pieces.

Torn between loyalty, lies, and secrets, he battles the temptation to take everything from her when they make their revenge pact.

He can’t tell her no.
Because revenge (or love) is sweet, and once you get a taste, the craving never ends.

The Revenge Pact is a new adult college football romance and is first in a series about three college football players.

Rating: 4/5 stars

Review:

I’ve loved every book by Ilsa Madden-Mills that I’ve read, so when I found out she was kicking off (pun intended) a new football series, I knew I had to read it! Plus, Anastasia is a 21 year old senior finishing up her first semester of the year…which is exactly where I’m at right now. Although I’ll admit, it made me a little sad reading the book sometimes, because I miss being in class with my friends on campus!

Both River and Anastasia were deep, complex characters, as all good protagonists should be. The book is told from both of their POVs. River is dealing with the fallout of an awful football season, and uncertainty with his future. Oh yeah, he’s also in love with his friend’s girlfriend, because he doesn’t have enough on his mind already. Once he stops being a jerk, he’s actually a really sweet, loyal character, and poetic without being one of those kids who thinks they’re fancy because they read the classics. The first time he meets Anastasia, he picks up a random book…and it’s one of Ilsa’s previous releases, NOT MY ROMEO! I haven’t read that one yet, but the reference was still really cute.

Anastasia has an interesting past, which comes back to bite her with her boyfriend, Donovan. Still, she’s a cool, confident girl, and she’s surrounded herself with some great friends/roommates. Her friendships with the other frat boys were nice to read, too. Plus, she’s studying to be a lawyer, which is really cool (& definitely hard to do – I’m in a Media Law and Ethics course right now…and it’s not easy). Even though we don’t love Donovan, he’s not overly awful to Ana — it makes the story richer and more interesting to read.

There were two things that I wasn’t a fan of. I’ll admit, I’m not a huge fan of the whole “guy has a crush on a girl so he’s mean to her” trope, and I don’t like anything that has to do with girls changing their education plans for a guy, either. Everything ends up working out, but I think the story could’ve been strengthened without that.

Overall though, I thought it was a really good book, and I can’t wait to read the rest of the trilogy! (I’ll be posting ARC reviews for those within the next week and a half, so stay tuned!)

Huge thanks to Ilsa for providing me with an ARC to review! The book is available for free now on Kindle Unlimited! As with all new adult books, I’d recommend them for 17+ because of some of the sexual content, but as always, y’all can do whatever you want anyway.

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