Playing with Fire by L.J. Shen Published by Self-Published on September 15, 2020
Pages: 373
Genres: New Adult, Romance
Amazon
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 arctic 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.
Playing with Fire shows off the softer — but no less angsty — side of L.J. Shen’s writing. Her stories frequently feature alphaholes — truly despicable men of privilege that you hate to love. This book isn’t about bored little rich bullies. It’s about misunderstood misfits, about loss, and rising above one’s demons.
Grace and West are both damaged college students but they carry their scars differently. I felt every one of Grace’s insecurities and the burden of her responsibilities. West might be a bad boy but he’s not cruel. My heart ached for him, even before I fully understood the source of his immense pain. There’s a complexity to these characters and I couldn’t help but admire their grit. Their love is sweet and invigorating.
I enjoyed all the scenes in the taco truck, and man, do I want a taco and a margarita slushie right now! Grace’s easy friendship with her 90’s-loving bestie is so fun. I also liked the relationship between West and his loyal best friend Easton.
It was easy to get sucked into this inspiring story. Quite a satisfying read.
Recommended for fans of:
Bad boys
Damaged characters
Underground fighting
College romance
Food trucks
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.
So is this one less crazy than her recent other books? I had a hard time with the first two All Saints High because I feel like she’s beginning to cross a line I’m uncomfortable with. Crazy, brutal drama for the sake of drama, you know what I mean? I was curious if she’s moving away from that with this one? I gave up reading her after those first two books, but this one almost sounds sweet.