DAMAGED GOODS (All Saints High 4) by LJ Shen -review tour

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GOODREADS LINK: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/171498175-damaged-goods

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date January 24, 2024

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?

••••••

REVIEW: DAMAGED GOODS is the fourth instalment in LJ Shen’s contemporary, young -new adult ALL SAINTS HIGH romance series-a second generation spin off from the author’s SINNERS OF SAINTS series. This is football player Lev Cole, and ballet dancer Bailey Followhill’s story line. DAMAGED GOODS can be read as a stand alone but I recommend reading the series in order or at the very least book one PRETTY RECKLESS for backstory. Bailey is Daria’s sister (Pretty Reckless), and the daughter of Jamie and Melody (Defy/Sinners of Saints): Lev is the son of Dean and Rosie Cole (Ruckus/Sinners of Saints).

NOTE: Due to the nature of the story line premise including drug addiction, there may be triggers for more sensitive readers.

Told from three first person perspectives (Bailey, Lev, Dixie) using present day and memories from the past, DAMAGED GOODS follows the turbulent relationship between our story line couple. Bailey and Lev are best friends: grew up together, neighbors, and each was a product of parents who pushed a little bit too hard. Lev wanted to become an Air Force pilot but found himself playing a game he no longer loved. Bailey was her mother’s last hope of living vicariously through her daughter’s success but Bailey’s life spiralled out of control, wherein she would lose the only boy she would ever love. What ensues is the struggling relationship and friendship between Bailey and Lev, and the fall-out when Bailey hits rock bottom, and Lev can no longer hold her hand, saving her from the demons that control her life.

The world building focuses on drug addiction and a loss of control; on the untenable expectations of a parent, and the perceived failure of the child; on self-loathing, issues of low self-esteem, and the ultimate betrayal by the those claiming to be friends. As this is a story line focusing on high school aged characters, the young adult story line includes the requisite mean girls, a love triangle, and all the angst of trying to fit in with family and friends.

The relationship between Bailey and Lev is a lifelong friendship in which Lev has been in love with his best friend as long as he can remember but Bailey is scared; unsure of her future, a future that is now controlled by addiction and drugs. As Bailey continues to spiral, her relationship with Lev suffers, and believing himself Bailey’s only chance at survival, Lev is willing to give up everything for the woman he loves. The $ex scenes are passionate but mostly implied.

There is a large ensemble cast of colorful, dynamic and often questionable secondary and supporting characters including all of the previous story line couples, as well as several (now parents) from the original Sinners of Saints series. We are reintroduced to Bailey’s parents Jamie and Mel (Defy/ Sinner of Saints) , her sister Daria and husband Penn (Pretty Reckless 1), Dean ‘Ruckus’ Cole (Ruckus), Vicious (Vicious); Lev’s football teammates; real estate agent Dixie; and the requisite mean girl(s).

DAMAGED GOODS is a story of addiction and spiral; pain and injury; dreams and failure; of perception and reality; of acceptance and love. The premise is gritty and heart breaking; the romance struggles in the face of secrets and lies, addiction and betrayal; the characters are struggling, broken, but fighting to survive.

I want to address the copious number of 1-star reviews, and in this, the rating appears to be based on high expectations and disappointment about a couple of secondary characters. Every reader has hopes for, or confidence in the outcome for certain situations but for these two secondary characters in particular, the results were not what readers expected, and was ultimately difficult to accept.

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

L.J. Shen is USA Today, WSJ, Washington Post and #1 Amazon Kindle Store bestselling author of contemporary romance books.

She writes angsty books, unredeemable anti-heroes who are in Elon Musk’s tax bracket, and sassy heroines who bring them to their knees (for more reasons than one).

HEAs and grovelling are guaranteed.

She lives in Florida with her husband, three sons, and a disturbingly active imagination.

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