This is a pretty typical high school bully, reverse harem romance but the FMC is blind even though she doesn't act like it half the time. I will say I was hooked at the beginning of this book and the initial meeting between Fergie and Cassius. I was like whaaaaatttt??? From there it kind of took a step back, which was fine. I did get a bit annoyed after a while with how all of the boys acted and thought they were OTT especially for high school kids. I know I haven't been in high school in a while but I can't even fathom half of this stuff happening and so I keep reminding myself that it's fiction.

As far as the narrators go, the FMC's narration was done well and was my favorite of the 4. Victor's and Torsten's characters were also done well, but for Cassius, I just didn't care for the cadence of the narrator. The voice was good, but he spoke in sentences that didn't really flow and didn't feel like normal dialogue. The pauses between sentences were slightly too long like he was reading one sentence at a time.

Overall this was an entertaining story but I don't think I'll be reading the rest of the series because it seemed a bit cliche for me and didn't stand out compared to other similar books I have read but it was fun enough to finish.

Thank you Net Galley and Bacchanalia House for access to the ALC in exchange for an honest review

Thank you to the author, the publisher, and NetGallet for providing me with an ALC of this novel!

4.5/5 ⭐️
3/5 🌶️

Fiery, no holds barred FMC ✔️
3 very different, but sexy MMCs ✔️
Dark Academia ✔️
Dark Romance ✔️
WHY CHOOSE ✔️
Disability representation ✔️
Neurodivergent representation ✔️

This has novel has some of my absolute favorite tropes. The story seems silly but I loved the relationship development over the course of the story. I liked the pace at which we learned elements of the FMCs backstory. I hope that they plan to release the remainder of this book series as audiobooks, but if not, I’ll be picking up the ebooks, because I HAVE to know what happens!

This was an excellent spicy dark romance book. Relatable characters and vicious MMC's you love to hate. This book has a secret society and is RH. Be prepared, it does end on a cliffhanger and I cannot wait to read the next book!

This was my first "why choose" book and I'm officially hooked! I really enjoyed this story of the Poison Ivy Club and all the chaos they cause. While this book did take me a little bit to get into to once I did I cold not put it down.

I really enjoyed the character of Fergie and Steffanie Holmes did a fantastic job of describing what life of a blind person is like while also giving Fergie's character so much power! I also enjoyed that all three male main characters personified typical male characters in dark romances: Cassius the brut, Victor the white knight, and Torsten the quiet one. Having all three of these male characters really brought what I love about dark romances together into once book. All three guys interactions with Fergie were so perfectly written for their characters that I just wanted more and more.

I am definitely looking forward to reading more in this series.

I listened to the audiobook and really enjoyed the full cast performance. I hope these narrators continue with this series.

Mafia-style dark romance set at Stonehurst Prep. Reverse Harem. Disability representation and a decent plot to go with your dose of smut.

This is the first of 3 books.

I’ll admit when there was smut within minutes of this near 15 hour audio book I thought “oh no this is going to be all smut no plot” but I was pleasantly surprised! After the first scene, it calms down until about 50% of the way through. The plot is intriguing and there are lots of mysteries that are revealed and a plot twist in there too to keep you hooked.

I particularly loved the neurodivergent character and the interactions/relationships surrounding them.

It was refreshing to have a blind FMC in a romance where we aren’t describing the love interests as the hottest guys you’ve ever seen, but instead on voice, scent and their actions. However, I did wonder if the author had forgotten that our FMC was blind a few times throughout.

I was honestly expecting this to be a bit darker but a lot of the darker themes were more mentioned in passing than in the on page scenes. It would be a good entry to DR. Our FMC does get a little annoying in the second half after being so badass to start with she quickly falls for the MMCs and loses a bit of her spunk.


I did find our FMCs name and reason for it a bit odd, but she goes by a nickname for the majority of the book so it’s easy to forget about.

I think the smut was fairly well done, there wasn’t too much of it and it built up to the “big one”.

You’ll want to have the next book ready to go when you finish this one… that’s all I’ll say on that matter.

The multi-cast audiobook sounded promising however my main issue with it is that each character reads their own chapters but that’s as far as the multicast goes. This would have been so much more effective if each character voiced themselves throughout as I found some of the male narrators imitations of the female characters quite comical and the constant differing voices could be hard to keep up with at times.

Overall, an easy, fun listen. I’ll be picking up the next one.

Thanks to NetGalley and the author for this advanced audiobook copy!

