Rebel at Spruce High

A Spruce Texas Romance, Book 5

De: Daryl Banner

Narrado por: Chris Chambers, Cooper North

Vann, the gorgeous, leather-jacket-clad new bad boy in school, just set his eyes on me.

I'm not really good at making friends. That's simply a fact. I'm happy enough if I can just get through the school day, avoid eye contact with anything that breathes, and make it home where my family can continue ignoring my existence and I can play video games in peace.

But then he crashes into my life like a tidal wave. The hot new senior at Spruce High. The bad boy everyone can't stop talking about. The one with the leather jacket, smoldering eyes, and cloud of danger following him. The one called Vann.

My whole life changes overnight. Now, I want different things. I want an end to my lonesomeness. I want to stand up to the jocks who keep pushing me around.

But most importantly, I want to know what Vann's lips taste like. And why he looks pained every time his dark eyes catch mine in class. And why he keeps paying attention to me when the rest of the town doesn't. And why every time I open my mouth to speak, my racing heart chokes me.

I don't know what's coming for me in my last year at Spruce High, but I sure hope I'm ready for it.

Contains mature themes.

©2020 Daryl Banner (P)2021 Tantor

It happens before

Daryl is a master and this audiobook brings the story to life. This is truly a love story.

One of the things I like about this one is how the author takes his time with character development without being boring. There are times though where I find myself saying “get on with it.“

Enter the MCs, one a perceived bad boy, the other a victim of bullying and totally unsure of himself. I find myself at times losing patience with them but it adds to the conflict and helps propel the story forward.

For me, as much of a spoiler as this might be, is the appeal of hearing those three words before sex and it actually happens here. The MCs are together quite awhile before it moves beyond the make out sessions.

If you’re a beginner in the MM Romance genre, I highly recommend the Spruce Texas series, of which I think this one is the best. Sometimes I find myself laughing out loud, at others shedding a tear.

Rebel at at Spruce High

Very powerful love story! I couldnt put it down. The characters were well developed and the plot t

Love this whole series!

I'm telling you if you want feel good, funny, sometimes angsty, dramatic, sweet, charming. this book and the previous ones has it all and then some! So romantic and heartwarming. Honest and yet fanciful.

The good and the bad

Great story about Spruce, Texas. The performer who voiced Toby to life is great. The same cannot be said for the performer who voiced Van - pedantic and breathy are the kindest adjectives I can write. Despite that, it was great to visit Spruce again and I look forward to more from Daryl.

Another great read in the Spruce series

I am a BIG fan of the while series. the characters are so well rounded and, being from Mississippi in the south, i know these people haha.

This book in particular had a more sentimental, emotional feel. maybe it was my reader response, but these characters seemed to bring out real relationship feelings, trials, and emotional depth I really responded to. The steadier scence here were more tame and less explicit, but that added to the tenderness and vunerability the book had as a theme.

As usual, Banner transported me to that small town in Texas, references people I cared about from previous books, made me want a burger form Biggies and to see if that Country Lovin crepe is all it is hyped up to be, and overall made me feel like a member of this small, albeit progressive, southern town. cannot wait for the next book in the series.

Come for the love story, stay for the fluff

I saw a few reviews that said this book wasn't to par with the other in the series and it wasn't as spicy. I will agree on the spicy but it makes sense since the story is about two 18 yr olds. Their love can be more simple and less smutty and that's ok. I loved how they developed and enjoyed the time jumps instead of everything happening in 3 weeks.

fitting high school story

it's amazing how Daryl Banner can bring back high school memories. He's a great storyteller. He has a fantasy world that I really truly wish existed. I love how he brings past characters from other books into his newer books so characters and community still grow.

