BOOK RELEASE BLITZ & REVIEW: Playing with Fire by L.J. Shen

"Clear off a top spot on your Best of 2020 list.

Playing with Fire is coming in HOT!"

- Harloe Rae, USA Today Bestselling Author

Playing with Fire, an all-new intense and all-consuming small town standalone romance from USA Today bestselling author L.J. Shen is available now!

A broken boy on the path to destruction.

A scarred girl without direction.

A love story carved in secrets, inked with pain and sealed with a lie.

Grace Shaw and West St. Claire are arctic opposites.

She is the strange girl from the food truck.

He is the mysterious underground fighter who stormed into her sleepy Texan college town on his motorcycle one day, and has been wreaking havoc since.

She is invisible to the world.

He is the town's beloved bad boy.

She is a reject.

He is trouble.

When West thrusts himself into Grace's quiet life, she scrambles to figure out if he is her happily-ever-after or tragic ending. 

But the harder she pushes him away, the more he pulls her out of her shell.

Grace doesn't know much about anything beyond her town's limits, but she does know this:

She is falling in love with the hottest guy in Sheridan U.

And when you play with fire--you ought to get burned.

Download your copy today or read FREE in Kindle Unlimited!

Amazon: https://amzn.to/35scdah

Amazon Universal: http://mybook.to/PWFLJShen

Amazon Paperback: https://amzn.to/3bDlzRh

Add PLAYING WITH FIRE to Goodreads - https://bit.ly/MDVljgr

MY THOUGHTS

Genre: New Adult Contemporary Romance
Point of View: Alternating First Person
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I am so obsessed with this book! It's full of angst and witty banter. It will piss you off, warm your heart, and make you feel ...all the things.  

Grace Shaw and West St. Claire are polar opposites.

Grace likes to hide in the background.
West captures the attention of everyone.
Grace refuses to step outside of her comfort zone.
West HAS no comfort zone.
Nothing flusters West.
Everything flusters Grace.

Despite their differences, Grace and West have two important things in common:

1. They have suffered an unimaginable tragedy. 

2. They are stuck in the past and allow it to dictate their future. 

Grace is surprised to find an unexpected ally in West after being forced to work with him. While West is best known for his hotheaded attitude and total domination in an underground fighting ring, he's different with Grace. He's quick to smile and shares parts of himself that he keeps hidden from everyone else. 

"In a lot of ways, the food truck felt like our bubble.
A snug confession booth.
The rules were different in the truck.
Like we shed our primary skin, of our stigma and reputation and social status.
Here we were simply... us."

PLAYING WITH FIRE is much more than a simple love story. It's also a story about life, loss, recovery, and rising up from the ruins. 

ABOUT L.J. SHEN

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 twenty 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.

Connect with L.J. Shen

Facebook: http://bit.ly/2OhSvp1

Twitter: http://bit.ly/36ELHZc

Pinterest: http://bit.ly/2oMbFsu

Instagram: http://bit.ly/2AlOiTo

Stay up to date with L.J. Shen by signing up for her mailing list: http://bit.ly/36MnmAQ

Website: http://www.authorljshen.com/

*A big thank you to the author and Social Butterfly PR for giving me the opportunity to read an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this book. The opinions expressed in this review are strictly my own and have been written in own words. Life as Jane Doe does not accept monetary compensation for reviews, interviews, giveaways, and/or book tours and does not participate in affiliate programs. 

BOOK REVIEW: The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides really surprised me... in a good way! The author did a fantastic job of keeping me in the dark. I had so many "Oh, I see what's going on here..." moments that were followed by "Okay, you got me that time but now I REALLY see what's going on..." moments while reading this book.

In fact, I never actually did see what was going on until mere moments before Michaelides plainly reveals it. To which I must say...

I love a well-written psych thriller that keeps my brain asking question after question all the way up until the very end. Because it's so hard to find them!

