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![Rivalry (Slay Quartet Book 1) by [Laurelin Paige]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41itANKV11L._SY346_.jpg)
Rivalry (Slay Quartet Book 1) Kindle Edition
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Edward Fasbender is a devil.
He’s my father's biggest rival. He takes what he wants, and he bows to no one.
And now Edward Fasbender wants me.
I didn’t expect to want him back.
Having him is not in the cards, not when a union with him would destroy my father. But that doesn’t mean I can’t play with him a bit.
Except, I’ve never played against such a ruthless opponent. Edward is cold and vicious, and my blood has never run hotter. They say you should choose the devil you know, but I've always preferred long odds.
Even if it'll get me slain.
“Oh my. I was hooked. You won’t be able to put this down!” - Aleatha Romig, NYT Bestselling Author
Rivalry is book one in New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author, Laurelin Paige, dark and edgy Slay series.
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateJune 4, 2019
- File size2036 KB
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Edward Fasbender IS the devil. AND. I. LOVE. HIM." - Kimberly, Goodreads reviewer
"Omg, omg, omg, this book is wow. I'm not sure what to say except READ this book." - Amanda Dubuque, Goodreads reviewer
"Edward was delicious as he was decadent. Sexy and refined but a predator looking for the ultimate prey...I can't wait for more! Bravo! 5 stars!" - Ratula, Bookgasms Book Blog
"(A) fascinating start to this new quartet!" - Bianca, BJ's Book Blog
"Laurelin Paige has taken Celia, the woman we love to hate, and given us a killer story. She "Slayed" it. The storyline is genius!" - Michele Ficht, Goodreads reviewer
"OMG I could not look away. This book is mean and kinky, desperate and romantic, and every shameful hunger Celia had right or wrong, pulled me deeper and deeper. I was consumed." - KC Caron, Goodreads reviewer
"Laurelin Paige really delivers her all here for Edward and Celia's story and damn... I'm still speechless." - CerysAnne, Goodreads reviewer
"This is my new obsession!" - Peggy Lee, Goodreads reviewer
"A masterpiece, a genius creation and undoubtedly the best story by Laurelin Paige till date." - PP's Bookshelf, Goodreads reviewer
"The writing was brilliant. The storytelling was perfection. The heat was off the charts. This book will leave your insides in utter chaos. My new OBSESSION IS EDWARD FASBENDER." - Angel, Goodreads reviewer
"This story is absolutely refreshing, dark, twisted and with all the feels. The writing and the plot are both EPIC. The characters are amazing, believable, and likeable, even the ones you love to hate. The storyline was highly engaging and it pulled me in, making me feel emotionally connected as if I was part of their world. I was so hooked, I couldn't put the book down, even though I had the fortune to listen to this extraordinary story a few days before." - Avephoenix, Goodreads reviewer
"This is classic Laurelin Paige...sexy, dirty, mysterious, and all consuming!" - Lauren Lascola-Lesczynski, Goodreads reviewer
"OH Holy COW! What an awesome series this is going to be! Edward is your love/hate kind of character. This will be a one click SERIES! Once you read Book 1... you will be hooked!" - Peggy Copeland, Goodreads reviewer
"Slay: Rivalry was filled with intrigue, mystery, and sexiness, and I've never read anything quite like it before." - Julia - The Romance Bibliophile
"It's amazing. It's dark. It's twisty. It's delicious." - Laura, Goodreads reviewer
"WICKED! POSSESSIVE! PROVOCATIVE! This is the most engaging twisted story." - Lee, Goodreads reviewer
"Forget what you think you know about Celia Werner. Forget what you think you know about this book. Forget what you think you know about Laurelin Paige's writing. Slay had my jaw on the floor. This is Paige at her finest." - Dirty Little Secrets Book Blog
"WOW! WOW!! WOW!!! I LOVE this new offering from a brilliant author who can capture you in a single sentence with her powerful words and captivating characters. Ms. Paige has picked the right title here in more ways than one...she will SLAY you with this story and all its twists, turns, intrigue, and juiciness. You won't know what in the world is going to happen next!" - Chris, Goodreads reviewer