The BEST, yet SO, SO MUCH MORE… 🤩🤩🤩‼️

The BEST, yet SO, SO MUCH MORE… 🤩🤩🤩‼️ I’m NOT sure that I can adequately RAVE about this book/audiobook enough. The 5️⃣th in the series I was worried after the last that I was growing tired of the format, even though I 🥰🥰🥰 the town, the returning main and supporting characters from the previous iterations.
Though wonderful, the repeated neuroses of one of the two characters grew stale for me in the last 📕. The romance was there and the other half of the couples’ arc was great, but I wanted to slap the sh*t out of the other one and though the more focused high school setting was a nice change this time around I felt like this “wash, rinse, repeat” was happening all over again especially when the main obligatory “wrench” was interjected into the story.
But then it happened. There were more and more and more completely unexpected surprises that kept happening, not just for the main protagonists/lovebirds, but with many of the this books’ side characters AND the couples from EACH of the first 4️⃣ installments.
In the end, the very end AND in the epilogue, it just couldn’t have been better, then better and better once again.
From the first book, “Football Sundae”, Spruce, Texas and its inhabitants (both on the printed page and in their narrated, audiobook form) are imprinted on my soul next to Armistead Maupin’s, “Tales of the City” series as well as Casey Morales’, autobiographical “Raised By Wolves” series….
👏👏👏‼️

Beautiful But Baffling Trigger Warnings Needed

Right, the thing is, I like Daryl Banner’s storytelling and character creation in the Spruce series. His choices are his right to make as the author. As the listener reader I only have expectations, and this intense and relatable set-up left me wondering what happened to the positive sexuality which I’m used to in the series. I see that others say that the sex was naturally less intense because the MCs are both 18. Pardon me, but what? As a former teenager all I can say is that my hormones were in overdrive, trying new things was mind-blowing and even simple acts were intensely hot. It didn’t exactly read this way in this book.

So, quick note about the sex scenes or lack of heat: I agree this wasn’t as erotic as most of the other Spruce stories.
It had plenty of tension, buildup, longing, willfulness and some very intimate moments, as well as some really disturbing things which nobody appears to want to mention in reviews yet. Here goes—

TRIGGER WARNING: This book includes a sexual assault.
It’s not reported, It’s not identified as assault by anyone. The implied time period was one in which people knew what assault was. I don’t understand the response (or lack of it) by the one assaulted, even if it’s a turning point for another character. When I say assault, I mean it. There is a buildup of other physical abuses and verbal harassment by the same character.

There is a whole lot to recommend this book. I sometimes come back to it having forgotten the assault, almost as if I expect the book to be different the next time. I just don’t know what to say about that, except that how it played out left me with a feeling of underlying wrongness and distrust of anything to do with the aggressor. I really don’t understand the choice to allow the aggressor more lenience, benefit of the doubt and compassion than the other romantic lead got for what I feel are more justified and less offensive acts.

I enjoyed many aspects of the book, truly. Some of the ‘getting to know each other’ scenes between the main characters were incredibly strong, so strong that I see echoes of them in real life and feel enriched for having read them all over again.

Forgiveness is important throughout life, not just in the pages of a book. Fiction can shape how much weight we give to things, how we identify them and how we respond to them, though. I can read this as an adult and name assault for what it is. I wish it had been addressed as such, had been named, not in a soap box way, but some way that acknowledges what kind of wrong was done. I didn’t write the book, it’s not my choice to make.

So, yeah. Trigger warnings for bullying, sexual assault and probably other things I’ve blanked out.

Is it weird to say that there wasn’t much smut and then warn about unwanted sexual contact? I don’t know.

What is probably weird is that I always remember this book when I think of Daryl Banner and his skill, even if the work left me queasy about one unresolved, important topic.

Mine is only one opinion. It seemed like that trigger ought to be brought up, even if it might not look like a big deal to others.

What just happened!?!

I Loved the job the narrators did trying to bring this story to life. I enjoyed other books in this series but, this ONE was so long and drawn out. Hot attraction between the main characters but, it never really got HOT.. the sexy scenes were so dull. I did finish and liked some of the plot but, idk how to explain what was wrong. I'm not sure it's worth the credit or your time to listen. 🤷🤦 The Best part of the Whole story is the Epilogue.