“Poison Ivy,” by Steffanie Holmes

So, I read bully romance and those type of book for a change of pace to fantasy, but I don’t normally have a die for it kind of love for them usually but this book hits different. The first thing was that they main female character is blind which I really liked to read about and pushed my boundaries of what I’ve experienced in books (there was so inconsistencies with it those she mentions she won’t forget Cassius’ stormy face but she’s blind and she can’t see it?) I liked that the story kicks off at the end of chapter one, really just jumped right into it. I liked the complication that they are step siblings, and the mafia type characters throughout the story. I love reverse harems and the tension between the three boys with being attracted to her and they don’t want to share was interesting. Last of all, I adore Torstan so much! I feel so bad for him, and he deserves the entire world. The ending really threw me in a head spin because now I have to absolutely read the next book in the series. 5 out of 5 stars.

-Blind FMC
-Bully Romance
-Reverse Harem
-Step Siblings
-BDSM

Thank you for the ARC, Netgalley.

This book is not for the weak but it's also not super dark seeing as it involves 18 and 19 year olds. It goes from 0 to 100 pretty quickly, but then it calms down for a while until about halfway through the book. It's a RH and kind of reminds me of the F4 boys from Boys Over Flowers, but a lot darker and only 3 boys. Definitely stay away if that does not appeal to you or sound like something that you would be interested in.

This book got old after a while, and seemed to just follow the same old thing in every bully romance that I've tried to read. No one knows how to communicate, and the only way that they do it is my staking claims and bullying the object of their affection.

Fergie was a great FMC at first. She is blind and was not afraid to give people hell if they treated her wrong, but was also afraid to open herself up to friendships because of something that had happened to her. However, in the second half of the book, she became pretty bland and started lacking the personality that she had in the first half of the book. There were also times where Fergie talked about things as if she wasn't actually blind. It threw me off several times.

I also want to note that there is a weird scene that involves both a brother and sister, not with the same person but they are both there, but it almost made me DNF. Fortunately, I got the audiobook ARC, so I just zoned out until it was over.

Everybody just really needs therapy.

🎧 ALC - Advanced Listener Copy | NetGalley

📢 Narrated by: Angelina Rocca, Myles Washington, Nelson Hobbs & Aaron Shedlock (Duet narration)

The jock, the artist, and the stepbrother.
Meet the Poison Ivy Club.

I got really hooked in the first chapters narrated by the female lead—her casting was spot-on, which is a big plus since she narrates most of the book. I also particularly enjoyed Victor's narration and will definitely be looking for more audiobooks featuring him. Great performance! Unfortunately, the other narrators didn’t quite match the tone or flow that the story required, which made it harder to stay fully engaged, and I found myself disconnecting from the book.

The writing overall was okay, though there were some scenes that felt a bit out of place. Despite that, I still found the book enjoyable!

🎧 3.5
🌶️ 3

Thank you NetGalley for this audiobook ARC.

This is a dark romance reverse Harem.

The FMC Fergie is a girl with a secret, after her single father elopes, she moves to a new town and starting at Stonehurst Prep.

Soon she meets her new step-brother Cassius, a very dark and twisted guy and his friends Victor and Torsten. All of them are members of this elusive and powerful Poison Ivy club who seems to rule the school.

Victor is sweet and the King of this club, while Torsten doesn't speak and constantly draws in his notebook.

This book is full of dark secrets and mysteries. It ends on a cliffhanger as it book 1 in a trilogy.

I’m not sure that this audiobook was for me. I was intrigued by the dark academia reverse harem vibes but this book is definitely in its own category. Overall the concept was interesting but it fell flat for me. I also did not like the narrator who was Cass. His accent just did not go with what I imagined Cass
would sound like.

⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶️🌶️🌶️

🖤Bully Romance
🎓Why Choose
🖤Step Brother
🎓Secret Society
🖤Spice

Well that was an interesting book. I went in blind. And was shocked but the majority of what I read. There were some inconsistencies in the story that were noticeable. I also found the constant reminder that one of the MMC was her Step-Brother, too much.
The toxicity is exactly what you want in a good bully romance and I found those parts good. The spice scenes were very good. The secret society part was really good as well. I loved that each MMC had a completely different personality from each other. Overall if you love why choose, bully and the step brother trope you will enjoy Poison Ivy.


I had the ALC.
The female narrator did a phenomenal job but I’m a little biased since I follow her on all her socials. The MMC Cassius was the one that I found the least chemistry with but he did a good job.

I was so excited to get this ALC FROM NETGALLEY
Thank you to the publisher and the author for this masterpiece!

THIS WAS SO GOOD THESE NARRATORS REALLY PUT THEIR ALL INTO THIS STORY AND I LOVED IT.

