L.J. Shen

   Emilia They say love and hate are the same feelings experienced under different circumstances, and it's true. The man who comes to me in my dreams also haunts me in my nightmares. He is a brilliant lawyer. A skilled criminal. A beautiful liar. A bully and a savior, a monster and a lover. Ten years ago, he made me run away from the small town where we lived. Now, he came for me in New York, and he isn't leaving until he takes me with him. Vicious She is a starving artist. Pretty and evasive like cherry blossom. Ten years ago, she barged into my life unannounced and turned everything upside down. She paid the price. Emilia LeBlanc is completely off-limits, my best friend's ex-girlfriend. The woman who knows my darkest secret, and the daughter of the cheap Help we hired to take care of our estate. That should deter me from chasing her, but it doesn't. So she hates me. Big fucking deal. She better get used to me.

Sinners of Saint #1

Vicious

“I want you,” he said simply. “Just you. Nothing else. Only ever you,” he breathed out in pain, closing his eyes. “Fuck, Emilia. You.”

She was a fantasy, and like all fantasies, she was meant to be savored, cherished, and treated with caution and respect.

How could you not want to fuck this chick? Of course I was hard. She looked like a rainbow.

Levi-Mae 

‘That was Emilia. The sweetest. The nicest. And...mine.’

“I love you.” He grinned like the boy I was once so desperate to impress. 

“I loved you first,” I teased like the girl who knew deep down he always liked her too. 

“Not possible.” He kissed me hard, his tongue sliding into my mouth. Then he leaned back. “I loved you since you told me your friends called you Millie. Even then, when I caught you eavesdropping, I knew I wasn’t gonna call you that, because you weren’t going to be my fucking friend. You were destined to be my wife.”

The war is over, and the good guys won.” 

“You’re not a good person,” she sniffed. 

‘Just because he didn’t wear his heart on his sleeve, didn’t mean his heart wasn’t bleeding.’

‘I was everything illogical and reckless, everything stupid and irrational...because I was his.’

“In love.” I breathed hard, burying my face in her hair. “I feel in love, and it’s you that I love. So fucking much.”

‘She tilted her head slightly and stared at me almost dreamily, and I loved her for it. 

and that’s when I realized that all this time, all this fucking time I was chasing her, I was actually loving her. 

And I loved her when I didn’t want anything to do with her.’

“Because I trust you. Because I want to know if there’s still a chance you can know who I am, who I really am, and still...” Don’t say love me, don’t say love me, don’t say love me. “Be with me.” 

“I want to be with you,” she confirmed without hesitation, and fuck, it just got a whole lot warmer. “I know that they damaged you, and I still want you. I don’t even want to fix you. I just want you as you are. Broken. Misunderstood. Jerk. I want the real version, the dark version, the one who made me the saddest I’ve ever been in my life, but also the happiest.”

“They’d murdered the only person who loved me.”

‘All I wanted was for her to be mine, but I kept thinking—believing—that I wasn’t enough. That something so broken couldn’t possibly deserve someone so whole.’

“I thought you’d try to take me home.” I arched a playful eyebrow. 

“You thought wrong. Your pussy doesn’t interest me right now. Your heart does.”

“Ask me what I want,” Vicious murmured into my face. 

The public display of affection from him—not sexual, not bullying, but pure, naked affection—filled my chest with warmth, but I tried to swallow down my hope.

 “What do you want?” I turned my gaze to meet his, and suddenly, we weren’t in New York, in a gallery full of people. We were in my old room. Ignoring the party and the world around us, a world that we constantly disregarded when we were together.

 “I want you,” he said simply. “Just you. Nothing else. Only ever you,” he breathed out in pain, closing his eyes. “Fuck, Emilia. You.”

‘Acting like the psychopath she always thought I was.

And maybe I was a psychopath. Maybe she was the person who made me one.’

“Missed me?” He offered one of his cocky smirks as I strode toward him. 

“Not quite.” I gave him a shove back into his office.

“How far are you willing to go for this girl, Vic?” 

I ran a hand through my hair, tugging hard at the roots. “Well, I think I’m about to find the fuck out.”

