From
L.J. Shen, the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Vicious
and The Kiss Thief, comes a brand new angsty, delicious standalone in
the All Saints series. This friends-to-lovers, boy-obsessed romance will make
you cry your eyes out and laugh with joy, sometimes on the same page.
Underneath the goody-two-shoes persona is damaged goods… but can the bad boy
across the street save her?
Bailey Followhill is the perfect daughter.
Sweet. Charitable. Pretty. Control freak.
Not a hair out of place, not an inch out of line, she is everything her
troublemaking sister Daria isn't.
But when her A game turns out to be a lukewarm C- at Juilliard, Bailey's
picture-ready life starts fraying faster than the worn satin ribbons of her
pointe shoes.
She's becoming a piece of gossip.
The Troubled Child. A drug abuser.
No longer the girl her best friend once knew.
Lev Cole is so golden, he's got the Midas Touch.
Prized quarterback. Football captain. Hottest guy in SoCal. A textbook
cliché.
But with a girlfriend he doesn't love and a career path he doesn't value, Lev
is coasting.
The only two things he cares about―Bailey and becoming a pilot―are out of
reach.
But Lev is done being satisfied with the life others have chosen for him. He
wants to pick his own cards. To demolish the seamless kingdom of lies his
family stitched together on the ruins his mother left behind.
The question is, can he save his best friend and his dream before too much
damage is done?
Don’t miss our reviews of the rest of the All Saints High series!
For book one, Pretty Reckless, click HERE.
For book two, Broken Knight, click HERE.
For book three, Angry God, click HERE.
Book
4
Buy Links
Amazon US ~ Amazon UK ~ Amazon Au ~ Amazon Ca
Audiobook (US) Narrated
by Savannah Peachwood, Maxine Mitchell & Aiden Snow
Paperback (US)
~ Also Available with KindleUnlimited in
the US & Ca ~
Reviews by the
Wicked Reads Review Team
Ruthie
– ☆☆☆☆
This is spin off from a very popular series… which I’m going to have to now
admit I have not read! But whilst I recognise I will have missed some
backstory, I didn’t feel at a disadvantage overall.
To me, this was a story of missed opportunities – and to give you the least
significant yet most shockingly simple example, Bailey has physical injuries
which are mentioned as being obvious, yet her parents do not seek medical
attention for them, nor seem to even suggest she stops training and make them
worse. The fact that they talk rehab repeatedly and yet nothing happens is also
frustrating, let alone the supposed searches when we know where the pills are
hidden. They are intelligent, wealthy people, who can see a genuine problem,
but no one seems able to address it for a very long time. Given Dean and Knight
had similar issues, it is even more strange.
Mixing this tragic situation with a long-time best friendship/romance was both
confusing and – given Lev was in school and trying to decide his future – piled
on the pressure. As a story of how people handle pressure, it took a whole
group of families to keep avoiding the issues, and to rely on Lev at a time he
needed support not responsibility.
It was great to have Thalia to hate for her role in Bailey’s access to pills. I
would have expected to feel that way about some of his teammates, with their
use of jealousy and trash talk, but it was brushed over – as was the violence,
which thereafter never got mentioned.
For me, the journey to their happily ever after was very painful, and I’m not
sure how they would ever really overcome it, but here’s hoping!
Erica
– ☆☆☆
3.5 stars
Damaged Goods is the fourth installment of the All Saints High series,
which is the spin-off of Sinners of Saint series. Can it be read as a
standalone with little to no confusion? Sure. Should you read it as a
standalone? No. Should you read the Sinners of Saint series first? Yes.
Since it's been nearly four years since the last installment, those who are
foggy on the details may also wish for a refresher/reread.
Now, since those who haven't read the series first have now departed to go read
it, that leaves everyone else who is up-to-date. So that helps eliminate
spoilers, for the most part.
I'm not going to be harsh but I am not going to lie either, simply because I am
a fan of Shen and this series of characters.
I felt as if this novel didn't know what it wanted to be. Was it a novel
featuring the chaotic spiral of addiction, the heavy landing of hitting rock
bottom, and the inspiring rise back to sobriety? Or was it a childhood best
friends-to-lovers romance?
Because it cannot be both, no matter how hard it tried to be. Addiction and the
subsequent new sobriety cannot survive romance and sex. Sure, the spiral can
feature these concepts, but friendships cannot survive the fallout if you
attempt a relationship during this tumultuous time, no matter if they are sober
for the rest of their lives. The history of that toxicity hitches a ride on
their relationship. So I struggled with the romance aspects.
Perhaps it's my mood. My mindset. My mentality. I'm not in a state of
trainwreck to buy into the sex, love, and romance when mixed with all the
toxicity. Maybe it's because I survived an addict/drunk and have a low
tolerance for this, where the substance abuser is not the only wounded party
that needs to heal.