"Celia and Edward's story is completely addicting, full of steaminess, mysterious, and perfect. There is so much to both of these characters and Slay is just the surface of their stories." - Amy, Book Addict Reviews
"Rivalry has an intriguing and unpredictable storyline, a non-typical heroine and hot dominant sex. The frustration and angst continues to the very last pages. Laurelin Paige is like a magican, getting me so focused on Edward and Celia's mind games and bedroom antics, that I missed the twist at the end." - A Book Lover's Emporium Book Blog
"This book is writing perfection!" - Trish Sutherland, Goodreads reviewer
"WHOA!!! HOLY SMOKES. GET READY TO HAVE YOUR EXPECTATIONS BLOWN OUT OF THE WATER." - Cee Cee Houston, Goodreads reviewer
"The storyline was full of so many twists and turns, but it was the characters that really made the story even more amazing...Completely unputdownable!" - BCD Book Review
"My lord, nothing prepared me (or Celia!) for Edward! Forceful, enigmatic, controlled, and a temptation for Celia that she can't resist....Slay is a one sitting, nail biting, heat generating masterpiece, with an ending that left me gasping." - Jacquie CM, Goodreads reviewer
Product details
- ASIN : B07DX6ZLHT
- Publisher : Paige Press LLC (June 4, 2019)
- Publication date : June 4, 2019
- Language : English
- File size : 2036 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 298 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #28,875 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #1,395 in Billionaire Romance
- #2,844 in Romantic Suspense (Kindle Store)
- #2,920 in Romantic Suspense (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

With millions of books sold worldwide, Laurelin Paige is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestselling Author. She is a sucker for a good romance and gets giddy anytime there’s kissing, much to the embarrassment of her three daughters. Her husband doesn’t seem to complain, however. When she isn’t reading or writing sexy stories, she’s probably singing, watching Game of Thrones or Letterkenny, or dreaming of Michael Fassbender. She's also a proud member of Mensa International though she doesn't do anything with the organization except use it as material for her bio. She is represented by Rebecca Friedman.
You can connect with Laurelin on Facebook at www.facebook.com/LaurelinPaige or on Instagram @thereallaurelinpaige. You can also visit her website, www.laurelinpaige.com, to sign up for emails about new releases.
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Top reviews
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Oh. My. Heart.
When Laurelin Paige sets out to write a dark, twisty tale, that is exactly what she does. With extra points for over achievement.
What follows is a game of marks. We've met Celia before. A trust fund baby floating along in life, playing cruel games to amuse herself. Edward Fasbender is British communications icon, and global rival to Celia's father.
Edward arranges a meeting with Celia. She believes he wants her interior design services. He offers marriage. He's after daddy's rival company. For his insolence, Celia is now after revenge.
The story is told only through Celia's POV. It's narrowly focused by design. Paige drops the truth of Celia with her internal dialogue, and the very few, brief encounters she has with other characters. But not Edward. No, with Edward, Celia is all about the game of breaking Edward.
And Edward? He's everything Celia calls him; rude, arrogant, demanding, controlling. Let's not leave out her favorite accusation, a--hole. And he is. But if you pay close attention, you might just see the chinks in Edward's a--holery, but they fly by quickly. Laurelin Paige is tricky that way.
It ends with a jaw dropper. The stakes are dangerously high. And so very real. This is book 1 of of the Slay Quartet. Let the nail biting for book 2 commence!
Is it wrong to feel such glee reading about Celia? THAT Celia Warner?
Slay: Rivalry is the story of Celia, a shrewd wealthy heiress who finds solace in her numbed existence. Instead of intimacy and genuine connection, she tells us, she seeks a sick joy and elation in blackmail and deceit, in destroying the lives and loves of others. She’s been wildly successful, even if she’s met some defeat in the past.