“I used to think of you as a villain, but you’re not my villain. You’re your own villain. To me, you were a lesson. An important brutal lesson, nothing more and nothing less.”

‘I needed her and she wasn’t there. I needed her but I knew I’d die before admitting that simple fact aloud.’

‘The room spun around me, like a ballerina on her toes, round and round, and in the blur, there was only him. His dark eyes. His scowl. His air. He was taunting me, even when he wasn’t there.’

‘It was easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.’

Hanna Rybchynska

Not for me... i only read one chapter and it was awful... anoying and didn't feel the connection with main character... I just wanted to roll my eyes... terrible way to begin a book!

Selin Igten

HELLO!??!?! HELPPPPP what the hell was this

Tbh i don’t care there’s something about this book that I clearly like bc this was a re-read and I liked it just as much as the first time lol

Arielis Valentin

Ms. Mint

***CONTAINS SPOILERS***

L.J. Shen's books are either a big hit or total miss for me. Playing with Fire is amongst my favorite, and I enjoyed reading The Villain immensely. But this one right here definitely falls under the latter category.


  Why?


1. I don't mind teenage drama (and this book is full of it) when the characters are actual teenagers. I don't mind the stupid decisions that these high school kids are making because hello...teenagers? No, I don't mind those. My problem is when there's a ten-year time jump--the characters are now around 27/28 y.o--and yet their emotional intelligence had never made it past high school. 

Here's an example: Vicious and Dean are best friends. They're also business partners. In their senior year in high school, they were involved in a love triangle. Dean got into a relationship with Emilia, whom, of course, Vicious has feelings for (despite his teenage ass denial). They were a couple for about eight months when Vicious, an asshole that he is (but that's a discussion for another time), decided he couldn't take seeing the two of them together anymore. So, he threatened Emilia with her parents' job in exchange for her leaving Dean and the town after their graduation. 

Fast forward ten years later. Apparently, Dean's still salty about Emilia leaving him all those years ago. He found out Vicious's been sleeping with Emilia in his apartment (even though he, too, has been whoring around in Vicious' apartment), and they got into a fist fight. Seriously, Dean. Ten years is a long time. You meet new people. You experience new things. You live and learn. You move on. You don't exchange blows with your supposedly best friend, whom you also co-found a multi-million dollar company with, just because he's been fucking your ex-highschool-gf. 



2. Emilia.
She's a freaking mess. And I just can't like her. She describes herself best:

 
"I was everything illogical and reckless, everything stupid and irrational...because I was his" - Chapter 28.

I mean, what do you say to that?



3. The resolution of the conflict between Vicious and his stepmom feels...anticlimactic. It was built up nicely, but in the end, I was left with just feeling meh. 

 

4. Not a fan of the simultaneous back and forth swap of the dual timelines.

Ergo, nope, this one just didn't work for me.

The beginning and middle were so good but the end felt a bit anticlimatic tbh I expected more and it got a tad boring but the the first 250 pages were great!

Sophia

Allison Freedman

Your girl loves a good grovel!! Wtf do they put in the water in Todos Santos? Because JAAYSUS.

menna

i might be a little bit in love with them

He was the man of my dreams, but also my worst nightmare... They say that love and hate are the same feeling experienced in different ways, and they are right. Vicious is cold, cruel, and dangerous, but I can't help but be drawn to him. Ten years ago, he ruined my life. Now he has come back for me because I am the only one who knows his secret and he will not stop until he makes me his.

dija

Vicious is a hottie boottie and I enjoyed this book V much.

Laura 

I didn’t hate this book. I didn’t love it that much either, but oh well. 

These characters were cute ah. Now, I’m stressed to read dean and Rosie’s book because I loved them as parents but the fact that Em was Dean’s ex kinda is a turn off omfl. 

I’m hoping they’re like an incredibly cute couple. 

But I remember what Rosie said about him… and I’m not going to be happy, I just know. 

Also I hate vicious’ blood family. They suck. 

Keira 💫

You know what?

I didn’t hate this book. I didn’t love it that much either, but oh well. 

These characters were cute ah. Now, I’m stressed to read dean and Rosie’s book because I loved them as parents but the fact that Em was Dean’s ex kinda is a turn off omfl. 

