Top #4 in the entire store.#14 Most Sold Book on Amazon“Best Romance Novels of 2019” – Oprah MagazineGoodreads Best Romance of 2019 Nominee“A runaway train of revenge, rivalry and angst. This complex and venomous tale takes on a modern-day Cruel Intentions/Mean Girls vibe. Pretty Reckless is unputdownable and absolute Kindle Crack.” – Kindle Crack Book ReviewsFrom USA Today and Washington Post … Crack Book Reviews
From USA Today and Washington Post bestselling author L.J. Shen comes an intense, high school enemies-to-lovers romance with a twist.
Penn
They say revenge is a dish best served cold.
I’d had four years to stew on what Daria Followhill did to me, and now my heart was completely iced.
I took her first kiss.
She took the only thing I loved.
I was poor.
She was rich.
The good thing about circumstances? They can change. Fast.
Now, I’m her parents’ latest shiny project.
Her housemate. Her tormentor. The captain of the rival football team she hates so much.
Yeah, baby girl, say it—I’m your foster brother.
There’s a price to pay for ruining the only good thing in my life, and she’s about to shell out some serious tears.
Daria Followhill thinks she is THE queen. I’m about to prove to her that she’s nothing but a spoiled princess.
Daria
Everyone loves a good old unapologetic punk.
But being a bitch? Oh, you get slammed for every snarky comment, cynical eye roll, and foot you put in your adversaries’ way.
The thing about stiletto heels is that they make a hell of a dent when you walk all over the people who try to hurt you.
In Penn Scully’s case, I pierced his heart until he bled out, then left it in a trash can on a bright summer day.
Four years ago, he asked me to save all my firsts for him.
Now he lives across the hall, and I want nothing more than to be his last everything.
His parting words when he gave me his heart were that nothing in this world is free.
Now? Now he is making me pay.
more
This story was simply Extraordinary! L.J. Shen has consumed me once again. “Pretty Reckless” is one of my most anticipated release of 2019. I was so excited to read this but also a little nervous I wont lie. I knew this would be good but it blew my already high expectations out of the water! This is the first book I have read in one sitting in over a year! I stayed up until 2am even though I had to be up at 6 to go to work just to finish this. If you know me you now I love my sleep but this book was worth losing sleep over. Daria Followhill and Penn Scully consumed me. I didn’t think I would connect to Daria but I did. My heart literally ached for her. I absolutely, 100 percent love Daria! She is such an incredible character. She has so much growth and strength even when her heart is breaking. She is definitely one of my favorite female characters I have read about. Penn is amazing! He is definitely a hothole with a purpose. I loved him! He is angry for a reason and I love his fight. I love seeing these two together. Their chemistry is fire and their emotions are so real. You can feel what these two feel every single page! I Love this book so much! I can’t even explain how much it means to me! I am so happy Leigh published this! It is my TOP read of 2019 and I know it will forever be a favorite of mine! Daria and Penn will stick with me. If you can’t tell I Highly recommend this book! Give it a read, trust me.
P.S. I am so EXCITED for the rest of this series!!!!!!!
Pretty Reckless is a great “unexpected” romance story. I am going to be completely honest and say that it took me a bit to get into this story. It didn’t grab me from the get-go, it was more of a slow build up for me. However, once I got there, I loved it.
The fact that this is a teenage love/hate relationship type of story is just why I chose it. I typically read adult dark romances, so this was a great change of pace. It’s angsty and raw and real and that just made it fantastic. The snarkiness of the “mean girl” group and the deviousness of the “bad boy jocks” makes it so true to life. This has to be the teen story of the year.
If you have not read anything from L.J. Shen just yet, I highly recommend doing so. Pretty Reckless would be a great start. You will fall in love with her writing, just like I did.
LJ Shen serves up a smorgasbord of angst in her newest book. I can’t believe I’m saying this but it was almost too much angst for me. It was hard to recover enough to enjoy the HEA at the end. I felt like I’d been on this wild ride only to get off at the end feeling exhausted and slightly queasy. I will say that Shen develops really compelling and deeply flawed characters and sets them on a journey with unimaginable twists and turns.
