My rating: 4,5 of 5 stars
Received: Author
Publication Date: January 3rd 2017
Point of View: alternate
Recommended Age: 18+
Pacing: steady
Genres & Themes: Adult, Bully, Revenge, Romance
An ARC has kindly been given by the author to this extremely enthusiastic reader in exchange for an honest review.
”Emilia, my makeup is revenge. Yours is forgiveness. You’re better than me. I don’t deserve you. But I’m going to take you, anyway.”
Facts :
-L.J Shen never writes the same story twice but they’re ALWAYS gripping;
-Her main characters are flawed, strong and compelling;
-Vicious is a real @hole, a bully and VERY possessive;
-The plot is not overtly complicated but has its secrets and good revenge;
-The book is solid, without any filler;
-Wealth does not make you happy (even if I recon I would love unlimited budget for books);
-I’ve come to the hard realization that I fall for the bad boy like maybe 90% of the female readers.
If you love stories with bullies, complex characters and revenge this should more than float your boat! Trust me I did not want stop reading Vicious and Emi’s story.
Emilia (Emi) is the quintessential good girl. As the help’s daughter she is far from rich. She’s attending a private school thanks to Vicious parents but does not fit in at all with the rich crowd.
Vicous can’t stand her goodness. He can’t stand her looking like his stepmother. He can’t stand what she makes his cold heart feel. So he’s made his mission to make her life a real Hell.
“She was just a country girl from Virginia with a huge smile and an annoying accent. Her personality was like a fucking Michael Bublé song. So easy and un-fucking-assuming. I mean, the girl even smiled at me when she caught me staring into her bedroom in the servants’ apartment like a creep. How stupid could a person be? It wasn’t her fault I hated her.”
He is her constant bully. She’s not good enough for him, for his mansion, for his town.
Now of course you don’t go to such great lengths and make someone’s life impossible if you’re indifferent.
“Love and hate are the same feelings experienced under different circumstances. The passion is the same. The pain is the same.”
He feels attracted to her even if she has no sense of style and has doodles on her hand, so different from the other rich girls. They’re polar opposites. He hates her but wants her all the same even if he does not want to recognize it.
And when Emilia mingles with one of the Four HotHoles that’s when war truly begins and Vicious earns his nickname.
Ten years later they’ll face each other again and this time Vicious won’t let her go without taking what’s been rightly his from the first seconds.
Honestly I thought that Vicious and his crew were just rich spoiled and entitled brats. I did not like him at all in the beginning. To give you an idea, he loved “The liars, the pretenders, the masks, and the plastic. I loved how people cared about what was in your pocket and not in your fucking chest. I loved that they were impressed by expensive cars and cheap wit.”
How can you find such a character attractive? And yet…when I glimpsed what was beneath the cold façade I found myself slowly falling for Vicious. He still remained a formidable jerk but like Emilia I stopped wanting to change him. He was a very complex character wanting to hurt Emilia but he did not know why. Or rather he would not acknowledge why. She was “his” to play with and no one else.
“Why are you doing this to me?” I hissed out, searching his blank, stony face. “Because I can,” he offered with a smirk to hide all the pain in his eyes. What’s eating you, Baron Spencer? ”
If I had to slowly warm up to Vicious I loved Emilia right from the beginning. I loved how strong she is. She may not fit in but she does not care. She knows who she is and what she wants. She is determined to build her future and get an education. She also saw through Vicious antics. She was no fool and guessed he must be hurting to be so vindictive with her. Her goodness was her strength as she could forgive and what’s more difficult than forgive those who hurt you? They both were polar opposite but meant to be.
I fell into Vicious story right from the start and had a hate/love relationship with the bad boy but I was never able to stop reading for a long time, Christmas duties be damned!
So if you love stories like Bully, Fear Me, Debt and the likes look no further you’ve found your next read!
