L.J. Shen

Angry God

"Mother. Of. All. Angst. This book is not for the faint of heart. It is rip-your-hair-out frustrating and full of depth and emotion." - Lana, DG Romance.From #1 Amazon Bestseller L.J. Shen comes a new, angsty standalone new adult novel 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.

Charlie 

Que onda Vaughn y Lenora con la sangre JAJAJA.
Al comienzo me caía muuy mal Vaughn y no sabía porque el era así but a medida que iba leyendo me di cuenta porque y que horrible, lo entendí luego de saber su secreto. 
Lenoraaaaahhh la amé, amé su estilo bien dark al comienzo y amé la forma en que siempre estaba para su hermana. Ay Poppy me dio mucha pena pinche Knight solo la utilizó y la dejó. 
Amé la relación de Pope y Lenora el siempre la estaba apoyando y en TODO SENTIDO JAJAJAJ 1313.
Ahhh se me olvidó hablar de Vicious y Emilia, igual que como me pasó con Mel y Jaime me pregunté como no se daban cuenta de lo que estaban pasando sus hijos, osea dos dedos en la frente, dah.

(No sé hacer reseñas pero jajajaja esto el lo mejor que puedo hacer)

In het begin zat ik wel beetje van wtf want ze hadden het over zoenen terwijl ze 9&10 waren. En ik dacht van wat is de deal van vaughn maar uiteindelijk na gelezen te hebben waarom ie zo is, janken. Ook wel leuk dat sommige dingen een mysterie bleven zoals zijn kunstwerk. Uiteindelijk leuk einde en fijn dat ze zelfde zijn geworden als zijn ouders ( waar blijkbaar ook een boek van is) . Daarnaast leuk dat naast Lenora en vaughn ook andere povs zijn.

Emma Frank 

freya.nightwolf

The son all Vicious fans were waiting for. Vaughn himself. I LOVED THIS BOOK. When I first saw this series with the FHH kids, I thought Knight-Luna will be my favorite one, BUT NO. Angry God nailed it. If Vicious is my favorite from the mother series, Angry God is my favorite from the spin-off. 
Lenny shocked me in one particular scene. I really thought Vaughn will destroy that bed and shove those handcuffs into Pope's mouth. 
Vaughn is so much like his father, and the way he's talking and literally going for the hunt with Lenny is really an art. I'm so happy that we got to see his story, his side of the rage and anger, and also every cold calculated maneuver, Vaughn is really a piece of art himself. In those last chapters where you could say that his heart starts beating again, and the relationship between him and his father, I loved every page of this book.

mercy

this is basically a recycled vicious but... not good. vaughn and lenora were such weirdos in the beginning and the change in their relationship from “hate” to love wasn’t believable imo
also, extremely hot take: yes i think broken knight is the best one out of the 3 books. by far. yes we exist.

Beatriz Aguiar

I finished it but only because I had nothing to lose. I kept hoping it would turn around but no. It wasn't awful but it wasn't engaging either.

I read this because of a tt about a very interesting scene. 

That scene was anti-climactic. But I still loved the book.  

Keira 💫

I read this because of a tt about a very interesting scene. 

That scene was anti-climactic. But I still loved the book.  

horrible  remembered it because of salma  

horrible  remembered it because of salma  

he shoves a paintbrush up her ass 

korina

I’m obsessed. Vaughn is so complex and deserves all the love in the world. I could happily read another 3 books based on Vaughn and Lenny I loved them that much!! 

(trigger warning; SA)

Ashlee

I loved this! Vaughn is definitely his father’s son. Full review to come!

Marina Garcia

Lysha Taynish

THIS BOOK! 🥺❤️
It made me feel so many things, it was such a rollercoaster 🥺❤️

Elif Gültekin

My main issue about this series is they got them happily-married-after with twin kids, job? and white fence houses at age of 21!??! Well this sounds very realistic. But it was better and more twisted then Knight and Luna’s dumb story.

Nia Kharebashvili 

Well, after reading the clusterfuck that was Broken Knight I didn’t have high expectations for this one but I still prayed that Angry God would save this series. 

My prayers were shat on.

I’ve only read Sinners of Saint and All Saints High by her but I can still tell that LJ Shen’s writing style is beautiful. Sometimes even poetic. And it’s such a shame that this beauty is being wasted on excessive, unnecessary and UNHEALTHY drama. 

Remember Vaughn and Lenora’s breathtaking chemistry in BK? Well, it’s lost. Gone. Dead. IT’S JUST NOT THERE! 

The book was pretty predictable. You could pick up on the signs and suspect who was the major player in Vaughn’s secret pretty easily. I don’t even remember the first half of the book. It sucked that much! (But I do remember rolling my eyes and shaking my head throughout the whole book.) Even though it kinda picked up in the middle, the vibe was completely different. Something that isn’t characteristic of All Saints High. It had a layer of “Dark Academia” trope to it but that, too, was not executed well.