If there was no romance, I may have been able to empathize or sympathize with
Bailey, or if the romance bloomed after the healing began. No matter how much
Shen used Lev to tell us how awesome Bailey was versus Painkiller Ballerina, I
didn't see it. Not in the flashbacks. Not during the novel's journey. I found
her to be a narcissistic abuser, where she didn't just abuse substances. Spot
on perfect characterization of a manipulative, conniving substance abuser.
Bravo, Shen! I just couldn't ship her with Lev... and then to surround Lev with
Lookalike Bailey 2.0, who was just as toxic was a bit much for me.
Was the spiral factual and real to life? (Round of applause to Shen!) Were the
enablers real to life? Yes, which is why I struggled to find entertainment in
reading this novel. I was frustrated on every page, which was affecting my mood
in general.
For more than half of the novel, every single character (aside from Bailey) did
the wrong thing. Which was doubly confounding considering the history of
substance abuse in Lev's family. They all knew the signs, how they weren't to
enable, and the steps to heal their loved one. Yet... all they did was threaten
to send her to rehab. More than half the book. So frustrating to the point I
was getting angry.
It's no wonder Bailey ended up as she did with both of her parents threatening
to send her to rehab, day after day as they see their daughter is high... and
(drum roll) not actually sending her to rehab. Not the first time. The second
time. The third time. The frustration to read this was a palpable thing for me.
Imagine that. I guess that is also how her childhood punishments went down as
well.
Then there is the dynamic between Lev and Bailey, which I didn't not find cute,
or heated, or any of the other emotions other readers may feel. I found it
gross due to the imbalance. Bailey is a 20-year-old nearing the end of her
freshman year at college who is addicted to painkillers. Lev is a child in high
school who is emotionally vulnerable and focusing on what school he wants to go
to versus the military and fretting over telling his dad his future plans.
I don't care what the age-gap is or if their physical ages are close together,
mentally, emotionally, and intellectually, that is a huge gap. A college-aged
adult, who at 20 is generally in their junior year, is playing stupid games
with the local high schoolers. This should have given everyone pause. All those
parents. Your daughter OD'd and you don't think it weird that she's hanging
with high schoolers? It's not sweet. It's not romantic. It's creepy, no matter
the gender. And this was something I just couldn't get over the entire time I
read.
During Lev and Bailey's banter, I was not titillated. I was aggravated. It was
toxic. A grown woman playing head games with the high school student who loves
and cares about her, leveraging his own vulnerabilities against him. Then all
the inner monologue where Lev is like "I can't touch her in this state.
She isn't really in there. This isn't my Bailey. She can't consent in this
state." Where the reader is to get hot and bothered. I got bothered, all
right. I found it disgusting and toxic that Bailey manipulated Lev to do
exactly as he said he wouldn't do, where he'd do some hot AF dirty talk, which
was bordering BDSM, that was so far out of his wheelhouse at his age and lack
of experience (which was just to titillate the readers at the expense of the
characters' relationship to one another or was so far out of character).
I groaned and not in a good way. It was that stuff that lessened the emotional
impact of the addiction storyline, which in turn ruined any future romance they
could share because there was simply too much toxicity to overcome. I don't
care if Painkiller Ballerina was replaced with Lev's Bailey, she is not two
different people. Bailey did that. Bailey said that. Bailey manipulated Lev and
hurt him time and time again on purpose, and until that was actually truly
addressed, she is at risk of backsliding. The romance made it ick for me.
I simply wanted Lev and Dean to go to a deserted isle, where they meet two
worthy mates to spend their lives with, away from all the toxic people around
them...
Which brings me to another point that seemed to create a war in the reviews:
Dean and Dixie. I don't know if all these comments are by people who are too
invested in the story (mad props to Shen) or by those who are projecting
because they fear their significant other could move on without them. Rosie had
a life-threatening disease from word-one of her character being written. It was
beyond realistic to have their epic story end as it did. But, as in reality, it
would take a horrible human being to wish someone, whether they be fictitious
or real, to live out decades of existence in total isolation and loneliness to
prove they loved someone. That is not grief – that is not love – that is mental
illness, on the part of those who are so vindictive and petty they wish a
fictional character to never move on. Am I the only one who wishes Dean a slice
of happiness after all that pain and grief? Wowza!
L.J.
Shen is a Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Washington Post,
and #1 Amazon bestselling author of contemporary, new adult, and young adult
romance. Her books have been sold in twenty different countries, and she hopes
to visit all of them.
She lives in Florida with her husband, three rowdy sons, and rowdier pets and
enjoys good wine, bad reality TV shows, and reading to her heart’s content.
Connect with L.J.
Shen!
Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Instagram ~ TikTok ~ Website ~ Goodreads
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Hosted by
Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided
a free copy of Damaged Goods (All Saints High #4) by L.J. Shen to read and
review.
