#DGRFave & Review: Bane by LJ Shen

BANE
Series: Sinners of Saint #4
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Author: LJ Shen
Release Date: May 10, 2018

A COMPLETE standalone and a Sinners of Saint spin-off.

Bane
Naked surfer. Habitual pothead. A con, a liar, a thief and a fraud.
Last I heard, he was extorting the rich and screwing their wives for a living.
Which is why I’m more than a little surprised to find him at my threshold, looking for my friendship, my services, and most puzzling of all—looking humbled.
Thing is, I’m on a boycott. Literally—I cut boys from my life. Permanently.
Problem is, Bane is not a boy, he is all man, and I’m falling, crashing, drowning in his sweet, perfect lies.

Jesse Carter
Hot as hell, cold as ice.
I wasn’t aware of her existence until a fat, juicy deal landed in my lap.
She’s a part of it, a little plaything to kill some time.
She is collateral, a means to an end, and a side-bonus for striking a deal with her oil tycoon stepdad.
More than anything, Jesse Carter is a tough nut to crack.
Little does she know, I have the teeth for it.

AMAZON

We weren’t a boy and a girl. We were two lonely, fucked-up souls. It made wanting Bane in my life acceptable. I wanted him to fix me.

The queen of angst has done it once again. She’s given me a hero that I have fallen head over ovaries for, and I can’t stop thinking about. Bane is so different from the heroes we’re used to from LJ Shen, but he’s no less potent. He’s not the typical alpha-hole that she writes oh-so-well. But he’s also not quite a nice guy either. Bane is that somewhere in the middle, that gray zone of sex appeal and criminal. This book was EVERYTHING.

You’re poisoned. Sheltered. Yet, you’re no Snow White. Wanna know why?”
“Why?”
“Snow White waited for the prince. You’ll be the one saving yourself in this story.”

Jesse may have been one of my favorite LJ Shen heroines to date. This girl is so broken, yet her spirit shines through even through her shattered pieces. And I absolutely loved that Bane is one of the few people in her life that sees it. He sees beyond the frumpy clothes she tries to hide behind. He sees the fiery woman behind the disguise; a woman with scars but one that will fight with the ferocity of a tiger if ever cornered. Man but I loved their immediate chemistry and dynamic. This is a slow burn, and boy does Shen make you burn. She makes you crave every stolen look, every secret touch, every forbidden erotic moment. GAH. It was so freaking delicious.

He was cracking my heart with every touch, shattering it with every smile, and it didn’t make any sense, because how could he break something that was already broken?

Bane is not a nice guy, but he’s not quite a bad guy either. This is a man with many layers that are full of depth beyond what his bad boy appearance gives off. I was turning the pages well into the night, ravenous for another layer to be revealed. The tumultuous connection that he has to Jesse had me sitting at the edge of my seat just waiting for the other shoe to drop. You experience him unwillingly and unexpectedly fall for a girl that was supposed to be a tool in his arsenal. She was only supposed to be a pawn but soon began to turn into so much more.

I survived many things, but Roman Protsenko was probably not going to be one of them.

Bane was a delicious slow burn full of depth and emotion. It was a story of survival and finding love in the darkest most unexpected corner. It was angsty, sexy, and a page turner from beginning to finish.