Pretty Reckless, an all-new standalone high school, bully romance from USA Today bestselling author L.J. Shen, is available now!
We were supposed to be best friends
But turned out to be worst enemies…
Penn
They say revenge is a dish best served cold.
I’d had four years to stew on what Daria Followhill did to me, and now my heart is completely iced.
I took her first kiss.
She took the only thing I loved.
I was poor.
She was rich.
The good thing about circumstances? They can change. Fast.
Now, I’m her parents’ latest shiny project.
Her housemate. Her tormentor. The captain of the rival football team she hates so much.
Yeah, baby girl, say it—I’m your foster brother.
There’s a price to pay for ruining the only good thing in my life, and she’s about to shell out some serious tears.
Daria Followhill thinks she is THE queen. I’m about to prove to her that she’s nothing but a spoiled princess.
Daria
Everyone loves a good-old, unapologetic punk.
But being a bitch? Oh, you get slammed for every snarky comment, cynical eye roll, and foot you put in your adversaries’ way.
The thing about stiletto heels is that they make a hell of a dent when you walk all over the people who try to hurt you.
In Penn Scully’s case, I pierced his heart until he bled out, then left it in a trash can on a bright summer day.
Four years ago, he asked me to save all of my firsts for him.
Now he lives across the hall, and there’s nothing I want more than to be his last everything.
His parting words when he gave me his heart were that nothing in this world is free.
Now? Now he is making me pay.
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Review
4 Stars
Welcome to the land of the HotHoles, or their kids anyway. All Saints High, home of the wealthy, the effed up, the beautiful, and the bad. Daria Followhill, daughter of Defy's couple Jaime and Melody, has an ugly green monster inside of her, she's the worst kind of mean girl. She's felt unloved, unwanted, and so underwhelmed by life that she's forgotten the last time she was happy. Her beauty and popularity don't mean anything, not when her mom takes on every other kid as a pet project and the boy she hates is the only one she really wants. It's hard not to like this girl, even when I sometimes thought she was doing it to herself I wanted her to get the love and support she was clearly desperate for. Plus, she has so much sass. Penn, on the other hand, is the bad boy from the wrong side of the tracks. He's held onto a burning hatred for so long, only to find that time sometimes doesn't always heal all wounds or make you forget the burning heat between you and another. The line between these two, the one they said they'd never crossed, it's up in smoke now.
"I don't want to be mean to him even though, usually, I am. Especially to boys. Especially to boys with beautiful faces and honey voices."
Leave it to L.J. Shen to find a way to write an angsty romance with every bit of drama she can fit into it and still make it work. There's romance, there's familial drama, there's a weird student principal thing going on, there's fights (expected, it is ASH), there's football, and there's some crazy secrets being held onto. Pretty Reckless is a classic enemies to lovers new-adult romance, just with a dash of extra mixed in. Daria and Penn are on FIRE for one another, but there's so much life going on around them, to them and due to them, that any chance they truly have is burnt in the flames. It's intense, like how fire feels when it flickers too close your skin warning you away. It's the kind of book you get sucked into, where sometimes it's almost too much to take in, yet you can't stop. Everything is all wrong for Daria and Penn, yet they're drawn to one another despite the massive explosion it will cause. It's unavoidable.
"'I still don't like you.' Her whisper carresses my face.
'Me neither,' I say. About her. About me."
There was quite of bitchery in this book, enough so that it made me question my like of Daria, of Melody, of nearly every character in this story that claims friendship and family. The people in this novel are all out for themselves only, thankfully we have L.J. Shen to set them straight. As all the drama unfolds we get a story about love, forgiveness, life lessons, and the bravery it takes to set things right again. It was an all consuming read for me, one that ran me through the gamut of emotions, one that made me so impatiently excited for the rest of the series. I loved the HotHoles and I can't wait to fall in love with their snotty, bratty, handsome, beautiful, spoiled, and yet still thoughtful little kids.
About LJ Shen:
L.J. Shen is an International #1 best-selling author of Contemporary Romance and New Adult novels. She lives in Northern California with her husband, young son and chubby cat.
Before she’d settled down, L.J. (who thinks referring to herself in the third person is really silly, by the way) traveled the world, and collected friends from all across the globe. Friends who’d be happy to report that she is a rubbish companion, always forgets people's’ birthdays and never sends Christmas cards.
She enjoys the simple things in life, like spending time with her family and friends, reading, HBO, Netflix and internet-stalking Stephen James. She reads between three to five books a week and firmly believes Crocs shoes and mullets should be outlawed.
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