Never have I wanted to badly to devour a book and then re read it over and over again. I absolutely love my hotholes and revisiting them, especially through the eyes of their children is such an amazing way to reconnect with the characters you love, while also introducing new ones to the mix. This book book hit me with all the feels and took me back to being that young and living the chaos of high school. All the teasers led me to believe that Daria was just a queen b*tch because she wanted to be popular. But diving into the story, she was stripped down bare and raw and we saw who she really was and what caused her to become who she is. There were so many realizations and startling moments that had me mad at her, but then also on her side and fighting for her. She really showed the real struggle that young girls have in life trying to make it through adolescence, and no matter what angle you pursue you will never come out unscathed. Daria is so strong is so many ways, that even her weaknesses make her strong. Penn Scully…wow what a character. I struggled for him and felt for him so much. He is a perfectly molded fit to the world of the hotholes and totholes. It almost felt effortless how he slid right into the mix and put his mark on everyone. He’s troubled, and pretending that he doesn’t care while struggling with trying to not care. He desperately doesn’t want to love Daria, but underneath her perfect princess act who she really is, is what makes them so perfect. I just loved everything about Daria and Penn. The poetry, the tragedy, the push and pull they have with not only each other but Daria and Mel. A stunning realization to see the mother that Mel turned out to be. I cannot wait for the other totholes’ stories! Getting little glimpses of Knight, Luna and Vaughn just got my wheels turning with what could possibly happen in the next installments of ASH. You hit it out of the park yet again ms. Shen! Now I have to go back and re-read Mel and Jaime’s story again!
Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, LJ Shen gives us Pretty Reckless featuring Daria and Penn, the first book in the Sinners of Saint spin-off series. I’ve never been a fan of the high school drama trope but Sinners of Saint made me see the error of my ways. Pretty Reckless did no disappoint in this regard! Ms. Shen has a way of heaping on the angst without making it seem overdone – everything that Daria and Penn endured during their upbringing happens all the time and it brought back a few of my own not so good memories of that time in my life. I think that’s why I loved it so much – it was relatable. The dynamic between these two was phenomenal and seeing glimpses of the other kids makes me want the next book that much more!
I will be sitting over here (im)patiently waiting for the next tothole book 🙂 On a side note can we all agree that Via is a B*&^%…
Even when it seems like Leigh Shen ku s going to punish us again and again, making us wait for the Hotholes 2.0, she gives us her very best work!
Penn and Daria, running to and from each other throughout the entirety of Pretty Reckless, are perfection. Thank you again, LJ Shen, for giving us the perfect version of Todos Santos and All Saints High. Your writing is inspired!
4.5 stars
Oh my Marx. What a roller coaster ride of emotions! I think the state of Penn’s shirt was how I was all throughout this entire book. It was just so much more than I expected it to be. L.J. Shen sure didn’t pull any punches here—she laid everything out unrestrainedly with so much grit and angst and an intensity you yourself have got to be tough enough to actually endure.
“We’re just two teenagers who never stood a chance to be friends in this world, so we became what was expected of us. Enemies.”
This tale wasn’t pretty—it certainly wasn’t rainbows and butterflies. Both Penn and Daria were characters that were just a bit hard to love right off the bat. Penn Scully was this punk and hood rat who seemed to have zero fucks to give and cared about nothing, while Daria Followhill was this catty, spoiled, vindictive brat who was so hateful and just reeking of jealousy and insecurities.
“Some fairy tales are screwed up.”
“All the good ones are, Skull Eyes.”
But the beauty of this book came in entirely in the growth and development of the characters. There were so many jerks and assholes here that it was almost overwhelming. But once you get to the bottom of everything… once you get to strip each of them down to their core… it’s like you can finally breathe. You begin to understand why they acted out in the first place and turned out to be the way they were.
“I think we fell at the same time. You, like rain, in drizzles, over the weeks. Me, like the fucking sky above my head, all at once, crashing without the faintest chance of stopping.”
Every truth and revelation in this story will make your heart feel like it’s on a high-speed chase. Every page will kick you until you’re nothing but a pile of emotions on the ground. And even then, every twist and turn will still seem like a swift punch to the gut. By the end, you’ll just feel so much for these characters, you’ll be like a dam ready to burst.
