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Dark themes and character development that was phenomenal

  • Writer: Sue Menard
    Sue Menard
  • Feb 25, 2020
  • 3 min read

ADD TO GOODREADS

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.

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MY REVIEW


I enjoyed Angry God. The darkness of topic and characters pulled me in. Especially Vaughn. He is a complicated character and I loved seeing all the steps that led to his walls crumbling and his vulnerability exposed. This aspect, for me, was really well done. What I needed more of is relationship development. There was not enough time between these characters when they actually liked/loved each other. There was so much back and forth and time apart between them. Because of this, Angry God is not my favorite LJ Shen book. I love a dark read and this had everything I would normally enjoy. The downfall, for me, was that there was not enough build up of Vaughn and Len’s relationship amidst their darkness and the darkness that surrounds them. A dark book with themes like these, for me, need to concentrate on character AND relationship development. In Angry God, the character development is there and it is phenomenal. I especially LOVED Vaughn’s fall from god to vulnerable human. The relationship aspect between them, however, needed more development. There was little turn around from the hate-to-love dynamic and it made their relationship seem rushed and superficial. The fact that I still enjoyed this read regardless of this, is thanks to this author’s writing style. It captivates and keeps you turning the pages.

 

EXCERPT


“How good are you at keeping secrets, Lenora Astalis?” His voice wrapped around my neck like a noose.


I wanted to cough. I needed to cough. He terrified me. I hated him with the heat and passion of a thousand blazing suns. He made me feel like a scaredy cat and a snitch.


“Oh, yes. If you’re coward enough to pretend you’re asleep, you’re good enough to keep a secret. That’s the thing about you, Astalis. I can smash you into dust and watch your grains dance at my feet. My little circus monkey.”


I might’ve hated Vaughn, but I hated myself more for not standing up to him. For not opening my eyes and spitting in his face. Clawing his unnaturally blue eyes out.


Taunting him back for all the times he’d taunted all of us at Carlisle Prep.


“By the way, your eyelids are moving,” he said drily, chuckling.


He straightened up, his finger making a brief stop at the base of my spine. He snapped his fingers, making a breaking sound, and I nearly jumped out of my skin, letting out a gasp. I squeezed my eyes tighter, still pretending to sleep.


He laughed.


The bastard laughed.


Was he sparing me for the time being? Was he going to check in on me from now on? Retaliate if I opened my mouth? He was so unpredictable. I wasn’t sure what my life would look like in the morning.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR



L.J. Shen is a USA Today, Washington Post and Amazon #1 Best-selling author of contemporary, New Adult and YA romance. Her books have been sold to nineteen different countries. She lives in California with her husband, son, cat and eccentric fashion choices, and enjoys good wine, bad reality TV shows and catching sun rays with her lazy cat.




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