This rule encompasses social media, meeting up in real life, and even temptation by way of phone calls. Their little rule worked for the length of their writing, though. Misha is a musician and many of his songs had Ryen as the topic. Leap of Faith All you did suffer is what you did sow! Alone, Empty, Fraud, Shame, Fear, Close your eyes. There’s nothing to see out here.

I know it’s hard to write female characters. Usually, the girls are judged harshly. If they’re weak, they’re the weak princess waiting for her prince to save her, a bad-developed character. If they’re too strong, they’re unrealistic, a tomboy that hates feminine stuff and thinks tears are bad. I GET IT. But in this case, there’s nothing that helps Ryen’s case. She’s one of those shallow popular girl stereotypes that we love to hate. And instead of breaking this stereotype, she just makes it worse! She sometimes says “I know I shouldn’t be like this but I don’t like to not fit in.” We have a small pinch of hope that she’ll get some self-reflection but she just shrugs it off and keeps being terrible. I'm pretty blinded by my love of this book but I'm going to warn people that it's not exactly without problems. As in, this book is problematic. The way that the MCs interact with each other in the middle of the book is wildly hot but I can see how some people might not like the elements of danger and/or violence. The violence is not at all domestic but there were some situations that might leave others a little unsettled. Now, with Falling Away, I just said screw it. Even though BULLY was my favorite to write, because I was free of fear with that one, Falling Away is my favorite book. I will read every review, because no one can tell me anything that will make me feel bad about this story. I am who I am, I write how I write, and I'm proud of myself, no matter what anyone says ;) I had never written a romance book where the main characters were pen pal friends. I thought the letters were cool and mysterious and, like the characters, I wanted to get more letters, and see what was happening in them. Read how different they were behaving in the letter versus in real life. Develop these two personalities, the letter one and the real one.Masen unexpectedly finds Ryen in a compromising situation in her bedroom. Their chemistry is palpable, and they share an intimate moment. Their relationship is passionate but filled with secrets. After their intimate encounter, Masen leaves Ryen’s room, ensuring he isn’t caught by her family. Their relationship is still clandestine, and they both seem to enjoy the thrill of sneaking around. PUNK 57 I bought myself, which already means that I'm going to be an eensy bit more critical of it because I'm spending my hard-earned money on the book and judging it accordingly. PUNK 57 was our book of the month in the Unapologetic Romance Readers group for April, and as someone who had read her work previously, I was interested in seeing how it had changed from CORRUPT. There is just something meaty about her characters and her writing that make her books oh so chomp-able.

I will say that the twist at the end with Misha's mom took me off-guard. I wasn't expecting that, although in hindsight it explains a lot. Like I said before, with CORRUPT, plotting isn't a weakness of Ms. Douglas's. But the confrontation and the way it was carried out left a similarly bad taste in my mouth, because it was a perfect mirror of his behavior towards Ryen and how it was actually pretty abusive. Misha is one of those guys who expects women to behave in certain ways, and if they violate that way at all, they are automatically bad. Ryen failed to live up to his sweet nerdy girl fantasy, so she becomes the whore in his eyes. Misha's mom couldn't take motherhood, so she becomes the horrible bitch who is responsible for all the problems in his life. It's the Madonna/whore complex, and I hate the Madonna/whore complex. Also, I'm realizing that I kind of hate Misha. I didn't want him to have an HEA with the heroine, because in my opinion, he never redeemed himself. He played the "Baby, I'm damaged" card and she completely bought it, final sale. Eventually, they clash heads and Misha reveals that he knows she has been lying to him this whole time. Instead of just standing down like she does with her so-called friends, though, Ryen stands up for herself and Misha sees this as a noteworthy and remarkable thing. There’s MoreWe come to learn that Ryen hadn’t been quite forthright and honest about her position at school. The person that was writing to Misha seemed so genuine about the struggles and troubles that she faced each day.