{Review} Pretty Reckless by L.J. Shen

Pretty Reckless by L.J. Shen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
THEME: High School Drama
GENRE: Contemporary Romance

Pretty Reckless (All Saints High, #1)

by L.J. Shen

4.47 · 4,879 Ratings · 1,335 Reviews

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.

REVIEW:

I usually shy away from New Adult / YA books as of late, because as I've gotten older I just don't seem to get into the stories as much. I guess I can't connect to the characters anymore like I did years ago. But that's what I love about L.J. Shen and her writing, her characters have so much depth, their raw and mature and live in a world where you have to grow up fast. This may be a story about teenagers but these teens are very adult and mature and live in a world where their parents grew up fast and had a lot of mature things to deal with.

If you havent read her sinners of saint series, I highly recommend reading at least the first two before reading Pretty Reckless, Defy tell the story of the story of Daria's parents. But that series follows the parents of the children in this series.

Pretty Reckless follows Daria Followhill, who may be surround by family and friends but is always left in the shadows. Her mothers big dreams have gotten in the way of her connection with her daughter (Daria), while her friends dont really see the real Daria, they see what she allows. Until she meets Penn who just gets her, sees her, connects with her. From there starts a whirlwind of connection from one incident that starts a chain reaction of events. Penn thinks the worst of Daria after all these years until he really gets to know her. Together they better both the inner demons to find their place in their families and each other.

I don't want to give too much away, these two characters are very complex, very mature and serious I fear for my son if this is what happens in high school! Ha! But anyways, I loved Penn, he was a good kid with a chip on his shoulder, smart and athletic, he's good at football and wishes he could find his sister. His welcomed into Daria's family by Daria's mother who feels she needs to help Penn after not being able to help his sister. Daria is thrown for a loop when she comes face to face with Peen, they are more fr-enemies at the beginning.

In the end I loved seeing the characters from the prior series, all grown up, sexy and a mess. But I love them all. Their children live interesting lives that are similar to their parents pasts, its going to be an interesting series,

View all my reviews