I’m hoping they’re like an incredibly cute couple. 

But I remember what Rosie said about him… and I’m not going to be happy, I just know. 

Also I hate vicious’ blood family. They suck. 

Ashley

☆ 3.5 / 5 ☆ 

So I had quite some issues with this book, which is disappointing because I was really excited to read it. 😭😭

The ebook. It was so messed up I sometimes had trouble understanding the text; I still pulled through it like the baddest queen ever. The paragraphs were divided into lines and it confused me a bit. 

I couldn't even see the book cover on my shelf. Like ??? It's a no no. It stressed me a lot so I deleted the book file after I was done with reading it. 

I think I lost at least 25% of the plot. But oh well. 

It was after the 65% mark that I finally started enjoying the book and having interest in the plot. 

Another issue for me is that I did not like Vicious. He was not it for me. I also felt like Millie deserved more than Vicious. Idk. 

Yeah I think that’s it. I would probably reread this in the future if the ebook is in better condition or when i have enough money to buy physical book copies.

mikee ♡♡

I never thought I would enjoy this book more than I have expected! Full of banter and wits!

Kathleen Tom

4 stars! 

It was a good book, an amazing experience! This is my first time reading something from L.J Shen and I’m not stopping anytime soon! :)

ummm Vicious is insane. an actual asshole. I actually yelled "what's wrong with this guy?!! he's literally psychotic!!" while reading this. but um he kinda won me over towards the end IM WEAK OKAY #ViciousiscrazybutcrazyforEmilia <3

freya.nightwolf

I just finished the series and the spin-off, and "Vicious" is my favorite book of all. I simply love Vicious. 
I loved this book for all the wrong reasons :))) He's deadly, he knows what he wants, he does what needs to be done, even if everyone will see him as the villain and he doesn't care about anyone's opinion but one person. 
The way the dialogue between Vicious and Emilia has been written is perfect. The jokes, the fights, the hunt, is all there and it's perfect. PERFECT.

soph <33

tbh, didn’t like the hero for a good 85% of this, heroine was alright but annoyingly forgiving of said hero at times. don’t really know what else to say, I zoned out for a lot of this (audiobook) but all in all: it wasn’t bad, I was invested enough to finish it (or did I just have it on in the background while doing art homework…)

Caroll-Ann

Noya

התיאור החיצוני של וישס זה כל מה שאני מאחלת לעצמי בבעל. 

כשקראתי את זה בפעם הראשונה אהבתי את זה ואז אחרי כמה חודשים (שנה?) פתאום ממש רציתי לקרוא את זה שוב בלי איזו סיבה מיוחדת (סתם דחף מוזר) אז כמובן שזה מה שעשיתי ואיכשהו זה היה אפילו טוב יותר

mahi

vita

tamara ortiz

this is more of a bully romance than an enemies to lovers. I can't make myself rate it higher than a one star because it'll feel like I'm supporting the whole bullying part of the book.

Allison Garrett

Emilia had a high school crush on her bully, Vicious (no that’s really what he calls himself), who also was her parents’ employer. Vicious thinks he hates Emilia but has really been in love with her. Ten years after high school they meet again in New York City. Vicious needs Emilia’s help to get revenge, and Emilia is desperately in need of money. Will working together pull them closer together or push them even further apart? 
	Pros: 
•	Pacing- I liked the pacing of this for a romance book. Usually, I hate these kinds of flashbacks, but I thought it really worked here. 
•	Emilia- While obviously too forgiving, she was a sweet character that you actively rooted for. 
Cons: 
•	Vicious- Ok honestly, I didn’t see many redeeming qualities here. I get that his childhood was horrible blah blah, but he literally calls his love interest 
“Help”. I don’t think there’s any coming back from that alone despite all the other stuff he’s done to Emilia. 
•	Rosie, and other side characters, were pretty sucky. 

You know once again I read this book in almost one sitting and I did enjoy it, so I don’t think it’s fair for me to completely bash it. And to be totally fair I will read the other books in this series, so L.J. Shen did in fact draw me in. I’m giving Vicious 3/5 stars.

Vicious Sinners of Saint #1

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