She’s wITH ME

By Jessica Cunsolo

Have I not read this book a thousand times already?

The Ugly Truth:

She’s With Me claimed to have one of my favorite tropes at play, with a bully romance supposedly sparking between our leading stars, Aiden and Amelia. Yet, from page 15, I quickly realized there would be no actual bullying.

Quick disclaimer: I am not talking about the bully romances with the literal death threats and blood play or something like that – and I definitely mark books down if they have non-con – the bully romance I am talking about is when you have a tough boy with a hard exterior who does not easily let a girl in until she more or less forces him to because of how badass she is. In other words, think grumpy x sunshine trope just with some extra discontent at the start.

ANYWHO, this book had Aiden apologizing in the first three chapters, and clearly seemingly offended by his own actions. For me, I just liked him and his friends automatically – there was no real build. The people who angered me most were Amelia and her mother. Amelia was just so blasé and “look at me handling a ton of broken ribs on page three” that I would not help but shake my head at her. There are some characters who do the “I will never ask for help since I cannot burden another well,” and she was not one of them. She was just stubborn. Couple this with the fact that her mom continued to play a BLAME game over a situation that was entirely not her fault, I just could not support the book.