My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Author: L.J. Shen

Format: E-book

Pages: 338

Categories: Bully Romance, Angst, Enemies to Lovers, Revenge, New Adult

Book Blurb:

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 was 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 my firsts for him. 
Now he lives across the hall, and I want nothing 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. 

MY REVIEW

I have read only a few books by L.J. Shen and each time I am left saying “whoa, what did I just read?”. Same goes for this book, but maybe even more so. I read her books because I know it will be intense, hot, full of drama, and out of the realm of what I read on a weekly basis. Sometimes I just need a book to break up the monotony of reading the same thing over and over – to cleanse my palate, so to speak. This book did just that.

I can’t say it’s my favorite book from this author. I did keep reading well into the night after 2 a.m., so I can undoubtedly say it is riveting. But I had to process this book afterwards for a bit.

Where do I start? I didn’t read all the Sinners of Saint series, so I don’t know Jamie and Melody’s story just that it was a teacher/student affair but that whole trope is just not my thing.

Daria Followhill is Jamie and Melody’s daughter. She’s a mean girl, a Queen B, and though I didn’t like her I did feel for her because she was crying out for attention and approval. Daria carefully constructs her outside persona to hide what’s goin on the inside. She believes she is unloved and worthless which makes her become an ugly person towards others. So she doesn’t start off as an unlikable person, she has her moments of thoughtfulness but then it’s drowned in jealousy and pain. Penn Scully, is the boy from the other side of the tracks but he’s a survivor despite his circumstances. Penn and Daria make a mistake as kids – Penn did it unknowingly, but Daria was all in on what was happening. The consequences of that mistake come back to haunt them horribly.

This is set in high school, so cue the angst, lots of cursing, sex and drama. There is plenty of it! I like Daria and Penn’s verbal sparring but sometimes she can stoop to being so petty. And Daria has this thing going on with the school Principal 👀 which made me feel yucky, even if the rumors swirling weren’t true. It came close. Daria’s pain and the depths she thought she needed to sink to atone for her sins just made me want to look away. Not even her romance with Penn, which is dysfunctional in itself, could make me feel happy about this story.

I like how Daria’s character develops and when she is at the end of her rope, on the verge of being exposed – thank goodness she finally opens up. Daria needed help. I was mad at her parents, I was mad at Daria, the principal and Via. It was so frustrating. The strained mother/daughter relationship was written well also. It’s so real. Penn’s journey is fairly predictable. He’s the alpha male, he’s poor, falls for the rich girl (in this case, the alpha girl) and he comes out okay. I felt like this story was mostly about Daria and I’m so glad she got some chance to heal at the end.

L.J. Shen is good at what she writes – she pushes the angst, sex, boundaries and her characters are flawed to perfection. They are human. This book was intense and if you like bully romances with an alpha male and an alpha female – then this is definitely a book to pick up. It was just a bit too much for me with the whole punishment thing but still a good story. Now I’m ready for that Followhill family therapy session, because they so need it!😩😅