Boys of Brayshaw High
Trouble at Brayshaw High
Reign of Brayshaw
Meagan Brandy

Guilty pleasure like a soap opera or CW teen series

This is a guilty pleasure, like a soap opera or CW teen series. I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit I read it.

Raven is taken away from her prostitute mother and sent to a small group home in another town where she attends Brayshaw High. This school and town are ruled by three non-biological brothers. The beginning is a hate to love story, but that’s over quickly. Actually not much of it takes place inside the high school.

It becomes very difficult to suspend disbelief. It has some unique twists, so it isn’t cliché, but it gets ridiculously unbelievable. Secret identities, parentage, babies, and marriages. Comas, arranged marriages, mafia-like old families running the world behind the scenes, 16-year-olds having backstories fit for 30-year-olds. It’s insane but enjoyable, a guilty /pleasure/. All three of these books are very long, but it was well paced and kept me reading to the end. I did read all three of them.

I liked some things about the characters and hated other things. Overall, Raven is a strong female character and some secondary females are strong too.

This is really one long book, split into three parts. The first two have major cliffhangers. It would properly be labeled as Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. Lots of foul language and violence. First person present tense from alternating main characters. Many graphic sex scenes. References to rape and child molestation, but none on camera.

Many reviewers have complained about an overabundance of lip licking. I absolutely agree. It’s crazy overkill. Fortunately, this was addressed in the second two books and only happens rarely there. In part one, Raven thinks about how hot the three guys are far too much.

There is a lot of promiscuity in this novel, but it seems to be consensual. Public and group sex acts. Unprotected sex occurs with a rejected offer to use a condom. There is no discussion of birth control or sexual history. It seems neither is worried about pregnancies or STDs, which is stupidly irresponsible.

Grammar: The comma situation is gruesome with routinely missing commas where they belong and extra commas where they don’t belong. Double punctuation marks like ?! are used. This comes from email and messaging but is not correct English. Beyond that, there were: BOBH: 5, TABH: 4, ROB: 6 including wrong words, extra words, missing words, missing or extra quotation and punctuation marks.

I’d give this three stars but the grammar problems knocked my enjoyment down a star.

Favorite quotes:

From Boys of Brayshay High: “Can’t help it.” I throw my hand forward, weakly squeezing the packed muscles of his biceps. “You try sitting a foot from a beast in the flesh with crazy eyes and a dirty smirk and let’s see if your thong stays dry.”

From Trouble at Brayshaw High: “Nuh-uh, child,” Maybell reprimands and moves forward with a first aid kit. “Don’t be lookin’ at them like that. They did right, calling me. You look as bad as you did when you found out the green Power Ranger was leaving the show.”