I swear I can listen to Angelina Rocco read a phone book and be just as happy!

Narrated by Angelina Rocca, Myles Washington, Nelson Hobbs, Aaron Shedlock

First off, a blind FMC that’s badass, I love it!
This book was bomb! It was so good and I’m totally jumping in to the next book straight away.
It has mystery, hot and obsessed MMCs, hot spice and an interesting story.
If you like a bully romance you’ll like this.
I listen to the audiobook and really liked the narrators. They did a great job.

I tried and tried and TRIED more to give this one a fair shot. But no I’m sorry this is not for me. This was straight up “corn.” Nothing wrong with that, but that’s just not what I’m looking for in a good story. This literally started with a straight up sex scene. I’ve read other smut books before but none of them have ever just started with that right off the bat! I had to double check the audiobook to make sure I accidentally didn’t jump a few chapters, but nope it was the veryyyy beginning of the story! I was shocked!

If that’s what you’re looking for then this is for you! I don’t mind smut or spice, but I need a plot line along with those things but there didn’t seem to be an actual storyline or plot to this story at least not to me!

Fergie moves into her father’s house with her stepmom and her stepbrother. This is exactly how the story starts and then she has sex with her stepbrother. Nope. Sorry. This is just nope too much and not for me. I really really reallyyyyy wish instead of being categorized as “dark romance,” there was another level of that genre to differentiate between actual dark romance and erotica/corn like this book. I thought this was going to be like The Ritual but it wasn’t like that for me. This will probably be the last “dark romance” book I ever try to get from Netgalley because I would like to be able to know up front what I am getting into, not for TW reasons just because I don’t want to waste my time on erotica when I was hoping to read an actual story.

2 ☆
-
Yeah, I'm not the target audience for this story. Because what person in their right mind would screw a random stranger they don't know that randomly sneaks into their room? And oh, the main female character is blind! Really not believable and not for me.
The female narrator's voice fitted the female character, and I love the male voice. I could listen to him forever. If I'm judging or rating the audiobook based just on the voices and not the storyline, it would be 3.5 stars. Because I enjoy the narrators' voices, but the storyline is a no for me.
-
Thank you, Netgalley, and Bacchanalia for the audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

Im not sure what to rate this...I unfortunately had to dnf, I couldn't get into the story not even a little bit, which saddened me because I was intrigued by the description. I will probably try to read it at a later date instead of listening to the audio, because I don't think its doing the book any justice.

Fergie, our MFC, is blind but takes no shit. I will say there were some inconsistencies with her being blind but at times able to see more than what her condition should allow. A mysterious “incident” has occurred that has caused her and her father to move in with his new wife and her son who are upper class with connections. Fergie’s starting the semester with her brother at an elite school and she’s got her eyes set on an Ivy League and will do anything she can to get in.
Enter in Cassius, her new stepbrother and a leader of the poison ivy club at their elite school. This club is violent and morally black and they control who gets into the ivy leagues, but they don’t help out of the kindness of their hearts. No their help comes at a price and it’s always a heavy one. Part of this club is Thorsten and Victor, Cassius’ best friends and they’ve all got their eye on Fergie. When Fergie’s offered a deal to help her get into the Ivy of her dreams, she agrees. Her price? She belongs to the boys of the Poison Ivy club.

My first book by this author and now I want to read more of her works. Check your TWs. A reverse harem bully romance. And the bullying was aggressive, not just towards fergie but towards other students as well. This immediately jumps in from the first chapter with Fergie and Cassius’ first meeting. That was unexpected and really set the pace for the rest of the story and it did not slow down at any point. Told from multiple POVs, with a cliffhanger ending, I ate this up in one sitting! If you like elite school bully romances, this is for you.

This book came out strong and didn’t hold back! It has all the elements you’d expect from a dark, why-choose, bully romance. While I enjoyed the narration overall, there were moments when it felt a bit flat. An interesting fact I discovered is that, like the heroine, the author is also legally blind, which adds a unique and personal touch to the story.

I want to thank NetGalley for this audiobook in exchange for my honest review as well as the author for this free copy.

I really wanted to love this but had to DNF.
The female narrator was a bit bland but I was willing to push through that until I got to the male narrator. He has a good voice but it's the way he's ending every sentence I think that's putting me off.
It's still a book I really want to read so I will get this on kindle but I think the audio book needs a redo.

The narration is AWFUL. The spice came on WAY too fast. The spicy scenes read like terrible p0rn. No time is spent developing the characters at all. I couldn’t finish this at all. I managed about 20%. It’s alright if you just want smut.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to review.