Good Girls Never Rise

I'm not usually a fan of high school, but SJ Sylvis has done a great job. This is my first book by SJ Sylvis and I enjoyed her writing style.

Gemma and Isiah are beautiful. Gemma is this sheltered girl who just wants to be free from her past, and Isiah has immense pressure on him and wants to be free of his future.

The character progression of Gemma is amazing. As she's free from her uncle, she's able to be herself. She's able to be a normal teenager and enhance her love for art. The friendships she builds while at St Mary's is amazing, and they supportive of her as she learns so many new things. Being sheltered kept her from knowing about normal teenage things, so it's a whole new world.

Isiah is an interesting character and I saw that broken boy for what he was....afraid. Afraid of love, of giving himself to someone and have them be broken. He doesn't want Gemma to be brought into the life that he is destined for. He's determined to keep his distance...but he needs her. He's on probation and she needs to be his cover. So he strikes up a deal...but he cannot resist the Good Girl. Isiah may be “alpha” type, but he isn't there to control Gemma... He loves watching her thrive and become herself. He is there to bring her up and watch her rise.

All in all, this book was great! The cliffhanger has me on edge and I can't wait to dive into the next one to finish and figure out what's going on with Isiah! It is super slow burn, which I wasn't fully expecting. I don't typically read reviews before reading a book, so I was surprised at how slow this book was. So keep that in mind if you're looking for something with spice, you won't really find it here. The scenes that are here though, are really good. The Forest scene was