Series: #Sinners of Saint, #4
Pages: 354
Genre: New Adult
Bane
Naked surfer. Habitual pothead. A con, a liar, a thief and a fraud.
Last I heard, he was extorting the rich and screwing their wives for a living.
Which is why I’m more than a little surprised to find him at my threshold, looking for my friendship, my services, and most puzzling of all—looking humbled.
Thing is, I’m on a boycott. Literally—I cut boys from my life. Permanently.
Problem is, Bane is not a boy, he is all man, and I’m falling, crashing, drowning in his sweet, perfect lies.
Jesse Carter
Hot as hell, cold as ice.
I wasn’t aware of her existence until a fat, juicy deal landed in my lap.
She’s a part of it, a little plaything to kill some time.
She is collateral, a means to an end, and a side-bonus for striking a deal with her oil tycoon stepdad.
More than anything, Jesse Carter is a tough nut to crack.
Little does she know, I have the teeth for it.
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I've already given up on L. J. Shen's books last year because I already figured they aren't for me, but I found this book on my kindle and I don't even know when I bought it (and why), so I decided to give this author another chance, but it just wasn't working. A part of the reason why I gave this book such a low rating is because I gave up on it at 80 % because it really wasn't working for me from the beginning.
I have quite a few thoughts about this book. I already wrote about this author stealing other authors' words and never crediting them and while I understand a lot of authors do that, I honestly and truthfully have never seen someone do it so blatantly. It's like throwing a bunch of quotes from Pinterest in the book and call them yours.
Even in the very beginning before books starts she wrote: "Spoiler: the princess saves herself in this fairytale", referencing a book The Princess Saves Herself in This One by Amanda Lovelace. Just from this, I had a feeling things won't go smoothly in this book, even though this wasn't such a big deal for me.
Moving on, she used some more of other poets' words without ever giving them credit, but just passing these lines as her own. Now - this is where it really started to bother me and rub me in wrong because - seriously, we're doing this again?
- "You don't need a prince, princess. You need a sword." - L. J.
"She wasn't looking for a knight, she was looking for a sword." - Atticus
- "I can't drown my demons. They know how to swim." - L. J.
"I can't drown my demons. They know how to swim." - Bring Me The Horizon
This just shows for me that L. J. lacks originality and I don't like this kind of thing, it always bothers me with her books.
Moving on from this, the majority of us know who Vicious is. Although I did not particularly enjoy that book, I just can't help but laugh at how stupid L. J. made Vicious look in this book. "Bane is awfully similar to Vicious, wouldn't you agree?" These are the exact words Vicious said to Bane at their meeting. I just couldn't help but LOL because she proved my point that Vicious is a stupid ass.
And then also, what the heck is with the weird comparisons? I know L. J. is known for that, but sometimes ... things just don't make sense? He was wrapped head-to-toe in Brioni, with sleek black hair and porcelain white skin. He looked like a Michelin-starred steak, and I looked like a greasy drive-thru cheeseburger. Seriously - what?
All in all, this was a typical Shen book with a manwhore male character (this time quite literally because he was selling his service (sex) to 46 women) and an inexperienced, innocent girl who suffers from a tragic sexual experience and past (rape). Sometimes, L. J. Shen's perception of tragedy and 'healing' baffles me, especially when Jesse told Bane about what happened to her and right immediately after that, they have weird, unprotected sex, even though Jesse was pregnant once and even though Bane is a known manwhore. Yup, sounds about right.
Also, the lack of understanding and compassion also shows in Jesse not being able to let any male in her life touch her or come close to her, but then Bane comes and she's suddenly all over him and wants to have sex with him before getting emotionally involved. These things don't heal overnight.
I didn't quite dislike this book that much and I gave it a higher rating only because of showing that girls like Jesse can live on and can take their lives back in their hands, especially in a sexual way. And that's pretty much the only thing I actually liked in this whole book.
It was a boring read, the story was dragging on and I wasn't invested or interested in it. This was not her typical enemies-to-lovers, but it was more on the tame side (thankfully) and Bane was actually a likeable character.
With this book, I am now officially done reading books by this author because ... they just don't work for me.
L.J. Shen is USA Today and Washington Post bestselling author of contemporary romance books. She lives in California with her husband, son and lazy cat.
When she's not writing, she enjoys reading a good book with a glass of wine and catching up on her favorite HBO and Netflix shows.
Yeah, she's a badass like that.
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