chatterbookbabe 's review for:

Vicious by L.J. Shen

5.0

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When her parents took a job working for the Spencer family, Emilia LeBlanc was forced to live on the same premises as one of the rudest, over-privileged hot assholes at her new high school, Baron Spencer a.k.a. Vicious. In fact, he along with 3 of his best friends were known as the HotHoles of All Saints High. They were attractive, arrogant jerks that every girl wanted and every guy wanted to be. That made it all the more difficult for Emilia to find friends her senior year. Vicious didn’t like her so that meant almost no one else gave her a chance either. He went out of his way to make her life miserable and to make sure she knew how much he disliked her. Never understanding what she did to inspire such hatred, Emilia did her best to stay out of his way until it was time for her to leave for college. That became impossible when she began dating one of his friends which not only inserted her more into his life, but also exponentially increased the cruelty he directed her way.

Years later, Vicious and Emilia meet again. They both need something from each other. To acquire it, they will have to spend lots of time together. What happens when they are forced to face each other and the root of their feelings after all of these years?



I read Sparrow in October of last year and fell in love with it. Consequently, going into this book my expectations were extremely high, and I could have easily been setting myself up for disappointment because of that. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case. Vicious far exceeded my expectations in every way!

They say there is a thin line between love and hate, and Vicious and Emilia walked that line like a tightrope. Vicious’ touch made Emilia shiver with both repulsion and delight. When she challenged him, it pissed him off and turned him on with equal measure. Their heated glances contained both longing and disgust, and their verbal exchanges were laced with frustration, anger, and lust. All of these conflicting emotions made for some amazing sexual tension. Not only that, it kept me interested to see why Vicious felt the way he did, what was going to happen now that they had to confront what was going on between them then and now, and how it all would end.



L. J. Shen firmly planted herself on my list of favorite authors with this book. The woman can write a complicated hero like no other. Vicious Spencer is broken, tortured, and cruel, and somehow she was able to endear him to me. Maybe it was the way he behaved as if nothing mattered to him, but deep down everything did. Maybe it was that he never allowed himself to be truly vulnerable except when he was with Emilia. I don’t know. All I know is that she did it with absolute perfection. His redemption was flawless. He changed and groveled just enough for you to fully love him without changing who he was completely and unrealistically.

Emilia was a heroine that was easy to love. She was kind, caring, selfless, quirky, creative, hardworking, playful, and beautiful. Watching her put her dreams on hold to care for her sister was truly touching. The way she endured so much hardship, but never let that keep her down was inspiring. Her complete acceptance and enduring love for Vicious despite his many flaws was moving.

Vicious frustrated me, thrilled me, captivated me, and entertained me from beginning to end. It was a little bit of a slow burn, but I didn’t mind in the least. When Emilia and Vicious were together, it was hot no matter what they were doing. The plot was perfectly paced and brilliantly executed, the writing was impeccable, and the characters were expertly crafted. If asshole heroes are your thing, take my word for it, this is not be missed!

An ARC was generously provided for an honest review
All teaser pics were taken from the author''s Facebook page.