BAD FOR YOU by Monica James-review tour

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / Chapters/Indigo /

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date March 14, 2025

I am Valentina Ricci.

But I wasn’t born with a name.

My mother, Sister Margarette, was a woman of God, but she soon forgot her vows when she was sent by her parish to provide spiritual guidance to death row inmate #39280.

Many have said my mother and father’s meeting wasn’t fated in the stars, but rather, it was churned in the bowels of hell. Because nothing good would ever come from my mother falling in love with convicted and infamous serial killer Patrick O’Loughlin and having his daughter…me.

The day he was executed was the day I was born.

Again, another cruel twist of fate because I always felt like a part of his soul took over mine on that day. That can be the only explanation for why I do the despicable things that I do and like them…so very much. I am part monster, part saint. There is no salvation for a sinner like me. Saint Maria’s orphanage was my home as a child. And it was nothing but hell until I met him…

Lennon Shepherd.

We found one another in the direst of circumstances, and I thought he was my forever. But forever came with an expiration date when he became the enemy. Our adoptive mother, Gianna Ricci, has trained us to be her weapons in a war we never wanted to be a part of. Now grown, Lennon and I are on opposite sides. The boy I’ve loved since I was ten years old is the man I have to kill because if I don’t…he’ll kill me.

I am hunted.

But I am also the hunter.

••••

REVIEW: BAD FOR YOU is the first instalment in Monica James’ contemporary, adult, dark, erotic, romance duet focusing on Valentina Ricci and Lennon Shepherd.

NOTE: Due to the nature of the story line premise there WILL BE triggers for more sensitive readers.

Told from dual first person perspectives (Valentina and Lennon) BAD FOR YOU follows several years in the life of Valentina Ricci and Lennon Shepherd. Valentina and Lennon grew up in a Catholic orphanage, used and abused by the men in charge. At ten and eleven years of age respectively Valentina and Lennon were ‘adopted’ by Gianna Ricci, a woman who trained our couple to become assassins and killers. Nearing her eighteenth birthday, Valentina wanted to find her birth mother, while Lennon struggled to locate his missing brother, and in doing so, both would set off a series of events that revealed the deep seated betrayals at the heart of their abuse and training. Molded into killers, pawns to be used, manipulated into believing everyone they met wanted something in return, Valentina and Lennon’s paths would eventually separate and diverge, each taking a stand, convinced each had betrayed the other.

The world building focuses on the growing but tempestuous relationship between our story line couple; the manipulation by the woman who claimed to have saved them from future harm; and the realization that not everything or everyone was what or whom they claimed to be.

The relationship between Lennon and Valentina begins as abused orphans who only trusted one another in the face of the ultimate betrayal but once ‘adopted’ by Gianna Ricci, their lives would no longer be entwined, ,purposely separated in the face of deception and lies. The $ex scenes are aggressive and intense.

We are introduced to Father Merry; Gianna Ricci, gem dealer Aldo Cattaneo, and his daughter Bria.

BAD FOR YOU is a story of secrets and lies, betrayal and vengeance, power and control, manipulation and madness, murder and mistrust. The premise is dark, gritty, raw and haunting-you have to wonder from where the darkness comes? How deep one has to dig?; the characters are broken, disturbed and tortured. BAD FOR YOU ends on a cliff-hanger, you have been warned.

–>Heed the trigger warnings-they are dark, and numerous.<–

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

Monica James spent her youth devouring the works of Anne Rice, William Shakespeare, and Emily Dickinson.

When she is not writing, Monica is busy running her own business, but she always finds a balance between the two. She enjoys writing honest, heartfelt, and turbulent stories, hoping to leave an imprint on her readers. She draws her inspiration from life.

She is a bestselling author in the U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, and the U.K.

Monica James resides in Melbourne, Australia, with her wonderful family, and menagerie of animals. She is slightly obsessed with cats, chucks, and lip gloss, and secretly wishes she was a ninja on the weekends.

TWITTER /  FACEBOOK /  PINTEREST / AUTHORGRAPH /  WEBSITE