And maybe her game playing life would have continued on without remark, had she not been summoned to meet the devil himself. She’s shaken by her reaction to him, and she instinctively understands he's more than an erotic enticement. Once she meets Edward, a dark prince if ever there was one, Celia’s transformation story beings. But what in the hell will her transformation look like? Celia is like no other.
OMG I could not look away. This book is mean and kinky, desperate and romantic, and every shameful hunger Celia had right or wrong, pulled me deeper and deeper. I was consumed.
To me, this is a dark wicked retelling of Cinderella, with Celia Warner cast as the broken orphan, her Fairy Godmother, and her wicked step sisters all at once. She is her best hope and her worst enemy. The simmering, secretive Edward is the villain, yes, but in this corrupt fairytale, Celia relishes his warped, vicious ways. It's twisted and unputdownable.
Reading Rivarly, it’s easy to be lulled by Celia’s single point of view, as Paige walks us through a spider’s web of set pieces and countermoves, seduction in service of ‘The Game.’ With the trap set, it’s easy to miss the signs that you’ve left Kansas—or the wood-grained safety of New York—and entered Edward’s surreal world. The world where Celia Warner becomes the heroine. Or maybe even the one who needs rescued. It’s hard to tell, this pair is so evenly matched.
About that devil Edward Fassbender—love the name: He is an enigma. Not only for Celia, but for us as well. By all appearances, he’s a classic throwback, a chauvinistic, bossy alpha who prowls the business world for maximum return. He dominates like a bull with no concern for the collateral dominos spilling out around him. He has his tastes though, and he matches Celia temptation by temptation all to avoid unleashing his baser desires.
And here we get to the heart of the matter:
Celia Warner is sooooo human! (Count that among sentences I never thought I’d type.) She’s also led a tragic yet sheltered life. Consequently, she comes over as childlike at times, and operates with an innocence that either delivers or undermines her every scheme. But it’s that real humanness that SLAYS. When we are deep into the book, and Celia realizes she is possibly trying to destroy the one thing that will save her, I wanted to both slap and hug my kindle at once.
That nihilistic opening, where Celia catalogues the void, and details her survival skills, she’s set a trap for us. The stakes were immediately clear to me: I WANT CELIA TO FEEL! She had more armor than a Trojan Horse, and the games were her safe way of feeling at least something. It’s clear we're to believe that Celia’s numbness is marrow deep, but it’s not. The masochim is something else, a cover for the REAL stakes—nothing less than her dragon heart. Sigh, I loved this book.
Celia’s anodyne descriptions of interiors and her history, her offhand references to her schemes and countermoves, demonstrate just how much distance she puts between herself and the world around her. We get it, not much affects her. Until Edward lays his finger tips on her. And then, I felt an internal hemorrhage building within her.
Celia could thaw, simmer and even boil. She was maybe close to succumbing, and I wanted the story to go on and on. I needed to know everything that devil was thinking! It’s a deliberate ploy by Paige, to keep Edward’s real motives and leanings hidden, and it makes every scene between them juicy and climactic.
This is a brilliant story, intentionally internal. Celia talks to herself, she reasons and strategizes and then tells herself stories. On a topsoil level, this may appear repetitive, or overtelling, but that take misses the point. Paige’s narrative flourishes are actually mini-arcs, twisting and twisting, wrenching Celia into a smaller and smaller Universe-of-Edward, that limits her options, raises the stakes and unleashes a torrent of suspense as we reach the climax. Celia is ensnared, and it is exhilarating! By then I was so wrung out myself, I wanted everything for Celia, every last thing. And in many ways, Slay ends where it began, with nothing. And everything.
Celia is an incredible character. Just wow! Thank you Laurelin Paige for spoiling us, so much!
PS I wish I talk about that clever feather on the cover. But at a minimum, it would spoil one of the most debauched set pieces I’ve ever read.