Vaughn had so much potential to be the complex protagonist with many layers for us to uncover but all he did was have blowjobs. I do sympathize with everything that’s happened to him but he was really bland as a character. 
And as for Lenora, she was a decent female lead. And no matter how “crazy” she got or whatever she still seemed boring to me. Getting turned on by blood and a knife stuck in your certain body part doesn’t make you special, honey. It just makes you weird but hey, everyone has their own kink, right? Who am I to judge?

You know, if you wanna prove a point and have revenge, change the methods and do it without having your dick/pussy sucked. I don’t know what is it with LJ Shen and her strange obsession with oral but I’m so fucking tired of authors dumping this unnecessary smut for no justifiable reason other than creating supposed “sexual tension.” One thing she did succeed in was making me vomit.

As we can already tell, LJ Shen has a pattern: Conflict, conflict, sexual tension, misunderstanding, love confession+sexual tension, time jump a few years in epilogue, get married and then knocked up. 
It’s getting a bit tiresome. 

But bonus points for ViciousEmilia content. 

This series was a mess. Pretty Reckless was decent in comparison with the last two but it still managed to ruin Melody. Something I will never forgive. I don’t get it. I feel like authors have one sole purpose while writing spin off series about next generation: make the original characters look bad. Ugh

Despite being disappointed in ASH I can’t deny that I love SOS and it’s characters with all my heart but I will not be reading any of Shen’s other books. Her new style isn’t for me. 
Now I’m just gonna make a cup of coffee and pretend that this series doesn’t exist. 

L.J Shen really needs to learn to put trigger warnings in descriptions!!! It may be spoilery but damn, it’s necessary!

Trigger Warnings: blood, self-harm, multiple mentions of suicide, child abuse, child molestation, statutory rape.

Aayusma Aryal

I haven't read LJ Shen's all books but but i have read most of them to say that this is one of her best work.
AGAIN...ITS WRITTEN STUNNINGLY. Unlike Pretty Reckless you sympathize with two lead character no matter how shitty their decisions are shitty time and again. these two? ARE PERFECT MATCH. Off the first look you know there's deeply wrong with the guy and you guess it pretty quickly and its proven right. You understand that he has EVERY RIGHT to hate the world. Going through what he went through in very early age will fuck you up little more so he takes it out on the world and our Lenora is not an exception. He bullies/tortures her also bc he can't have her.

Its deliciously written. An easy 5 stars.

C V 

Ohhhh I love them a lil off in the head. But more importantly healing, purposeful dilibrate healing. Making the choice that's unnatural to your current charter because you want to change that character.

celeste

because the author didn’t even deem to write tw because it would “spoil” her book (does she actually think she can use pedophilia as some goddamn plot twist??) here you go: child abuse/molestation, especially chapter 22 which describes it in explicit detail.

a summary of this entire book: yikes. MASSIVE YIKES. this will contain spoilers because i’ve got some receipts and i’m gonna gladly rant about the garbage fire that was angry god.

one of my main issues with angry god was the lack of development in vaughn and lenora’s relationship. 70% of the book was spent vaughn being an asshole to her for no reason whatsoever, there’s legit 0 reason why he would hate her, NONE, NINGUNA! and then suddenly he realizes he actually loves her and that all of his terrible actions towards her were actually done because of his love for her. that’s some fucked up shit if i do say so myself.

another issue was vaughn’s character. i did not care about him. i did not like the way he trated every single person like trash when they had done nothing to him, he even said some awful shit to knight, his supposedly best friend. i just couldn’t care less about the hero in this book. and the fact that all of his actions get somehow excused because of what happened to him as a kid is bullshit. was what happened to vaugh when he was a kid horrible? yes. do people handle with trauma in different ways? yes, but that doesn’t excuse you being a dick to literally everyone. he needed a lot of therapy and the fact that everything gets brushed under the carpet, even after his parents find out what happened to him, was disgusting. this is what vicious tells emilia after she finds out their son was sexually abused when he was a kid: “the best thing we can do for him is prentend it never happened, that you still don’t know” because that’s the sure way to deal with trauma, PRETEND IT NEVER HAPPENED! your trauma will be gone and everything will be grand wohoo! like i said, their son needed professional help, not pretending nothing ever happened to him.

Going back to why i hated the hero of this book, here’s some receipts:

• he made lenora’s nemesis suck his dick off in the middle of a school hallway in front of the ENTIRE STUDENT BODY (!!!!) and lenora just to “prove a point” (he was pissed because she had just said that she would never be with a monster like him). 

• vaughn when thinking about/talking to the heroine:

“my little dancing monkey. so agreeable you could get her to deepthroat a baseball bat if you asked, and not even nicely”.

