The Villain by L.J. Shen // Review

Cillian was a dirty lullaby, inviting me to sink into his claws and nestle in his darkness.

The Villain by L.J. Shen

Standalone - Boston Belles #2
Release - December 17, 2020
Genre - Contemporary Romance/enemies-to-lovers
Heat level - 3.5 out of 5
Format/Source - ebook borrowed through KU
Length - 395 pages

Cruel. Coldblooded. Hades in a Brioni suit.
Cillian Fitzpatrick has been dubbed every wicked thing on planet earth.
To the media, he is The Villain.
To me, he is the man who (reluctantly) saved my life.
Now I need him to do me another, small solid.
Bail me out of the mess my husband got me into.
What’s a hundred grand to one of the wealthiest men in America, anyway?
Only Cillian doesn’t hand out free favors.
The price for the money, it turns out, is my freedom.
Now I’m the eldest Fitzpatrick brother’s little toy.
To play, to mold, to break.
Too bad Cillian forgot one, tiny detail.
Persephone wasn’t only the goddess of spring; she was also the queen of death.
He thinks I’ll buckle under the weight of his mind games.
He is about to find out the most lethal poison is also the sweetest.

Cillian Fitzpatrick was absolutely delicious. I don't know why I'm so attracted to alphaholes, but he was impossible to resist. He was cold and unfeeling (seemingly), calculating and cunning, successful and ruthless... he was an incredible character to get to know. However, it didn't take me long to realize that he reminded me of someone. Someone who won my heart long ago and so I was predisposed to Cillian's brand of cool.

Persephone wasn't so lucky. I didn't grow fond of her. I'm not a fan of people who are reckless, irrational, immature, and doormats. It annoyed me that she didn't see beyond Cillian's surface. I get that it was necessary to push this story forward, but there's a saying that I'm prone to say to people like her... pick sense out of nonsense. Girl didn't have one observant bone in her body and stood up for herself at all the wrong times for the wrong reasons.

So Cillian gets all three stars. I liked what the author did to give this character dimension. His history broke my heart and only made me love him more. And the ending... yeah, that definitely gave me everything I wanted for this man and his future happiness.

FREE to read with Kindle Unlimited ➤ https://amzn.to/2WOZ1qo

I leaned against the doorframe, hands tucked in my front pockets, and observed. It took her three minutes to notice me. Another two to lift her jaw off the floor, straighten her spine, and turn scarlet. Our eyes met across the room, and that nagging murmur in my chest happened again.

Get that checked. If you drop dead from a heart attack at forty, you’ll have no one else to blame. She winced, looking like I physically slapped her.

“Mr. Fitzpatrick.”

“Miss Penrose.”

“Veitch,” she corrected, just to spite me.

“Not for long,” I noted dryly. “A word?”

“I know many. My favorite one right now is—leave.”

“You want to hear me out.” I cracked my knuckles. “Now say goodbye to your little friends.”

She looked back and forth between the kids and me, then turned and murmured something to the teacher next to her, and hurried my way, dunking her head down. “What are you doing here?”

She closed the door behind her, whisper-shouting.

I’ve been asking myself the same question since bailing on Keith and his snooze-fest speech. What the hell was I doing here?

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.

Find all of her details on her website.