high school bully romance – Eileen Troemel

Avery Moore and I connected through a mutual friend. I learned about a new genre with her interview!

Author Bio

Avery Moore is author of dark romances featuring angsty heroes, bad boys, and delicious reverse harems. Always a happy ever after!

Tell us about yourself.

So, I’m Avery! I like to think I’m a bit of a rebel princess. Like, I want a guy to hold a door open for me but smack me on the ass too?

When did you know you wanted to be an author?

I was writing stories as a tiny little kid but really I never dreamed that being an author was possible for me until much later.

What genres do you like to read? Are these the same genres you write in?

I obviously adore romance, and all kinds really. I can enjoy a sweet romance but if I had to choose, I’d say I prefer the more steamy read. And away from romance I like a good women’s fiction book, if that’s what they’re called. Authors like Jodi Picoult and Anita Shreve.

Is your book for adults, young adults or children?

It’s a dark romance, definitely for adults

What is your current release or project?

So Mercy is the first book in the Kings of Cambridge series. It’s a high school bully romance reverse harem, meaning the main character Leah has several love interests and doesn’t have to choose between them. She does, however, have to overcome some pretty tough things to get to the point of having her harem of adoring men!

Tell us about the key characters

Leah is spunky, fierce and tougher than people imagine. She’s been through a whole world of pain and it would be easy to imagine she’s given up – but she’s not going down without a fight!

What is your blurb or synopsis of the book?

I didn’t choose this.

But here I am: at Cambridge Prep.

Surrounded by rich, entitled brats who all bow down to the three boys they call the Kings of Cambridge.

Three boys so devastatingly handsome, but oh so cruel.

Ace, Hunter and Ricardo.

The boy who broke my heart three years ago, and his two best friends.

Ace summoned me so that they could toy with me, and then…

… destroy me.

But they underestimated me.

I may be broken, but I’m not ready to fall apart.

I’ve survived worse.

Years ago, he told me he was the King.

He called me Queen.

And I’m ready to claim my throne.

Share an excerpt

I raised an eyebrow. I’d only had that one cup of coffee and did not have the bandwidth for this chick’s energy. “You need to turn it down a notch. I’m not late.”

She rolled her eyes and fell into step by my side. “Cambridge Prep is preparing us for greatness. And great people arrive early.”

“Are you for real?” I asked at the same moment as she burst into a snicker. Up close, I saw that her face was covered in freckles and her green eyes were full of mischief. Her skirt was also way shorter than the uniform code specified. She could grow on me.

She held a hand out and I spotted a tiny tattoo on the side of her index finger. She saw my eyes and pulled her hand away, lay her finger across her top lip. The tattoo was a tiny moustache.

“That joke’s going to get old fast,” I said, then shut my mouth. “I’m sorry. That was rude.”

“Rude… but true,” she shrugged. “But it’s fucking hilarious for now. Anyway, I’m Ri.”

“Leah,” I mumbled. Moustache-tattoo-girl seemed nice – actually she seemed hella cool in a rebel way – but I wasn’t ready to drop my guard right away. “So, you hang around the bridge waiting for fresh meat often?”

“You’re kidding?” Ri asked with a smirk. “Cambridge Prep doesn’t take transfers once the year’s started. You’re like, a total celebrity already. I figured I’d come and check you out.”

“Well, here I am, you’ve checked me out.”

“Feisty, aren’t you?” Ri said, then she put the moustache tattoo across her top lip and took on the accent of an upper-class Brit. “We’ll sure beat that out of you, Miss Grouchy Pants!”

“How old are you?” I asked with an eye roll, but I had to admit the girl had a knack for accents.

“Old enough to know better,” she grinned. “And 18, if that was a serious question. We’re in the same House, by the way.”

I nodded. It was too early to know whether that was good news or not. But she’d turned up to greet me, which was more than anyone else had bothered to do. She seemed like my best shot at making a new friend. Lord knows I need all the help I can get with that.

“So, what do I need to know about this place?” I asked. If she was here to check me out, I might as well scope her for information too.

“Oh, nothing,” she spun a strand of hair through her fingers as she spoke.

“You’re blushing.”

“I am?” Ri gave a giggle. “Peril of being a redhead. So, you’re a Cali girl, what else do I need to know?”

I narrowed my eyes but batted away the concern. “There’s really nothing to know about me. I’m as dull as people come.”

“Hmm,” Ri pondered. “That’s not true.”

“I appreciate the compliment but you don’t even…”

“It’s not a compliment. I told you, Cambridge Prep doesn’t take students once the years’s started. If they’ve made an exception for you, you must be a big deal.”

“I’m not.”

“Well, your parents then?”

The plural in her question was like a dagger to my heart. So many kids my age took it for granted, having two parents who loved them enough to stick around for them.

“No,” I snapped.

“Fine, be like that,” she said with a huff as we approached the main building. We climbed the imposing steps together, but she’d put a little more distance between us.

“I’m not being difficult,” I said. I didn’t want to walk through those doors, into this whole new world, having made an enemy instead of a friend. “It’s just… parents are a bit of a touchy subject for me.”

Her eyes widened.

“My dad came here for a job, and my mom… she isn’t around.”

“Is she in jail?” Ri asked with a devilish grin. It was the strangest thing. Nobody was allowed to talk about my mom. I kept my memories of her private and spent time with them, tending to them like a garden. I should have lost my shit, but the question was so ridiculous, so unexpected, I laughed. I laughed and laughed and laughed until the bell rang out.

“Shit,” Ri interrupted her own laughter. “Now we’re late. Come on, we’ll say you got lost and I rescued you. Deal?”

She held out her pinkie and for a second I thought maybe things were going to be okay after all.

“Deal,” I wrapped my pinkie around hers and then we burst through the doors.

Straight into him.

Do you have a favorite scene?

Ah, now that would be telling… 😉

What advice would you give a beginner?

If you want to write, write. Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do it, or that the genre you love to read or write isn’t literary enough.

Social media links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/averymooreauthor/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/averymooreauthor/

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