“Hate motivates much more than love. Love is content and peaceful. Happy people aren’t driven. They simply… exist. Now, us, hateful people, we’re something else. Hungry and desperate. Hateful people make the best lovers.”
An extremely all-consuming enemies to lovers romance that will leave you in a Penn Scully daze, Pretty Reckless is absolutely nothing but a brilliant start to the next generation of Hotholes. You’ll be swallowed up whole by the amount of teenage angst this book has… but trust me, you’ll also realize how much you loved the fuck out of it once you reach the end.
Welcome back where everything began at All Saints High.
The Hot holes are all grown up, made their luck, found their HEAs, have families and children of their own and these children are now the leads in LJ Shen’s highly anticipated brand new series. Jaime and Melody from Defy were my favorite couple in the whole series and I was ecstatic to read one of their kids got the first book in this series, yay.
Daria Followhill puts the b in queen b, she’s selfish, spoiled, but insecure and longs for love and acceptance at the same time. You could say she’s the typical rich teen.
Penn Scully is from the wrong side of the tracks. He’s a good guy who was dealt bad cards. Everything is about to change when the Followhills take him in. What they don’t know, He’s driven by revenge on one of their daughters.
Pretty Reckless is a story like no other. The storyline is unique, captivating and had me hooked on the book in a second. I read the book, cover to cover in one sitting, I simply couldn’t put it down.
The writing is excellent, a no brainer for a Shen book, just saying. While reading there were twists and turns, unexpected but welcomed surprises I never had drewamed off. Marx.
I highly recommend this book and wish I could give more than 5 stars.
True Epic Love
Definitely one of My Top Reads of 2019!! I fell inLove with these Unique Characters from the start. An Epic Amazing Read from one of My favorite Authors . These Dark, Angsty Reads are My New Favorite Genre and I can’t get enough of them. Love is ugly, messy and down right dirty but it’s Real in this Twisted YA Epic story. Daria is a kick ass heroine who so complex and totally misunderstood. She’s a Rich girl but is far from having it All. Penn is one of My favorite characters from Shen!! He’s a poor Resilient boy but with street smarts. Prepare Yourself for Their struggles are real and you will get so engrossed in this Brilliantly written story that I couldn’t put down till it was Finished!! All Saints High will Consume You in the Best Way and You’ll Love Every Angst Minute Mist Definitely You Next 5 star Read..
Pretty Reckless is book one in the All Saints High. All Saints High is a spin off from the Sinners of Saint series features children of the Sinners of Saint characters. You don’t have to read the Sinners of Saint series to enjoy this one. I haven’t read the Sinners of Saint and did just fine enjoying this one.
Daria is rich and always get the best of the best. I didn’t real think her parents were always the best to her. She’s not a very nice girl, she’s one of the mean girls. I expected Penn to be more of a mess then he was. He’s not very nice either. Pen does have some pent anger waiting to come out o Daria. I liked the beginning of the story, it has kind of stayed with me and reminded me that even an action that we think is little can really be a big deal to others.
5 DARIA AND PENN STARS!! Holy Moly…..What a fantastic start to a new series. I freaking loved everything about this book. I read it in one sitting!! This author is one heck of a storyteller and keeps you turning pages with all the feels. You must read this book.
Love
One of the most anticipated books of the month for sure it’s finally here. L.J.Shen has become an auto-buy author for me since I started reading Vicious and that book is definitely one of my all-time favourites books. So it’s an understatement that when I found out she is going to continue with the toteholes series I was beyond happy. Pretty Reckless is about Daria, the daughter of Jamie and Mel from Defy, and Penn, their foster care project at the moment. I can only say that she did it again, she brought us to the edge of every feeling, a rollercoaster of emotions with this angsty book and everyone has to read it. There are so many things happening, family issues, a mother-daughter relationship that says a lot about how a teenager feels in our days when she needs her closest female friend near but it’s lacking of it. There is the slow burn between Penn and Daria and omg all their moments from the first kiss to the shower one and everything else are just hot and some of the best scenes. There’s a lot of drama as well as we can find in a high school and college nowadays, all the fake smiles and slowly dying inside unable to talk about it with anyone as you can risk your feelings to be used against. I only have one complaint: Why does my husband look like a vampire???? Or why is he described like one????? Another amazing book that I’ll reread for sure.
