Rule No. 1: Don’t piss off the Sick Boys.
They’re cruel. Reckless. Impossibly messed up.
The Sick Boys feed on the order they create. They rule Eastpoint University just as their families have for decades. But their power doesn’t stop there. The three of them are heirs to some of the largest fortunes in the world, and behind that kind of wealth lies an underworld of corruption.
On the surface, they’re perfect princes and he is their King. But underneath it all, they’re filled with blood, lies, and secrets. With all of their connections, they have the power to crush anyone who gets in their way. But just because they’re as warped as I am doesn’t mean I’m going to give them a free pass.
Because I, Avalon Manning, bow to no one, and I live to break the fucking rules.
From PRETTY LITTLE SAVAGE, the first novel in the Sick Boys series by dark romance author Lucy Smoke.
How am I only just discovering this fabulous f**king author???
Oh…… My….. God….. Okay, so a few days ago, I was having a conversation with a writer friend of mine about how reading tastes change. I’ve realized over the last few months that my reading tastes have changed. If a book doesn’t keep my heart in my throat for at least 75% of the time, I get bored. This series??? Sweet mother of Hades, what a ride!
As the series unfolds, you are introduced to a big world where the elite rich do whatever the f**k they want to whoever the f**k they want. Everyone “below” them are pawns to be used and discarded. Most of the characters are morally black with some dark shades of gray thrown in. They love and hate with equal ferocity and all you can do is sit back and hang on for dear life. They take the Touch Her and 💀 trope to a whole new level.
Since I binged the whole thing in one go, I’m going to combine my reviews into one post here with each separated by couple. The series covers the love stories of the three Eastpoint Heirs (Dean Carter, Braxton Smalls, and Abel Frazier), the enforcer/right hand man of Dean’s father (Mitchell ‘Viks’ Vikson), and a new “adopted” member of their circle (Luc Kincaid). All five guys are super-dominant alphahole antiheroes and I literally don’t know how to pick a favorite.
The Sick Boys series is perfect for fans of Shantel Tessier’s L.O.R.D.S. world, Eva Ashwood’s Dirty Broken Savages or Filthy Wicked Psychos series, or Penelope Douglas’s Devil’s Night series. It’s got all the gritty atmospheric darkness and danger with completely unique stories that makes this world all the author’s own. Sick Boys left me utterly addicted and desperately wishing there was more. Although this series is complete, the author has an interconnected world which includes the Gods of Hazelwood series and the Scorpion Kings series. You better believe they’re on my TBR pile for a binge-read very soon! Sick Boys convinced me. Lucy Smoke will forever be a one-click author for me.
Series Spice Level
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
My Rating of the Series
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Amazon & Kindle Unlimited | Audible
The review copy of this book was purchased on Audible
and read along through the Kindle Unlimited reading program.
CONTENT WARNING: Each couple in this series has their own dark dynamic and all of their stories are dark dark darkity dark dark dark. Additionally, this series includes on-the-page sexual assault (not by the MMC) and child abuse (played out in the character’s memories), both of which may be a hard pass for some readers. The final book in the series also deals with notions of suicide. This is a good opportunity to remind everyone to check out the Trigger Warning page here on my website. This message applies to my books and pretty much everything you’re going to see on my blog, whether it’s dark romance or urban fantasy romance (which tends to be violent). I don’t include this message with every review but some antiheroes rise above the others and do some truly depraved shit. The Sick Boys are called that for a reason. Plus, none of these characters have altogether happy back stories. As the reader, you play witness to some hard-to-swallow scenes that depict various types of abuse both on and off the page. Please listen to the trigger warnings in the books.
Read on to see my review for each couple’s story arc in the series.
*Strong Language Warning Henceforth*
That’s right. I just hit you with a henceforth. What of it?
Mitchell ‘Viks’ Vikson and Haley Montgomery
So, I almost skipped this prequel and I’m so glad I went back to give it a read. And I would suggest you also wait to read it until the series is over all so you can experience one truly impactful point. Throughout the rest of the series, when the women join this merry band of assholes, they each hit a point where they essentially realize that while all of these men may be dangerous, violent monsters to the rest of the world, to each other, they’re just friends. Family. Normal college kids. By waiting to read this until you’re done with the rest of the series, that’s the exact lesson you learn about Viks but in the opposite order. In the rest of the series, he’s a good, solid man they can turn to when they need help or guidance. He kind of gives off ‘sage protector’ vibes. Without knowing where he came from, he comes across as a little soft compared to the rest of the cast. That is until you crack Forbidden Deviant Games open. This book takes you back and shows you that, no, Viks is not a white hat either. He’s just a white hat to them. This book takes place a few years before the events of the first-in-series and gives you a much different image of Viks.
“Gray sweatpants–God’s greatest gift to womankind, really.”
