Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Vicious by L.J. Shen

22 reviews

codicheyenne's review against another edition

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mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

I genuinely enjoyed reading this book and I'm so excited to have received an ARC for the re-publication of it! I appreciated the pacing of the book and how the characters remained true to themselves even while growing. Millie was so easy to love and feel for. Her heart is so genuine and I really felt for her and how unable to be anything other than her kind, selfless self she was - even to her own detriment. Vicious was a "villain" I love to say suffered from the "he's just a boy" syndrome. (Other examples include Draco Malfoy, Jacks, Damon Torrance.) What I mean by that is he's a total jerk, hands down, but under that huge, standoffish persona, he's also a hurt little boy inside who needed an ounce of affection. I loved that while he was indeed a total jerk he was still lovable. I did find myself wishing he would just let himself cry every once in awhile though lol, I think it would help. I loved that there was no clear indication of the switch between enemies and lovers. It ebbed and flowed through time, distance and circumstance. I thoroughly enjoyed the dual timeline aspect as well. I'm excited to see what book 2 brings for Dean & Rosie.

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sienasummerrreads's review against another edition

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challenging dark hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

“It was always us and you know it.”

It’s 10 years in the future, and Emilia is living paycheck to paycheck trying to support her sister while working two jobs in New York. On a night shift waitressing she comes across a man that haunted her past. His family had control over hers and she was run out of the town… 

When I tell you the MMC Vicious is a massive alpha hole and at the start, you question everything when reading. Wondering how it will turn around for you to fall for the MMC. This man is the biggest red flag walking but when you dig through the layers and brick walls the FMC Emilia starts uncovering a dark past and his true feelings. I am a sucker for a broken man and the grovelling at the end was delicious. She is his addiction but so is he to her. It’s a very toxic relationship and environment due to their past and present. I did enjoy this, but I did struggle with Vicious and his ways at times. I love how strong Emilia is in the present to put up with his behaviour over and over again and started to put her foot down against him. 
The plot was great, excited to read about the other friends in the coming book. I’m so ready for Rosie and Dean. The audiobook is great and would recommend it.  

If you love: 

🔹Hate To Love 
🔹Billionaire 
🔹Past And Present 
🔹Dark Past 
🔹Secret Pining 
🔹Perfect Amount Of Spice 

Genre/Type: Romance 18+
APK: Kindle / Audiobook 
Pages: 372
Audiobook Length: 10hrs 4mins
Narrators: Savannah Peachwood and Christian Rummel - Dual
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Spice: 🌶️🌶.5
Series or Stand Alone: Book One in The Sinners Of Saint Series 
Tropes or Themes: Hate To Love, Workplace, Billionaire, Forced Proximity, Secret Pining, Slow Burn, Bullying, Good Girl Bad Boy Vibes, MMC Alphahole, Possessive, FMC Personal Assistant, FMC Artist, Past and Present, Blackmail, Letters, Scars, Grovelling, Mine, Cursing, Playlist, Sexual Content, Praise, Dirty Talk, Tattoo Parlour Scene and Office Scene
Mentions: Past Child Abuse 
Check Triggers ⚠️ 💫 

Kind Regards
All Round Romance Reader 
Sienasummerrreads 💕📚
TikTok | Instagram | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Everand | Amazon | Audible Reviews 💫


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thebookishmel's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Idk man, this was a wild, dark, AND JUST NOT MY VIBE for romance lol. You have to go in knowing that this is just the style of the book, but like WOOF was it a lot of possessiveness and wild revenge. 

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a_melville's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Vicious is a dark romance novel and it's the perfect mix of smut, romance, and plot. I absolutely adore Vicious.  This book is about childhood enemies Vicious and Emilia, who turned into adults who hate each other. 

Emilia is the FMC who grew up as the "Help" because her parents worked for Vicious's family. She grows up and goes to New York with her sister and works a few jobs to support herself and her sick sister. After not seeing Vicious for years, she runs into him and he gives her an offer she would be stupid to refuse. She is stubborn, smart, and isn't afraid to speak her mind. Especially when it comes to Vicious. 

Vicious is the MMC and he is dark, twisted, and full of childhood trauma. He is a childhood bully who grows up to become a lawyer. He hates the "Help" from the first time they met, and he is not afraid to let her know that. However he still can't seem to let her get away from him, and he might just need her help. 

The banter is simply to die for. The plot is interesting and tells a great story, and the world-building is good. It is easy to get invested early in the story. This book is medium-paced. I would say the spice is a three out of five. Love, love, love this book!