Just wow! The problem I have with these ya/na books is that they break my teenage heart! I mean I read them and all I can think about is how would my teenage self have handled this! Penn and Daria were such a great couple to read about. They had so many reasons why they shouldn’t be together, but they wanted to do it anyway. (and the term “totholes” kind of had me cracking up) I felt for Daria from the very beginning. Her insecurities were jumping off the page, and Via to feed that fire just made you KNOW that she was going to be a bad one. Some of the revelations that came out toward the end of the book had my jaw dropping like mad crazy! On more than one occasion I did shed some tears. And then I had to laugh at a Ted Bundy reference that was thrown into the mix. There was one point where I was really feeling like the Hot Holes are basically the Todos Santos Mafia! This was a fantastic book to start the series and it was so awesome to see the originals in the mix and how they are as parents of teenagers. I can not wait to see more of these kids and the shenanigans that they get themselves up to.
On a side note…. the interactions with Knight were off the charts hilarious and totally reminded me of Dean… so I can not wait for his book!!!
I enjoyed this book a lot. I highly recommend a read.
I saw this phrase in a post in social media and I think it’s perfect for this book: HOLY HOTNESS!!
This book grabbed me from the first page, hypnotized me with its complex and fascinating characters and submerged me into their world of hormonal teenage angst. It was a mixture of love and hate, friendship and enmity, parents who failed their children and now their children are living a maelstrom of rejection, bullying, jealousy and despair. And it all gets impossibly worse before it gets better.
My heart hurt for Daria. She felt rejected by her mother, who showed favoritism to another girl in their ballet class. It seems the mother lost her way and forgot who should have been more important in her world. As Daria felt more and more ignored and unloved by her mother, she acted up more and more and turned into a bitchy ice princess at school, the one who leads a brigade of the popular girls who are cruel and vindictive to anyone outside their circle. And yet, inside she was just a girl who missed being loved by her momma.
I also hurt for Penn, who was dirt poor, had a druggy mother, an abusive stepfather, and a selfish, vindictive twin sister. He fell for Daria when he was fifteen and from that moment on, Daria and his twin sister Via got embroiled in such a huge enmity that he got crushed in-between, and their relation turned impossible.
I was specially moved by his gesture of opening a hole in all his shirts, exposing his heart. It has a great significance that is only revealed towards the end of the story. It does keep the reader intrigued throughout all the book.
The best part of this book, apart from the fantastic angsty and twisted story of love and revenge and redemption, is that these kids are called the totholes. They are the children of the previous All Saints High School series, featuring their fathers, very aptly named the a-holes. It was great to see the All Saints a-holes, now evolved into responsible parents raising kids who are as rebellious as them.
This story is fascinating, riveting, passionate, a page-turner and a tear-jerker. Even though Daria behaved so bad, I had such pity and compassion for her. And the ending was hella satisfactory!
This book hit all my feels!! I wasn’t sure about Daria at first. She was totally the rich popular girl we all knew in HS. As the story progressed I started to learn more…And then I loved her There is no words for Penn except I love him and he is tied now with my Love for Dean! It was awesome to see and hear from Jamie and Melody again. And now I’m real interested in Vaughn lol..I can’t wait for the next book!! If you loved her Sinners and Saints series this book is a must
***4 Stars***
Like many who follow/love this authors words, I was totally looking forward to Pretty Reckless coming out, but unlike most, it wasn’t the romance part that was getting me excited, it was being able to dive back into the world that introduced me to her words and fall in love with them. It was knowing/hoping that I’d get glimpses of at least some of the Sinners of Saint crew and start getting to know the Tothole’s. So, I went into this book with a very different frame of mind and though there are a few things that I went “Hmmm” at, I ended up getting what I wanted out of it and enjoying the ride.