The foundation seems to have been laid pretty well with Slay. Edward Fassbender, who's name appeared in the Fixed series a little, but we knew he was an enemy of Celia's father. When Edward proposes a sham marriage to Celia, she's not interested...until she is. To say Edward is complicated is an understatement, and the common term of him being an onion with layers revealing more each time they're removed, is appropriate. Celia has her complications, as well, so the power dynamic between them interesting. Edward is a self-professed Dom/Sadist, and Celia is used to having the upper hand, so their relationship definitely has it's bumps. The story ends on an interesting cliffhanger, and I'll admit I'm intrigued enough to continue.
Top reviews from other countries

Let’s start from the beginning, we meet Celia Werner, you may be familiar with Celia from the Fixed series of books. Chances are you probably dislike her after reading those books. But let me tell you, I actually really liked her. We get little glimpses of who the real Celia is. And what her true emotions are and let me tell you, she very complex and shut off.
Celia is called to meet a potential new client for her business. A business which by all accounts isn’t actually doing that well. Instead she’s surviving off her trust fund. Yes Celia is a socialite, living in an apartment paid for by her parents, owns a business that barely breaks even and finds her lifestyle with her trust fund.
At the meeting she meets Edward Fasbender. He’s 10 years older than her, he’s intimidating, intense, domineering, gorgeous and has a proposition for Celia.
Celia on her part feels things for Edward that she hasn’t felt for a very long time. She’s intrigued by him, drawn to him and completely fascinated by him.
He’s awakened something in her that she hasn’t felt for a long time and this despite her better judgment excited her.
This begins a game. Only this time Celia is more than evenly matched in fact she might actually be the prey this time without realising it.
All I can say is the ending is a total wtf! And book 2 CANNOT come quick enough!

Told entirely in Celia's POV, this novel is a fast-paced read you're guaranteed to devour in one sitting if you're looking for an edgy and angst filled romance. It definitely preceded my expectations, and wasn't in the slightest a story I thought it'd be. It was definitely dark, and even though this author did warn us about that, I still wasn't expecting it to be as dark a billionaire romance as it was.
Edward Fasbender truly is what he's said to be: a devil.
And Celia Werner has truly met her match in him.
He was what made this book intimidating for me. He was what made this story intense, and how Celia managed to stand up against him and hold her own, I have no idea. She was fierce and feisty and didn't disappoint in delivering everything I wasn't expecting; she was every bit the dragon we know her to be, yet she was also surprisingly vulnerable and didn't stand a chance when up against Edward, but her determination to play her game and outsmart the devil is what kept me hooked to these pages until that very last sentence (that sentence that ended this story in a way I did not see coming; that sentence that completely blew my mind; that sentence I'm still recovering from).
There were moments throughout this story where I was pushed too far out of my comfort zone, which is why I'm rating this book four stars, but overall, Slay: Rivalry was a good and unique story that has everything you'd expect from a Laurelin Paige novel, and she really keeps her readers entertained and enjoying every moment of reading it - yes, even those readers (like myself) who never thought they'd like anything to do with Celia after everything that occurred in The Fixed Trilogy.
But love her or hate her, you don't want to miss out on this story. With the never ending back and forth between these two Alphas, the undying sexual tension that kept this reader hot and bothered, and with a storyline that was as dramatic as I thought it'd be and told in a way that captured and kept my attention from beginning to end, you can tell that Laurelin Paige really delivered her all here for the first and mind-blowing instalment to the Slay Quartet - a one-of-a-kind MUST READ that'll leave you going out of your mind for part two of Celia and Edward's shocking story, Slay: Ruin.

Definitely a page turner with good characters and dialogue but Very predictable. What disappointed me was the s&m parts.It doesn't need it. The characters and the cat and mouse game is far more entertaining. And perfectly delivered I liked the ending but again I saw that coming.
The reason for marrying on her part were really thin.I wouldn't have. I suspect she has hurt his family ,perhaps the sister with her games. The character though appears to be hurt physically and mentally and has been used and is just turning the tables.
She's definitely out of her depth.
The characters are delightful and gritty and I loved them.
Hope part two has the same passion and manipulation.