Haley, Forbidden Deviant Games
Viks is an alphahole antihero. In his past, he did prison time that he admits was justified, and now he’s serving as the right hand man to Nicolas Carter (Dean’s dad). He’s ruthless when necessary but thanks to the psych degree he got while behind bars, he’s also keenly aware of the storm constantly raging just beneath his surface.
“The way he says my name should be a crime.”
Haley, Forbidden Deviant Games
Haley is his obsession. She’s a waitress at the club he runs for Carter, and as you dive into FDG, you quickly realize that while she and her box can’t come to an agreement on how they feel about Viks, he’s got no such battle going on in his head. He wants her bad and that’s been his train of thought for quite some time. She’s snarky and determined to steer clear of him. That doesn’t quite work out the way she plans. These two have a little bit of a Dom X Brat dynamic but it’s not a BDSM novel.
I loved these two together and I really, really loved the totally different picture we get of Viks. I understand now why the heirs all respect him and take his advice. He’s not soft at all. His edges are razor sharp and when provoked, he’s relentless. I fucking love this man.
Alphahole Antihero
Strong Snarky Heroine
Morally Gray with Morally Black Tendencies
Obsession
Over the Top Jealous / Possessive
BDSM Elements (Dom X Brat Dynamic)
He Falls First
Touch Her and 💀
Forced Proximity
One Bed
Dean Carter and Avalon Manning
Avalon Manning is UNHINGED and so, soooooo much fun. Lol The first book in the three that make up her story with Dean has you watching as she deals with a bully classmate by torching the chick’s car with a Molotov cocktail. And it is GLORIOUS. Avalon does and says every horrible thought you’ve ever had about shitty people you’ve encountered in life. Instead of getting mad and walking away, our girl ACTS and you get a front row seat to the show.
“I want Avalon Manning to be more than a body in my bed. I want her to fucking want me as much as I crave her. I want her to think about me the way I think of her—all the fucking time in an all consuming cycle.”
Dean, Pretty Little Savage
“She’s no girl at all. She’s a woman.
Dean, Stone Cold Queen
A dangerous one. And I think I fucking love her.”
Her romance with Dean Carter begins with a bit of a bully vibe (understatement of the universe) but it doesn’t take him long to catch on. Ava’s not one to sit back and take being pushed around. She doesn’t just stand up to him, she retaliates. She’s dauntless. (Man, the Divergent series really ruined using that word but it happens to be perfect in this instance so I’m not changing it.)
She is a danger junkie and poking the bear for sport is kind of her thing. Dean is one of the three Eastpoint Heirs. He’s rich AF, used to getting everything he wants, and having girls trip all over themselves to be with him. When Avalon isn’t flattered by his unwanted attention, it sends him on the warpath.
“This can’t be happening. I think I’m in love with Dean Carter.”
Avalon, Stone Cold Queen
The thing I love about this series is that although the romance is scorching hot (and I promise you, it really is), the suspense storyline in these three books is fuuuuuuuuuuuuuucking insane in the best possible way. It’s so good!
“I just want … her. In a thousand years—in a million—all I’ll ever want for the rest of my life is this psycho woman in my arms. Some people are born whole. I didn’t realize that I wasn’t one of them until I met her. Avalon is the other side of my fucked-up coin. The darker side to my already pitch-black moon.”
Dean, Natural Born Killers
“I up and drank the dumb bitch juice he’d been handing out.”
Avalon, Pretty Little Savage
I loved this couple so much. This isn’t your average dark romance where the alpha male bends the heroine to his will. Dean and Avalon are true equals and it’s buckets of fun watching her make him realize that.
“You have no reason to fear me, baby,” he whispers.
Dean, Natural Born Killers
“Fight with me. Fuck with me. Hate me or love me.
I’m not leaving this and I’m not leaving you.”
Alphahole Antihero MMC
Alphahole Antihero FMC
Slow Burn Bully Romance
Hate-to-Lovers
Morally Black
Over the Top Jealous / Possessive
He Falls First
Touch Her and 💀
Touch Him and 💀
Forced Proximity
Secret Identity
🔪 and 🩸 Play
Rich Guy X Poor Girl
Rags to Riches
Abel Frazier and Rylie Moore
This is the book in the series I didn’t know I was waiting for! We’ve met both of these characters throughout the course of Dean and Avalon’s story. Abel Frazier is one of the three Eastpoint Heirs and a total manwhore. And without giving too much away, I will say that his manwhore status isn’t exactly his fault. I swear, this isn’t me just trying to justify a character’s choices to make him look better. It’s all part of his dark secret/dark past. You get bits of it in the first three books but you get the full picture in this one.
“What’s left of my wicked, dark heathen soul is hers
Abel Frazier, Wicked Dark Heathens
and all she has to do is be mine.”