But as far as Daria and Penn are concerned. Both tried me. Tried me hard. I could understand what made both of them tick, why they felt the way they did and why they did the things they did. But for me it was Daria who came out way ahead in the end. It’s not that I didn’t like Penn, I did, but when I look at all the things that Daria went through and how she evolved as the book progressed, she is just came out the stronger of the two for me. Am I happy with how things ended up for them? Yeah, I mean this is a romance and if they’re happy, I’m happy, but separately? Daria is Queen.
The Drama ~ Dude, the drama/angst was high and kinda too much for me on some fronts. I know that, for the most part, it was all done to push Daria (mostly) to evaluate herself and spark that change in her, but it was just like ‘Damn’ the Mean Girl/Boy stuff definitely went there. As for Mel. Of all the Sinners (sorry, Bane isn’t a Hothole so I have to use sinners but note that I ADORE him) women, Mel is my least favorite and she didn’t help herself here. I know that her intentions were good, but as they say “The road to hell is paved with good intentions” and that’s what happened. I know there are those that will tell me I shouldn’t judge/being a parent is hard etc etc etc. And they are absolutely correct, it is probably the hardest “job” in the world, but she did a few too many things that didn’t sit well with me regardless.
The Goodness ~ Straight up: The Hotholes and the Totholes (Daria included). They made this book for me. Seeing how tight they all are and how, regardless of everything else going on, they are family was straight up goodness for me and I cannot wait to get my hands on Angry God and Broken Knight.
This review actually turned out longer than I had intended (Go figure…the road and all) but the words were all jumbled up in my head and needed out, so verbal vomity review it is. And the bottomline is that this book took me on one hell of a ride, ended up enjoying it and cannot wait for the next ones in the series.
L.J. Shen has done it again! The Sinners of Saint with the Hotholes was so awesome I didn’t know how L.J. was going to top it. Amazingly she has risen to the challenge and given us the All Saints High series with the Totholes and they are even more privileged and more devious than their parents.
Daria has a lot of built up issues and resentment toward her mother and uses this as excuse to justify the horrible things she says and does. Penn is the poor boy from the wrong side of the tracks that falls for Daria at the age of 14. Four years later, Penn hates her for being the reason that his twin sister Via disappeared and Daria has spiraled into a ultimate “mean girl”.
Although I really enjoyed this story, I have to admit that bringing the original Hotholes in to the story was one of my favorite parts. You just can’t enough of the original Hotholes! I can’t wait to see where the ASH story goes next with Book 2.
A rollercoaster of emotions, love, angst, and rivalry, Pretty Reckless was one hell of a ride in the most wonderful way, we got to see and live the transformation of all these characters learning the hard way that not everything is about money and status.. that there is more in friendship, love, and respect.
Pretty Reckless the story of Daria and Penn two lost souls trying to survive in a world full of sharks fighting for a place where they could feel they belong.. Pretty Reckless is the start of a great series where we get to meet a lot of new characters and see how Penn and Daria evolve during the story..
Daria is beautiful, strong and bold and sometimes a bitchy heroine that no one wants to come across.. Daria is a wonderful character because it really surprises a lot, she is chameleonic, she changes and evolves, she transforms, is one of those characters that you hate and love and love and love. don’t let her fool you she is amazing.
Penn is a troubled soul, his past keeps hunting him and making his life weird and sometimes miserable, his sister also doesn’t contribute much for his sanity and tranquility.. trying to start a new life without all those memories he has to pass so many tests that are not that easy.. his teammates, his sister, his enemies and the love of his life..
so many lies and mistakes were made at All Saints High but sooner or later Penn and Diaria will see the truth and no one will ever hurt them again.
there are so many great moments, I laugh so much with these two, especially when Jaime was around.. there is so much to say about the secondary characters of this book.. prepare yourself to meet so many wonderful stories that are beginning to unfold in the very first book of the All Saints High.
Great story and wonderful characters, LJ Shen did it again!! I love the way she writes and takes us in so many scenarios and moments that always translate in an epic ending.
I can’t wait to read Angry God and Broken Knight.
What an emotional roller coaster ride of a story. I couldn’t wait to read Daria’s story and WOW what a fantastic story filled with so much angst. I went in expecting not to like her and totally GOT her. I devoured this read and can’t wait to read the next in this series. A definite must read.