Angry God by L.J. Shen Series: All Saints High #3
Published by Audible Studios on February 18, 2020
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Christian Rummel, Savannah Peachwood, Jacob Morgan, Kylie Stewart
Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
Genres: Contemporary, New Adult, Romance
Amazon Audible
From #1 Amazon Bestseller L.J. Shen comes a new, emotional standalone about first love, second chances, and overcoming breathtaking losses at a young age.
Vaughn Spencer.
They call him an angry god.
To me, he is nothing but a heartless prince.
His parents rule this town, its police, every citizen and boutique on Main Street.
All I own is a nice, juicy grudge against him for that time he almost killed me.
Between hooking up with a different girl every weekend, breaking hearts, noses and rules, Vaughn also finds the time to bully little ole’ me.
I fight back, tooth and nail, never expecting him to chase me across the ocean after we graduate high school.
But here he is, living with me in a dark, looming castle on the outskirts of London.
A fellow intern. A prodigal sculptor. A bloody genius.
They say this place is haunted, and it is.
Carlisle Castle hides two of our most awful secrets.
Vaughn thinks he can kill the ghosts of his past, but what he doesn’t know? It’s my heart he’s slaying.Angry God is a stand-alone, DARK High School Romance. It deals with sensitive subjects some may find triggering.
This was a hard one to rate. I had higher expectations for Angry God, but I enjoyed the suspenseful nature of the book.
I think the real problem is that I didn’t care for Vaughn, the main protagonist who is the son of Vicious and Emelia Spencer. L.J. Shen is a master at making me fall in love with anti-heroes, but Vaughn is so incredibly cruel to Lenny and it never made sense to me. Ultimately, I just didn’t feel his behavior toward her was justified and it was difficult for me to believe Vaughn’s later claims that he was drawn to her from the moment they met. Perhaps that’s why I didn’t connect with them as a couple.
Lenny is a bit of an odd duck, but I liked her I-don’t-give-a-crap attitude and her confidence. Her ability to go toe to toe with Vaughn makes her one tough cookie. I also admired her loyalty to her sister. I could tell early on the root cause of Vaughn’s demons. It was really nice to witness an older but no-less intimidating Vicious as a protective father.
There’s a hodgepodge of haphazard plot developments crammed in towards the end that aren’t fully fleshed out – Lenny’s nemesis, her dad’s motivations, bribery. I wish they had been more developed and better integrated into the story.
For me, Angry God wasn’t L.J. Shen’s best work. However, if bad boys, angst, and semi-dark romances are your thing I suspect you will enjoy it more than I did.
About the audiobook.
Jacob Morgan never lets me down and this book is no exception. His Vaughn is detached, angry, confident, sexy, and gritty. Kylie Scott is a new-to-me narrator and I really liked her portrayal of Lenny. Extra points for her posh British accent. However, her Vaughn is cringe worthy. She sounds like a pre-pubescent boy rather than dangerous, sexy man. The good definitely outweighs the bad, though.
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About L.J. Shen
L.J. Shen is an International #1 best-selling author of Contemporary Romance and New Adult novels. She lives in Northern California with her husband, young son and chubby cat.
Before she’d settled down, L.J. (who thinks referring to herself in the third person is really silly, by the way) traveled the world, and collected friends from all across the globe. Friends who’d be happy to report that she is a rubbish companion, always forgets peoples’ birthdays and never sends Christmas cards.
She enjoys the simple things in life, like spending time with her family and friends, reading, HBO, Netflix and internet-stalking Stephen James. She reads between three to five books a week and firmly believes Crocs shoes and mullets should be outlawed.
I have been waiting for you to review this one. I decided to pass on it after reading some rather unpleasant reviews. I don’t think I could stomach some of the stuff I read was in it. It sounds like I was probably right. I feel like her writing has gone somewhere not so great with this series. She keeps trying to push the envelope further and further with the “darkness” of her characters. It makes me long for her Sinners of Saint days. Great review, though.