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lillypad5455's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Very clever book, very crude at times, but great story development. The details follow through, it's very well planned out book, didn't feel predictable at all. Very very erotic, almost too much at times.

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coles14_'s review against another edition

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2.75


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paige_n_7970's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

I literally could not finished this book. I DNF’d at like 60%. I was waiting for Vicious to stop being an asshole even after they slept together!!! And the “Help” even after she said she didn’t like it, ugh. The beginning of the book I could kinda deal with it because of the opportunity of him apologizing aka groveling, but no. I really wanted to like this book, but I couldn’t get past Vicious still being an asshole over 50%. 

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sophiejo_'s review against another edition

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4.0

no spoilers <3

this book had SUCH A PUBLIC SEX KINK it’s literally the only thing possibly turning me off from reading the rest of the series. like sure, live your best life, but NOT in your office or on a Manhattan balcony. please and thank you 

other than that, this was a really good book. i’ll say that towards the middle i was loosing a lot of interest, and i started to hate both of the characters, mostly bc of the friends w benefits relationship. but it picked itself up so go l j shen <3. 

What was it say about this book is it I had a very curious plot. Honestly I think I may have liked most of the plot a lot better than the characters to be honest. there were just so many interwoven pieces like there was of course daddy issues, step mama issues, step mama’s brother issues, dead mothers issues, but also just like the relationship between the two characters while they were in high school, the pink and black, the relationship that emilia has with her sister, there’s just so many different elements that work really well together it really made the story very complex 

I also loved the whole scene and the places that it was held like New York Manhattan the workplace, art galleries, like it all just sounded very like a luxurious, at least on vicious’ side, and it also kind of highlighted the bad parts of the city you know because emelia was not as better off so I feel like the development of the scenery was actually very good.   

to be honest the worst part of this book was the characters because both of them were barely tolerable half of the time,. At some time I was rooting for emilia because obviously ✨ go girl boss she doesn’t need no man to pay for her, ✨ but on the other time like she was just as much of a jerk as vicious was. And again he is an absolute asshole like he does so many things wrong and starts out being just a horny teenager but turns out into a businessman who literally sue you for millions of dollars and burn your house or something like that. But then we go back to his past and see his trauma and he’s just such a layered character that honestly I have to appreciate him anyways. Does that justify all his actions absolutely NOT but it brings up good topics on morality. 

overall this book really was a 3.5. I can’t really tell because the romance was definitely not my favorite, because I just kept going back-and-forth and I was like MAKE A DECISION, but the plot was really good outside of the romance and the characters traumas was also really well written. so I’m gonna give it a four stars for now but it may drop down later. 

the real question is should i continue the series….?

TRIGGERS
explicit sex, death and violence, cursing, cheating, drug and alcohol use, a lot of trauma, domestic abuse, etc

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dalmak's review against another edition

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1.0

when i tell you this man was VILE. his nickname should have been that because he was worse than just vicious. i think i could go on and on about why this book was horrible. and i will.
first of all, mmc was absolutely horrible. he had no redeeming traits besides SOMETIMES being sweet to the fmc.
it took him until half of the book the act decently towards any character (and it was his love interest, not his friends). mans treated his friends horribly. not sure why they stuck around him. it was only in the last 100 pages that he continuously treated her and the people around him decently. i was also not a fan of the whole power imbalance they had going on when she worked for him.
he’s a horrible person and needs some (a lot of) fucking therapy before he gets with anyone.
second, i hated the whole
dean thing. it was so unnecessary and weird at some points. it would have been acceptable if he didn’t go and thirst over the fmc’s sister???? he literally dated and had sex w the fmc and now he’s gonna do the same to her sister in the second book. that’s gross.

third, the plot really lacked. i guess the whole he’s rich she’s poor thing came through but none of the other shit did. the build up to the reveal of his trauma wasn’t terrible but then it was used to excuse his actions (which were not excusable).
fourth, it’s not really related to this book (they were background characters) but can we talk about jaime and his wife???? he married and had a kid with his english lit teacher!!!! that’s disgusting. idc if he was of age it’s still so predatory.

i don’t know what this author is on but it can’t be good. all in all i do not recommend and i am not planning to read any more books from this series. not only is the main couple incredible toxic, it also gives a bad impression of how relationships should work. whatever. i give it one star bc there were some cute scenes. (though the bad ones seriously outweighed them) also i did like the fmc.

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anncatherine's review against another edition

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medium-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes

3.75


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