THE BULLY (Calamity Montana #4) by WILLA NASH (Devney Perry)

‘The walls we’d built as shields were so thick that it was hard to see where mine ended and his began.’

The Bully by Willa Nash (Devney Perry) is the first book we have read in the Calamity Montana series. We know…. we know, we should have started from the beginning and yes, we are normally sticklers for reading in order, despite being a series of standalones. However, we were in a huge book funk, so we went for it. The wonderful thing that has come out of this is that we loved The Bully and it completely stood on its own, we met some great characters and, we’ve now got three books in this series to add to our kindles. It is a win-win!

‘If Nellie deemed me unworthy, it would destroy me.’

The Bully is about the complex and slightly toxic ‘relationship’ -spanning years- between Nellie Rivera and Cal Stark. We say toxic but really that is just the top layer of their connection. It is a fabulous mix of enemies to lovers and small-town romance. This Author sure knows how to write character tension. That dramatic push-pull attraction we all know and love. Our affection for Nellie and Cal was akin to a game of table tennis. One second, we were on Nellie’s side, the next on Cal’s. That is until that moment of revelation when we realised that we loved and understood them both respectively.

‘He was tangled in my heart. And it was only a matter of time before he’d break it.’

We loved how we jumped into the high school past of Cal and Nellie through diary entries. It gave us a perspective of the how and why’s of this intense chemistry that spurred on an almost hostile relationship that had fiery passionate consequences. Can anyone say, “enemies with benefits?!” There were moments when Cal’s story broke our hearts…“Tell me what you hate about me.” So heart-breaking what spurred on these questions. We felt that the strength of character rested with Nellie. She was a fighter, her battles from her teenage years shaping her relationships as an adult. It’s all about perspective and interpretation. Not everything is as it seems, and there are always two sides to every story, somewhere in which lies the actual truth.

“What are you afraid of?”
“I’ll ruin her.”

When you pick up a book penned by Devney Perry, you know what you’re going to get. Character depth, angst, swoon, passion, and heat, as well as that heart-warming small-town feeling. Every moment we spent in Calamity was pretty wonderful. A special mention must go to Harry, we all need a Harry in our lives!

‘He looked at peace, his face relaxed…He looked like a man who’d needed to sleep for a decade but had been waiting to find the right place to rest and had finally found it in my bed.’