The Silent Patient is broken down into five parts (+ a prologue) and is told from the alternating perspectives of a "silent patient" named Alicia and her psychotherapist, Theo. The prologue provides the reader with Alicia's backstory -- the context of her daily life, as well as her marriage, and the events leading up to the traumatic event that triggered Alicia's silence -- and is told in the form of a diary written before the event. From that point forward, the story is largely told from Theo's POV in first person narrative, with an occasional entry from Alicia's diary mixed in here and there.

Short, palatable chapters, and alternating point of views, create a story that is unputdownable and easily consumed. More importantly, the author's ability to keep his readers guessing until the very end makes The Silent Patient well worth the read.

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BOOK REVIEW: Listen to Your Heart by Kasie West

Listen to Your Heart by Kasie West
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm not the least bit ashamed to admit that I have a serious affinity for super cute YA novels. And, in the young adult world, West is king! I absolutely loved The Fill-in Boyfriend, but LISTEN TO YOUR HEART might be my new favorite.

It's just the adorable kind of read that makes ya feel good! Yes, it's somewhat predictable. Some might even say it's too cheesy at times. Well, I don't care. I really and truly loved it! (Not in spite of those things, but because of them.)

Side note: Queen's "Under Pressure" was playing on a loop in my brain as the background score music for the last few chapters. Which can only mean ONE thing: it would make a fabulous coming-of-age movie!

PSS. I don't know why my brain finds the need to create a soundtrack for books, but I kind of love it.

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BOOK REVIEW: Our House by Louise Candlish

Our House by Louise Candlish
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC!
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS I’VE READ ALL YEAR.

OUR HOUSE is a spellbinding story that will surprise you over and over again. I honestly can’t remember the last time a book surprised me as much as this one did.

Fiona (known as Fi) lives in a darling suburb outside of London that is known for its beautiful landscape and skyrocketing property values. Despite the strained relationship with her estranged husband Bram, Fi has been coping relatively well with their separation and trial run custody agreement. That all changes when she arrives home early from a trip to find a family in her driveway with a moving truck. Not only does the family claim to legally own her home, but her possessions, estranged husband, and two children are also missing.

The narrative of OUR HOUSE is told from the alternating perspectives of Fi and Bram in very unique and differing formats. Fi’s story is shared in the form of a guest interview on a crime podcast called The Victim, while Bram tells his version of events in the form of a suicide letter. (No spoilers here; the reader learns this in the first few chapters.) The unreliability of the narrators adds to the suspense and mystery of the story, and Candlish does an amazing job of tying it all together in the end, by using the perspective of a third, neutral narrator.

As OUR HOUSE begins to unravel, one nightmare after another is revealed. Fraud, blackmail, secrets, lies, infidelity, betrayal. They all twist and turn until you find yourself lost inside a labyrinth. It’s a cautionary and terrifying story about how one hidden truth can turn into a tsunami of lies and destroy everything in its wake.

OVERALL: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

SUSPENSE: 😬😬😬😬😬

*A big thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book. This review is my honest opinion written in my own words.


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BOOK REVIEW: I Flipping Love You by Helena Hunting

I FLIPPING LOVE YOU by Helena Hunting is a cute story about flipping houses in the Hamptons, moving on from past hurts, and being brave enough to take a chance on love. 

Initially, Rian (pronounced Ryan) and Pierce seem like an unlikely couple on the surface, but sparks fly when an case of mistaken identity leads to a chance encounter at a grocery store.

Despite the obvious chemistry, Rian hesitates to get involved with men who aren't safe bets and Pierce is anything but safe. However, Rian quickly discovers that her reluctance is no match against Pierce's good looks and charming personality, and the two find themselves swept up in a whirlwind romance. 

I FLIPPING LOVE YOU is a feel good love story that is guaranteed to make you laugh and the perfect beach read. It's also the third novel in the SHACKING UP series but may easily be read as a standalone. In fact, I didn't initially realize this book belonged to a series. This fact ended up being an unexpected, but a welcome bonus for me, as I loved both SHACKING UP and HOOKING UP!

RATING: ❤️❤️❤️❤️

*A big thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book. The thoughts expressed in this review are my own personal opinions and have been written in my own words.