Vicious by L.J.Shen

My rating: 5/5 stars

When all your blog girlfriends are drooling about a book/character and you have no idea what the fuss is all about, you begin to wonder if you are missing something very interesting. So, after weeks of receiving good feedback, I wanted to join the “Vicious Club”. Have no doubt that my girls were absolutely right, this book was so much fun, a total whirlwind of emotions that offered special characters, that were totally out of my comfort zone.

Baron “Vicious” Spencer hated Emilia from the very first moment he laid his eyes on her. She has the total opposite of everything he is. She was sweet, king, loving and nice. He was hateful, sinful, angry and bitter. Emilia will work for his family for 1 year, but in the meantime, Vicious will ruin and change her life. During her stay at the Spencer mansion, Emily will be very drawn to this complicated boy who managed to catch her attention and never let go. She will fall in love with him, only to receive such a gruesome treatment from his side. When Emily begins dating one of his best friend, Dean, Vicious takes this treatment at a whole other level, making Emilia leave her family and town. Now, after 10 years, they meet again and Vicious has big plans for Emilia, in order to fulfill his plans of revenge. Only that at a certain point everything will come around and Vicious will find himself in a very vulnerable position, that will make him question everything he ever believed and fought for in his life.

Emilia was sweet, kind, a loving daughter and sister. She worked so hard to assure her sister’s medicine and after being bullied and sent out of town by Vicious, her struggles became unbearable. She always loved him, even when he was cruel, mean, shouted or talked bad about her. That was just something that Emilia didn’t bought about him and wanted to know him better, the real him. Seeing Vicious again after 10 years brought back painful memories of a life that could have been different if it wasn’t for him and sincerely speaking, even know she had no idea what made him act this way. When Vicious offered her a lot of money to be part of his plan of revenge, Emilia reluctantly accepts because of her sister’s Rosie condition, being very aware that all those suppressed feelings will came back 10 times stronger.

Vicious is not you typical hero, and why not, he will surely fit in the anti-hero department. From the first 3% of the book he was an asshole, rude, mean, cold, without any kind of feelings for nobody. He didn’t like people, couldn’t express anything he felt and just acted on instinct. When he met Emilia something clicked, but because of his “charming” personality, he couldn’t put 2 and 2 together, even if for the others around it was kind of obvious. Jealousy and revenge really altered this feelings until there was nothing left to feel. In the first part of the book he was a complete mystery for me, but after discovering his past and traumas, I was not that hard on him, even if he deserved it.

I could understand a little everything that was happening inside of him, but even after that, a part of my heart couldn’t justify all his actions. Yes, dramatic things happened to him, big ones that will leave anybody scarred and blank, so in a way he had circumstances, but not entirely, if you know what I mean:) This book is totally confusing because you want to love this hero 100%, but you just can’t entirely after the things that he did. But if Emilia could love him after that, maybe the readers can forgive him as well. What I enjoy every time in a book is a hero’s persistence to have the heroine back and I had plenty of that here. As a whirlwind that Vicious is, so is his determination for fixing things and fighting for what he loves. His mistake was not realising that love was clearly in front of him, but he blew it big time:)

As a conclusion to my essay of a review, Vicious was a very interesting read for me because of the mixed feelings generated. It was funny, dark, surprising and very satisfying by the end. I loved the pace of the action, the writing style and the smart way the characters were created. It felt more realistic, something special you don’t read every day. Being my first L.J.Shen book, it was a total surprise for me and I’m very glad I’ve picked it up.