Corrupt - Penelope Douglas

Erika

I was told that dreams were our heart’s desires. My nightmares, however, became my obsession.

His name is Michael Crist.

My boyfriend’s older brother is like that scary movie that you peek through your hand to watch. He is handsome, strong, and completely terrifying. The star of his college’s basketball team and now gone pro, he’s more concerned with the dirt on his shoe than me.

But I noticed him.

I saw him. I heard him. The things that he did, and the deeds that he hid…For years, I bit my nails, unable to look away.

Now, I’ve graduated high school and moved on to college, but I haven’t stopped watching Michael. He’s bad, and the dirt I’ve seen isn’t content to stay in my head anymore.

Because he’s finally noticed me.

Michael

Her name is Erika Fane, but everyone calls her Rika.

My brother’s girlfriend grew up hanging around my house and is always at our dinner table. She looks down when I enter a room and stills when I am close. I can always feel the fear rolling off of her, and while I haven’t had her body, I know that I have her mind. That’s all I really want anyway.

Until my brother leaves for the military, and I find Rika alone at college.

In my city.

Unprotected.

The opportunity is too good to be true as well as the timing. Because you see, three years ago she put a few of my high school friends in prison, and now they’re out.

We’ve waited. We’ve been patient. And now every last one of her nightmares will come true.

Corrupt is the first installment on the Devil's Night Series by author Penelope Douglas. It is a dark, new adult romance published in 2015. It is told in alternating POVs and can be read as a standalone, with no cliffhanger. Basically, this is the beginning of the story for a group of miscreants. It follows the story of Michael and Rika. She was intended for his brother. He was an asshole. There was a misunderstanding. Revenge. And so on...

Now... regarding the plot, overall it was a little unrealistic that a misunderstanding could go so far. I mean, communication zero. Supposedly, Michael's three best friends go to jail because of something Erika did on Devil's Night. What is Devil's Night? you might ask. Well, it's a tradition that takes place a couple of nights before Halloween, established by these four, hot, entitled, rich boys, during which they have all sorts of dark fun, not always legal and yet not always wrong? They sort of like taking justice in their own hands. Anyways, Michael leaves town and the whole time his friends are in jail, the Four Horsemen (yes, that's the name they were called in school), plot their revenge against Erika. All the while, she's completely oblivious as to why they hate her that much. 

There's also the fact that she can no longer stand Michael's overbearing and controlling brother: she wants to break free of all influence. Cue her departure to the same city Michael is currently inhabiting. A whole lot of interaction later, Michael can't figure out if he hates her as much as he wants her, and his friends start getting impatient with him. There's a thing with a friend and a crime with a bro. Plot twist and heartbreak later, the happy ending of this part of the story.

Here's the thing, the story was crazy engaging, the sex was crazy hot, and there were a bunch of scenes that had me uncomfortable. See the thing about uncomfortable books is... they make you feel too much, and think too much. The what-ifs are a mindfuck. This book had all that, so why did I give it three point eight inconspicuous stars? I didn't much like the main characters. Neither Rika nor Michael really changed from the course of events: he seamed immature and she seemed... unfeeling, too forgiving? I don't know. This book kept me all night, though. It set the pace for a grander story and the relationships among all characters had a spark to them that I utterly enjoyed.