He’s also far deeper than he seems in the first few books. I mean, he’s loyal AF in the other books but he embraces his outward bully in those stories pretty hard. In WDH, you are gifted with his inner thoughts and they paint the picture of a much different man. There is this scene at the very start of the book where Abel’s been on a bender since the events at the end of the previous book (no spoilers) and he sees Dean and Ava having a sweet moment together. He begins waxing poetic about how he wishes he had what they have together. I don’t think anyone outside their circle would expect the erection with legs to secretly long for commitment and family.
“I want you in my bed, Riot Girl. Every fucking day. I want to wake up to you and touch you and I want to carve my fucking name into your soul. I want to be the man you turn to for help.” My breath escapes me in a rush at that proclamation. “Now, please … tell me who I have to kill to get you to come back to me.”
Abel Frazier, Wicked Dark Heathens
Rylie Moore is a hacker with lavender hair, a goth girl closet, and she’s one of the “program kids” at Eastpoint. You know she’s hiding something when you meet her in the earlier books but you don’t fully find out what that something is until about halfway through this book. And ooooof! It is not good. I thought Avalon had a shit hand dealt to her when she was a kid. Rylie makes Ava’s backstory look like amateur hour. I’m just saying, keep the tissue box handy. You’re going to be shedding some tears.
“He’s wrecked everything in his path to get to me, completely destroyed my barriers and rebuilt them, sealing himself inside along with me. Even if this doesn’t last, for as long as I live, there will be a piece of Abel Frazier buried deep within my soul.”
Rylie Moore, Wicked Dark Heathens
I will be honest, Abel is such a dick in the prior books that I wasn’t sure I was going to like his and it ended up being one of my favorite stories in the series. He and Rylie together are an excellent story about two broken people finding each other and Abel turns out to have a side none of us ever saw coming. My only complaint about Abel and Rylie’s story is that we only got one book. I wish they had more, just like I wish Viks and Haley had more. It’s not like it feels incomplete or rushed, I am just being a selfish reader who wants MORE.
“They’re beautiful, those demons of hers, and I don’t want to save her from them. I want to show her how to harness them. To use them. To relish in their darkness because it’s only in the dark that we truly understand ourselves.”
Abel Frazier, Wicked Dark Heathens
Alphahole Antihero MMC
Reformed Manwhore
Goth Girl Hacker FMC
BDSM Elements (Pleasure Dom X Sub Dynamic)
Morally Gray with Morally Black Tendencies
Obsession
Over the Top Jealous / Possessive
He Falls First
He Says It First
Touch Her and 💀
Forced Proximity
Rich Guy X Poor Girl
Stalker
Dark Secrets / Dark Pasts
Braxton Smalls and Clover La Roux / Evgenia Volkov
THEY’RE MY FUCKIN’ FAVORITE!!!!!
Okay… Breathe deep and start over….
Oh, Brax. Where do I even begin with your story? Bloody Cruel Psycho might be the perfect title to accompany this story. That label fits him like OJ’s glove for this book. To the point where I almost started to dislike him as a character over it. He is cruel to Clover. This book definitely has some serious bully energy to it but it’s relentless for the first half of their story. This isn’t enemies-to-lovers. It’s extreme hate-to-lovers.
“She’s interesting like a burning car–I want to know who set her on fire–but at the same time, she’s dangerous, and I’ve got enough danger right now in my own life to keep me fully occupied.”
Braxton Smalls Talking About Clover La Roux, Bloody Cruel Psycho
Brax and Clover’s relationship is… complicated. She’s a prisoner being held for information, and Brax is her warden of sorts. Brax is hell bent on revenge, gunning for the man who hurt Avalon and Clover is the only thing standing between him and his goal. Not a great place to be. A deal is struck to offer up herself in exchange for Brax giving up his search. The deal is tenuous at best to start with. There is no trust (nor is there any reason to have any) and someone is playing dirty dirty dirty from go.
“He accepts his villainy and he uses it to his advantage.”
Clover La Roux About Braxton Smalls, Bloody Cruel Psycho
Brax has been established in this series as the “psycho” in the group of Eastpoint Heirs. Unfeeling with everyone except the small circle he considers family. Our boy was conditioned to like pain. Likes to feel it. Really likes to inflict it. And he really, really likes it when his women cry. He’s a true sadist created from trauma. He’s overwhelming. He’s the one in the group who can push you to the brink and use your worst fears to pull information out of you. And this is where my confession comes in: I don’t know what’s wrong with me but I am sure I’m in love with this fictional man. 🤣
“Fine,” Dean grits out. “But if anything happens to her, I’ll skin you.”
Braxton Smalls, Bloody Cruel Monster
A smile lifts my lips.