“your face disgusts me so much”

“good, i might remember your insignificant existence in a couple years”

“i’m starting to consider it. you’ll be my pro bono case. not full-on fucking, but feeling your lip ring on my cock no longer makes me want to vomit”

“getting pushed around a little was just what the doctor ordered. by me. not anyone else. only ever fucking me” (he’s talking about how only HE gets to bully her and make her life hell, not anyone else in the school)

“i was going to take every single thing she loved and cared about. not because she interested me, but because she was a means to an end” (not really, the only thing he needed to get his revenge was the internship, bullying her and making her life hell was just because he was a literal asshole, i repeat, THERE WAS NO REASON WHY VAUGHN HATED LENORA)

“you will do nothing but suck my cock and cater to my every need this next semester” (lmao sure jan)

“if you prove to know how to suck a cock, i might show you some of the places, just as long as you don’t confuse this for a relationship or expect me to get you off. i don’t get people off” (no comments)

“i wasn’t going to use her services, unless her lips counted as service when they wrapped around my cock every night” (again, no comments)

“whatever you have going with him stops now, you were my property at all saints, and you’re sure as fuck my possession here”(oof the love that exudes off of him)

“if she was dumb enough to say i never gave her a birthday present, i really had no goddamn interest in tapping her ass anyway” (he legit just thinks she’s a hole to fuck, no more no less)

“i slid the chisel into her pussy, i wasn’t going to hurt her, not really” (i just…. he put a chisel INSIDE HER, like an actual tool that could have hurt her lit rally speechless)

• bonus lenora quote:

“essentially, deep down, we all liked to be sexually degraded, just a bit”. ma’am is everything okay at home??? i don’t think you can speak for the entire female population and say something like that. i don’t think the majority of women like to be treated like trash when having sex, but you do you.

and that leaves us with the last thing about this book that i hated, and it was the outrageous and ridiculous things that kept happening in this book. i don’t know why but the plot points that lj shen used in this book were incredibly unrealistic. the whole drug-smuggling thing, the way harry ends up being killed and no one suspects a thing when the place screamed “crime scene”, the whole arabella/lenora’s father miscommunication plotline, lenora’s father giving the internship to vaughn instead of his own daughter just so that she would fall in love with vaughn because according to her father “he could see the magic surrounding them when vaughn gave lenora a piece of brownie when they were actual kids”. LET THAT RIDICULOUS THOUGHT SINK IN. and again another epilogue where characters that are barely out of their teenage years are having kids. literally every one of this series’ epilogues is the same. 19/20 years old getting married and pregnant immediately. apparently, the author doesn’t know any other way of ending her books. they all got to get married and have kids by the age of 20. in this economy??? i don’t think so ma’am. i’m tired, and i’m glad that this is the last lj shen book that i will ever pick up in my entire life. good riddance!

Salome Torres

“If you want to look at your fiercest protector, at the one person you can always count on, take a good look in the mirror.”
Stars: 4/5
Characters: 5/5
Setting: 5/5
Plot: 3/5
Pros: great romance
Cons: Similar plot to the other books in the series
Vaughn and Lenora is heartbreaking, I wanted justice for Vaughn and it was handed out perfectly. It was real and rough the relationship between them. It was a good end to the Sinners of Saints series.

Lily

I freaking loved this book and this whole series. I have to admit I’m was a bit hesitant to read books by L.J Shen but I love the writing and story lines so much. The epilogue in this book was amazing and completely tied off the book. 100% recommend!!!!

Helena Cristina Nogueira Pereira

I know this one has some problematic shit happening, but i really liked it.
I was so enthralled by it, i couldn't put it down. 
Sometimes i ponder about my own morals...

Saayan

This book was not for me. I loved Pretty Reckless which I felt had more heart and remains as my favorite of the Trilogy. Angry God was too violent and unnecessarily cruel for my tastes.

Luisa Manfeld Lester

I can’t believe that this series is over now. What a ride it has been. I absolutely loved all the books. I have a hard time choosing a favourite, but damnnnnn this book was sooo good. I was literally addicted from page one. I read it in one day which says a lot about my social life but I have no regrets. This was just what I needed to get me out of a mean reading slump. 

I loved reading about Vaughn and Lenora. Lenny is probably my favourite heroine not only by L.J. Shen, but also just my favourite heroine to exist. She was so badass and strong and just amazing. And Vaughn. Ouch. He was so so so precious and such a miserable angry guy but he was still perfect and I loved just about every single word written about him. 

“Pale face. Black heart. Golden legacy.”

This book was very dark and not a fluffy cute romance. But that’s one of the best things about it. L.J. Shen is so effing talented. She creates the best characters, who can be the biggest assholes but you can’t help loving them. Vaughn was no different than the rest. Sure this book is not gonna be for everyone, but as a lover of dark romance, I adored it.

“There are no bargains between gods and mortals. You will kneel, and as we’re both well aware, you’re also going to fucking enjoy it.” 

One of the things I looked the most forward to was the relationship between Vaughn and Vicious. I was not disappointed. Sure, I wanted more scenes with them, but the ones I got was amazing. One of my favourite lines in the whole book is: “son, are you gay?” 

Just to wrap it up. This book was amazing. Just like every other L.J. Shen book is. Lenora Astalis is a total badass, and Vaughn is the hottest creature ever. Bye. 

“You came before art. Before life. Definitely before hate.”

Angry God

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