Bred by Ginger Scott

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Title: Bred
Author: Ginger Scott
Published by: Indie
Release Date: May 10, 2019
Format: eARC
Pages: 309
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Coming of Age
Source: Wordsmith Publicity
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2019 New Release Challenge, Lenoreo's 2019 Retellings Reading Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon
My rating:

Blurb:

A coming-of-age romance inspired by Great Expectations

My life was irrevocably changed the moment I stepped foot inside Elena Alderman’s grand front doors. A lifeless tomb on the edge of Chicago’s Southside, the Alderman home sat in one of the city’s oldest and wealthiest neighborhoods, and Elena Alderman was the queen.

She was also mad.

Not the kind of madness that’s readily apparent. No, her psychopathy was far more surgical—more…insidious. She was surrounded by beautiful things—most notably her grand piano and her adopted son, Henry.

I fell in love with both.

My gift blossomed when my fingers touched her black and white keys. But my life began when I became haunted by the boy. Henry Alderman was a handsome blend of arrogance and seduction, and as we grew up together, I found it more and more impossible to separate him from my thoughts. I envied his life. I imagined how my name—Lily—would look with his. I became his closest friend…and more. I gave him my kiss, locked away his secrets, and loved him even when it was hard to.

But we were just a game. Elena Alderman made the rules. And when she decided to change them, she broke everything.

Almost.

My Review:

I received a free copy through Wordsmith Publicity in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.

3 stars — If you already know Ms. Scott’s writing, and you loved her Waiting on the Sidelines series, then I think you will love this one as well.  Unfortunately that’s not my fave of Ms. Scott’s work, and I found myself struggling with similar things in this story.

Lily feels like a bit of a doormat, and really just a foil for Henry…which is odd since we don’t get Henry’s POV AT ALL.  And while that is not uncommon, I felt like I would have appreciated the nuances of Henry’s character if I’d been able to take a peek inside his head.  Now perhaps the mystery was supposed to be maintained, but since Henry’s not exactly a great guy, it makes it hard to fall in love with him.  Like, on the surface I understood that he was all damaged and broken because of Elena’s machinations, and I get that I was supposed to have empathy for him…but I only ever had shallow/surface empathy for him.  I saw small glimpses of something good in him, but it wasn’t nearly enough to make up for the coldness.  I also didn’t understand what Lily fell in love with.  It felt kind of surface as well, though I suppose it was more of a crush.  Basically I just wasn’t invested in their story and the growth of them both as individuals or together and just all that stuff that is important to me in a story.

Basically this was very much a case of not being a good match for me.  I really enjoy Ms. Scott’s writing, and it shines in this book as well.  But I need to love the characters, and I just didn’t.  Well at least not the main characters.  I loved a whole schwakload of the secondary characters.  Caleb was a surprise and so delightful.  I loved that Lily had solid girlfriends in her corner, and that they were all so different and unexpected.  And I really loved Collin as well!  Even Ms. Manning was an interesting character in her own right.

But Lily and Henry?  I remained reserved.  Other than Lily feeling a bit doormat-ish, I also just didn’t really know who she was.  She felt kind of one-dimensional to me.  But perhaps I was just missing something?

I have not read Great Expectations, and I have no desire to.  Part of that is my lack of interest in Classics, and part of that is my lack of interest in reading about badly behaving characters.  *shrugs*  That really should have been a good indicator that this retelling would probably not be a Lenore book, but I guess I just didn’t really think that through.  I wholeheartedly believe that this book is going to be a hit with many readers, it just wasn’t for me.