“What makes you think I wouldn’t be into that?” I ask.
And Clover is his match in every way. She is a raging badass. Brax scares her (as he should) but she’s so fucking stubborn that she won’t back down from anything he has to dish out. She believes he’s like every other man on the planet who can be easily manipulated but Brax doesn’t care about the same things normies do so that doesn’t quite work out. On the flipside of that coin, Brax thinks that Clover is this quiet mouse of a girl that he’ll be able to break in no time flat, which backfires spectacularly.
“The Undead aren’t nearly as cruel as the living, and he’ll be coming soon.” I know my man. He’ll always come.”
Clover La Roux, Bloody Cruel Monster
The sexual tension and unbridled rage flowing between these two characters is explosive and I am here for every second of it. Both think they can maintain the upper hand in their little deal and both quickly realize that they haven’t got a grasp on shit. The live wire constantly crackling between them is the only thing running the show, consequences be damned.
“I love him too much to hate him now.”
Clover La Roux, Bloody Cruel Monster
This pair of books also has the continued thriller storyline that runs through the series and I’m just telling you, you’re going to LOVE how it all pans out. I loved the ending of this so much that I went back and re-read the pair of books right away. Brax and Clover are epic together. As with Abel’s book, I wish Brax’s story had been longer but Lucy Smoke packs a TON of action into this duet within the series. No slow parts. Only full throttle the whole way through. Dark, twisted, and delicious! This man will live rent-free in my head until the day I die.
Morally Black Alphahole Antihero MMC
Unhinged FMC
BDSM Elements (Sadist Dom X Sub Dynamic)
Obsession
Over the Top Jealous / Possessive
Touch Her and 💀
Forced Proximity
Captor X Captive
Rich Guys X Poor Girl
Luc Kincaid and MiKayla ‘Micki’ Michaels
An unexpected and madly intense love story with all the subtly of a raging volcano.
Prepare your tissue boxes, people. Through the Sick Boys series, you keep meeting Luc Kincaid. First as an enemy, then as a sorta kinda ally, and finally as an adopted member of the circle. You see his character change enough over the series that you just know he’s leading up to something big. With this final installment in the series, we see that the corners of Luc’s mind are a lot darker than one would think up this point.
“If she knew the thoughts in the back of my mind, she’d run so fucking hard and fast. She’d never come back. So, I keep them buried deep inside. I tamp them down when what I’d really like to do is lock her up. Tie her down, break her legs, make it so she can’t leave ever again.”
Luc on Micki, Vengeful Rotten Casualties
Throughout the series, you meet Micki too, though in name only. Riley spends a little over half the series searching for Avalon’s mysterious friend who vanished. This final Sick Boys novel is where all those little details come together and you finally figure out what the fuck is up with Micki.
“A wrathful queen hell-bent on revenge. Cold. Callous. Beautiful.”
Luc on Micki, Vengeful Rotten Casualties
With this couple, we have a case of childhood sweethearts who were ripped apart in the most fucked up way imaginable. Like, seriously. When she finally turns up and you see all of her puzzle pieces fall into place, dude…. When we meet her, she’s utterly consumed by a quest for revenge. It fuels her every decision and her vengeance is earned. It’s deserved. So you’re rooting for her the whole time. Have those tissues ready.
“It’s a kiss that tastes like coming home.”
Micki, Vengeful Rotten Casualties
And the ending??? OMG, the ending of this one is an atomic bomb delivered via a surgical strike directly to feels. It’s intense and heartbreaking and fully tips into madness. This one goes DARK before they finally find their ridiculously sweet HEA. I loved every brutal second of it.
“He deserves your wrath, pretty girl. Let’s make it fucking hurt.”
Luc, Vengeful Rotten Casualties
Vengeful Rotten Casualties was a fantastic and satisfying ending to the series. I had no idea I was going to love Luc as the MMC so much but dayum. Luc Kincaid can GIT IT. These two have a tragic backstory but their chemistry is off-the-charts hot. I had to put this one down a few times to collect my emotional shit because I couldn’t read through the crying jags.
Alphahole Antihero MMC
Unhinged Badass FMC
Obsession
Over the Top Jealous / Possessive
Touch Her and 💀
Second Chance Romance
Childhood Sweethearts
Secret Society
LUCY SMOKE, also known as Lucinda Dark for her fantasy works, has a master’s degree in English and is a self-proclaimed creative chihuahua. She enjoys feeding her wanderlust, cover addiction, as well as her face, and truly hopes people will stop giving her bath bombs as gifts. Bath’s get cold too fast and it’s just not as wonderful as the commercials make it out to be when the tub isn’t a jacuzzi.
When she’s not on a never-ending quest to find the perfect milkshake, she lives and works in the southern United States with her beloved fur-baby, Hiro, and her family and friends.
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