Playing With Fire - LJ Shen

Ramblings of an Insomniac.. 

LJ Shen is at it again. This time with an unsuspecting heroine. And the colliding of tragedies. Playing With Fire tugged on my compassion. Grace and West may look like an unlikely pair on the service but their slow burn drew me in like cider on a cold day.

Grace Shaw is strength and perseverance personified. While her character served as a reminder of long held insecurities, she is a phoenix in her own right. A determined girl, rising from the ashes of her former self. And when West St. Claire bursts into her life, that path becomes harder to deny.

“I’ve walked through fire before, so I know what I’m getting into ... I’m willing to pay the price.” - Grace Shaw

Brooding and self-assured, West is an unlikely hero with a haunted past of his own. Finding solace in Grace's quiet life is just what this boy's soul needed. Their chemistry is startling and their story had me both crying and cheering. LJ Shen hits the nail in the head with this standalone. Telling another story, packed with power and heart.

Rating:

Book Boyfriend: 9/10

Flow: 9/10

Plot: 9/10 

Overall: 9/10

Currently available on Kindle (and Kindle Unlimited).

Synopsis:

A broken boy on the path to destruction A scarred girl without direction A love story carved in secrets, inked with pain and sealed with a lie. Grace Shaw and West St. Claire are artctic opposites. She is the strange girl from the food truck.

He is the mysterious underground fighter who stormed into her sleepy Texan college town on his motorcycle one day, and has been wreaking havoc since. 

She is invisible to the world He is the town's beloved bad boy

She is a reject He is trouble.

When West thrusts himself into Grace's quiet life, she scrambles to figure out If he is her happily ever after or tragic ending But the harder she pushes him away, the more he pulls her out of her shell. 

Grace doesn't know much about anything beyond her town's limits, but she does know this: She is falling in love with the hottest guy in Sheridan U. 

And when you play with fire-you ought to get burned. 

Rich Prick - Tijan

Ruminations of an Insomniac.. 

Tijan never disappoints me. This one was no exception. I'm sure it was painfully obvious, but I've been in a bit of a book slump. Not that there aren't hundreds of new books and thousands of older ones to read. And it wasn't that I had no interest in reading many of them. My tbr list is almost embarrassingly long. I just found myself not clicking with stories, finding connection in books like I usually do. But then Aspen and Blaise came along and I felt a shift again. This story, was just so full of real life humanity. It captured me. 

More than just the pretty girl, hiding in the shadows. Aspen is the personification of a daisy. A perfect balance of delicate and resilient determination. She represented hope for me, as I watched her bloom up through concrete. But she couldn't have done that, is Blaise had been anyone but himself. With his larger than life personality masking an unexpected reality, he was so raw and real to me.

"I turned to look out over the place I’d never considered my home. For some reason, maybe it was a gut feeling, one of those hunches, but I knew. Something was wrong." - Aspen Monson

Tijan has always depicted characters with complicated depth, well. Her attention to detail draws a vivid picture in my mind. Not just of what the characters look like, but who they actually are. And the slow burning chemistry between Aspen and Blaise wouldn't have been done justice without that depth. Another Tijan great for the collection. Read it. It reignited my love for characters and their stories, maybe it will help you in some way too.

Rating:

Book Boyfriend: 8/10

Flow: 10/10

Plot: 9/10 

Overall: 9/10

Currently available on Kindle (and Kindle Unlimited).

Synopsis:

He walked into school on his first day and owned it. I guess that's what happens when you're a prick, rich, and you're best friends with the ruling school's king. 

Also didn't hurt he's drop dead gorgeous.

That's all fine.

I mean, I have nothing to do with them. I'm a loner, invisible, and that's how I wanted it to be. 

I was even proud of it, until I wasn't.

Until I saw a girl kneel before him. Until I couldn't look away. Until he caught me watching. 

His name is Blaise Devroe. 

My name is Aspen Monson. 

He only knew how to get command, and demand attention. I knew how to do everything but that. 

And this is our story.

*Rich Prick is a full 100k standalone.