⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐5 STARS⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Finally! A female writer who was able to truly capture the male asshole mind! None of that cookie-cutter shit you often see. None of that – guy gets the girl and turns into a pussy shit. Just pure asshole male. Loved it!

Vicious by L. J. Shen was such a good read. The contrast from Emilia’s light to Vicious dark was perfect. Yep, I loved it. But it’s still a 4 STAR read for me. It was good but it wasn’t 5 STAR great. No offensive to L. J. Shen.

I think I’m going to keep it pretty here, nothing too messy. Just pure fun.

As always, a quick word from the author…

Synopsis

Emilia

They say love and hate are the same feelings experienced under different circumstances, and it’s true.
The man who comes to me in my dreams also haunts me in my nightmares.
He is a brilliant lawyer.
A skilled criminal.
A beautiful liar.
A bully and a savior, a monster and a lover.
Ten years ago, he made me run away from the small town where we lived. Now, he came for me in New York, and he isn’t leaving until he takes me with him.

Vicious

She is a starving artist.
Pretty and evasive like cherry blossom.
Ten years ago, she barged into my life unannounced and turned everything upside down.
She paid the price.
Emilia LeBlanc is completely off-limits, my best friend’s ex-girlfriend. The woman who knows my darkest secret, and the daughter of the cheap Help we hired to take care of our estate.
That should deter me from chasing her, but it doesn’t.
So she hates me. Big fucking deal.
She better get used to me.

*********************************************

Let’s get messy while still keeping it pretty, yes?

Before we get into it…

Can we talk about the fact that Vicious never did that typical rich man, poor girl shit? He didn’t try to take her shopping for new clothes to match his fly. He didn’t mind her cotton panties and cheap shoes. Did he talk shit about it? Yes. Did he try to fix her style to match his rich man’s clothes? Nope. I loved that.

But don’t let that behavior make you think he was a sweet and loving man because he wasn’t.

He was an asshole.

He was no, Captain-Save-A-Hoe. 

Love and hate are the same feelings experienced under different circumstances. The passion is the same. The pain is the same. That weird thing that bubble in your chest? Same. – Emilia

It’s true that Emilia and Vicious both hated each but it crystal clear that they loved each other as well. There’s a thin line between love and hate and they were really, really close to that line.

This was pure lust, exploding after a decade of simmering quietly, brewed by frustration, jealousy, and hate.

Emilia on the other hand was the sweetest thing ever! I absolutely adored her. At first, I thought she was going to be annoying, but she wasn’t at all. She was the cutest!

A bad life equaled an empty life. One that wasn’t necessarily hard or challenging but was devoid of the people you loved and cared about. – Emilia

She knew what was important in love – love and family. She felt horrible for Vicious because he didn’t have those things. There was no family love in Vicious life since his mom passed when he was a kid.

…I didn’t like his eyes anymore. Not because he scared me, but because he looked sad. – Emilia

Even though Vicious and Emilia didn’t have the best start, as far as how they met, they had a crazy connection. It was interesting seeing their relationship from teenagers to adults play out. It was like they loved one another but they couldn’t acknowledge it. Neither one of them could understand the why behind the connection, only the connection that was there.

It wasn’t until that both decided to explore why they realized that connection deserved a chance. Of course, at this point, they are grown and over that teenager type of behavior.

But what happens when that why becomes toxic? What happens when that connection becomes too painful?

For Emilia, that’s when she had to take a step back and realize her self-worth. And damn if that wasn’t one of the reasons why I fell in love with the chick myself.

Did he deserve her love? Her affection? Her trust?… Maybe yes. Maybe no.

“I used to think of you as a villain, but you’re not my villain. You’re your own villain. To me, you were a lesson. An important brutal lesson, nothing more and nothing less.” – Emilia

Did you know that Vicious’s friend dated Emilia in high school? Oh, you didn’t. Well, he did. What a shitty friend by the way. He knows that even though Vicious was an asshole to Emilia, that she was his.  But no, no, no, the bastard (Dean) still fucked with her anyways.

Be careful who you call “friend” people.

I’ll tell ya, it’s hard to find good friends these days. My BFF wouldn’t even consider fucking with a dude she knew I was into. But hey, that’s just me and my bitches. 🙂

But when Vicious started fucking with Emilia, Dean decided to act like a bitch and get in feelings about it. Like, seriously… How you going to be mad that your so-called homeboy is fucking a chick that you shouldn’t have been fucking with in the first place. See, that’s why I don’t trust anybody.

If your not my sister (Hey Dedi!!!) or my BFF – “Hey Cece!!!” – then fuck you. I don’t trust you.

Truth was, he was a dick for going out with her then, and I was a dick for doing her now. But she wasn’t his obsession. His vice. His fucking Achilles heel. – Vicious

Yep…

“You really fucked my ex-girlfriend?” said Dean.

“I did. If I were you, I’d squeeze in a few more punches before you go because I’m not going to stop fucking her. I’m going to own her.” – Vicious

Yep…

But that’s your friend, Vicious. You should have kept looking for a better one.

Anyways, all’s well that ends well and this one ends very well.

I got my HEA, I got my HEA, I got my HEA. Yassss, bitch, yassss!

Thank you L. J. Shen…

Oh boy, oh boy…

This book is soooooooo setting up to be a series. Oh, yes, honey… I would bet money and say that L. J. Shen knows exactly what she is doing (it is a “she”, right? Because I don’t really know) writing all these characters into the book.

But let me say this before I leave. If she puts Dean and Emilia’s sister, Rosie, together, I may just stop liking the series because that’s just nasty. You can not put together the man who Emilia lost her v-card to with her sister. I don’t like it. That’s not a ride or die type sister right there. I don’t give a shit what kind of connection her sister my have with Dean! It’s nasty and fucked up.

But if L. J. Shen decides to do that, trust and believe that I’m going to get really messy and go in on that bullshit.

Back to my review, I’m sorry, I got a little bit off topic there…

And like Vicious said, they baby wasn’t no accident. But you’re going to have to read the book to figure what I’m talking about. Yep. Just know that strippers are trapping men these days. Folks need to wrap it up, if you know what I mean. I’m not spilling the tea on that one.

So the book is the shit and you should read it. It has a true alpha male who never turns into a sappy bitch. Even when he is being sweet, he’s being an ass and I loved that.

Accepting the fact that you loved someone was much harder than falling for that person. It took time. And courage. But when I finally took that time, found that courage, when I finally let my guard down, I’d discovered something spectacular. – 

Vicious

I’m done for now. I’m going to clean myself up and get all pretty again. TTYL!!!