Broken by the Bully

Beauty in the Breaking, Book 1

By: Felicity Raine

Narrated by: C.J. Mission, Amanda Watson

Asher Hansen began tormenting me our freshman year, not long after my father kicked him and his older brother off the compound with nothing but the clothes on their back.

They blamed Dad for their mother taking her own life. To be honest, I think I did, too.

Maybe that’s why I took it whenever Asher called me Cult Barbie and teased me mercilessly, saying the filthiest, most outrageous things.

But that doesn't explain why his words always made me feel...fizzy inside.

To say I’ve been waiting for this moment is an understatement. It’s graduation day, a big deal for every 18-year-old and an even bigger deal for someone who grew up the way I did.

But for me, today is about more than the end of high school. It's about taking control of my life. Today, I’m actually going to do it. The one thing I can do to shock him. My ruthless nemesis.

I guarantee he won’t see it coming.

“What’s that, buttercup?” he asks, mocking laughter in his voice when he hears me speak up. “Are you actually going to fight back for once? This should be fun.”

I take a bracing breath and turn to face him. But the breath just rushes back out again.

That’s what he does to me - this bitter, mean-spirited, obscenely beautiful bully.

It really is obscene, how pretty he is, with dark eyelashes that make his green eyes pop and black-as-sin hair so silky looking, my fingers used to itch to touch it in English class.

On the first day of class, I got there early enough to score a seat in the very back. So, in order to stay close enough to make every moment of my life at school miserable, Asher - my teasing, tormenting shadow - had been forced to take the seat in front of mine.

What he didn’t know?

I didn’t find it miserable at all to spend 50 minutes staring at his silky hair and broad, powerful shoulders. Even when he turned around to sneer at me, I didn’t mind too much.

Even his sneer is gorgeous, the jerk.

“Cat got your tongue?” he asks, stepping out of the doorway to the classroom across the hall and stalking toward me.

When he moves like that, I feel like prey, and I’m nearly 100 percent sure that’s his intention. Asher is the best player on the baseball team and rumor has it he turned down a full scholarship to play for the Longhorns at UT. He’s in complete control of his body and well aware of the things it can do.

“No,” I reply, gathering my courage. “And no, I’m not going to fight back. In fact, I don’t want to fight at all.”

His eyes go wide with a mixture of anger and...amusement.

Gambling that I’ve found a tactic that works and should run with it, I say, “My father was awful to you, Asher. But I’m not my father. And I’m not a fan of his right now. That’s why I was hoping to run into you today.”

He crosses his arms over his thick chest, grinning as he says, “Okay, you got me, C.B. I’m intrigued. This new, psychotic side of you is still weird as hell, but interesting.” He taps a finger to his chin.

©2021 Felicity Raine (P)2021 Felicity Raine

Sweeter than I was expecting

This is a fast pace, enemies to lovers novella that I found very enjoyable. When I read the blurb I was worried that it was going to be a dark romance with bullying and possibly abuse (the heroine grows up in a cult) but other than some brief mention of the main character getting picked on in school it wasn’t anything bad.
Turns out the bad boy Asher Hansen has always had a crush on Emma Carpenter and now that she’s turning 18 she’s starting to see him a little differently.

I like how the bully was actually in love with her

the friend trying to be vindictive to her friends boyfriend and her when opinions are like asseholes everyone's got them

short but GREAT

Great narration for both female and male characters. Listened in one go! if you r looking for a short listen with all the feels, dont miss this!

Mean bully, sweet girl

Emma has led a sheltered life, and Asher has turned from a friend into her worst tormentor in high school. They were very good friends at her father's religious compound (cult), but Asher and his brother were banished by Emma's father when their mother died. Those events led to their friendship ending years ago, and Asher blaming her family for their mother's death. He's made it his mission to bully Emma on a daily basis--or Cult Barbie as he calls her. Emma's taken his terror for the past 4 years, but she has a graduation surprise for her Asher. She's taking back her life from her father, and she needs Asher's help to do it (no spoilers here).

I enjoyed this complicated story. There are past issues that turn Asher into a not so nice person. Once the story goes along, you get what happened to his family, and not to excuse his behavior, his emotional state is understandable. Even with all the harassing, Emma still sees the good person he used to be, and wants to bring that side of him out. Asher is determined to hurt Emma's father, even if that means using her to do it. What he doesn't expect is Emma's goodness, despite his plan to ruin her and her father. Obviously, they end up together, but I won't tell what happens. There are some interesting twists to this story, and there's definitely some heat between Asher and Emma. What starts as something very ugly, transforms into a beautiful love story between two childhood friends.

The narration by C. J. Mission and Amanda Watson was great.

Have Your Fan Handy

Talk about feeling fizzy! This novella was full of hotness. There was enough dirty talk to make a sailor blush. And I loved it! Being a novella, there wasn’t a lot of background information about either her experiences in the cult or Asher’s bullying. Yet, despite this, it was still a complete story. Things moved pretty quickly and easily, but there was plenty of emotions throughout. In my opinion, it focused on the best part: Asher and Emma finally getting together.

Sexy Hot High School Novella! Great narration!

Broken by the Bully is a sexy hot high school novella, layered with sweet moments, a little angst & suspense. This being a novella the storyline doesn’t go too deeply into the background story, but it is wrapped up nicely and it worked. It was not what I expected but I really enjoyed it. I guess I expected dark and a lot of angst, but this story is hella sexy with a lot of smutty dirty talk that gets your cheeks flushed and blood boiling. The chemistry between the main characters is insanely hot and perfectly showcased and described through Felicity Raine´s writing.

Emma and Asher were childhood friends once, growing up in a religious cult but circumstances involving Emma´s twisted cult leader dad leaves Asher and his brother to fend for themselves.

Love and Hate are two emotions very close together. The emotional tormenting Asher does towards Emma, is his way of hiding his real feelings for her. Emma takes it all, as it seems it´s the only way Asher gives her the attention she craves. One day Emma stands up to Asher and propositions him as what she has to offer him is going to be the lesser evil than what her father has planned for her.

Amanda Watson and C.J. Mission are new to me narrators, and I really enjoyed listening to them. There was a lot of passion and emotions in their voices, you could really hear them feeling with these characters, and it was just an easy listen. They drew me into the story and just enhanced the feelings, emotions and the heat of the dialogue.

Something different!

I went into this story with an assumption that I would not like this book based on the title alone. I was wrong. Even if you're not a fan of bully type romances, don't let the title fool you. Give it a try.
Felicity Raine weaved an interesting tale involving Emma, the daughter of a religious cult-type leader and Asher, mysyerious mean guy and Emma's bully. There are so many layers to this story and Asher is so much more than a bully. This book is super hot and dirty and honestly, and while it's not my usual type of book, it was pretty enjoyable.
C.J. Mission and Amanda Watson are narrators that are pretty new to me. They made the minutes fly by and my ear buds heat up in their performances of Asher and Emma in this quick listen.

4 smokin hot stars….

This might have be a quick read, but it was oh so hot as hell! The chemistry between Asher and Emma was off the charts smokin! And the story kept me glued…
I accidentally stumbled across this book and I’m glad I did…I personally enjoyed Broken by a Bully and I’m kind of confused on why it hasn’t gotten more readers?
I will definitely be looking into Felicity Raine other books! After I read Jackson and Laura’s story.

Audiobook review: Both C.J. Mission and Amanda Watson were new to me and I think that they both did a wonderful job! I personally think Amanda Watson could’ve read Asher’s POV since she does a remarkable job at doing a man’s voice!