Pretty Reckless

By: L.J. Shen

Narrated by: Angela Goethals, Maxine Mitchell, Michael Crouch

Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's Summary

We were supposed to be best friends....

But turned out to be worst enemies.

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.

©2019 L.J. Shen (P)2019 Audible, Inc.

4 We're all human stars

I have to admit that I didn't like Daria going in. From what was mentioned of her in the previous series I thought she'd be awful. While she was queen bee and ugly most of the time, I felt her pain. Knowing what she felt and what she was going through I immediately understood her actions. Did that excuse her? No. But in the end we are all human.

I hope to get more of her and Penn. I fell in love with him too. When he was hurting I hurt too. He was a jerk but he had a lot of anger towards Daria. I'm just glad that he didn't give up on her or on himself.

Now Melody....yeah I've never been her biggest fan.


Narration
Female 4 stars, pacing was a little weird.
Male 5 stars, he was perfect for Penn.

My 2nd by this author

I read series in reverse but this was a good audiobook! It’s a great high school/adult problem read. I enjoyed the rich girl poor boy angle but not the vindictiveness of a certain family member or the rich girl in the beginning.

woman voice is terrible couldn't go any further

woman voice is terrible
couldn't go any further than first chapter
my ears bleed awful

A millennial story of A Hazy Shade of Winter

For those whom suffered thru the 80's... it's an angsty high school melodrama with an HEA

Pretty good!

I actually enjoyed this book. I completed it in one day. I loved Daria’s evolution. She went from a selfish, heartless mean girl to a lovable, humbled woman. I found the story to be well executed. The book showed how much more difficult and destructive life can be when we let miscommunications, jealousy and envy fester and spread like cancer. I felt the emotions conveyed by the author and narrators. I felt the compassion, love and forgiveness of family and friends, the hatred of misguided, envious enemies, the heartbreak of unrequited love, a fathers revenge, the struggles of adolescence and the redemption of broken souls. I felt all of this and more in one pretty awesome story. well done!

Such a great book!!

Have you ever read a book and not be able to put it down? You skip sleep because you can’t not read the next sentence? This was that for me! I start this book at 11 o’clock at night and finished seven hours later! The drama, the personal growth, and the world building in this book are perfection! I have read one other book by this author and love that one too. I look forward to reading many more by L.J. Shen!

This one just cracked my heart wide open!

There’s something to be said when someone’s writing just reaches in and grasps your beating heart. Just completely takes hold, squeezing, until it bursts and then pieces you back together again. I’m in awe of L.J. Shen. I anticipated the greatness that is her writing but what I found was so much more. Daria Followhill and Penn Scully had me a complete mess, in the most satisfying way.

One of the best!

This book really touched and moved me at the same time. The characters in the book struggle - but with issues far from what you normally meet in romance novels. Therefore this story really caught me and I will definitely listen to the story again and go look for more from this auditor.
Furthermore, the author includes point of view from others charactors than the main two, adding further to the story. Really interesting story and totally captivating.

NOT THE HOTHOLES

I don't like this spin off. I was blown away by the Hotholes series and expected more than what I got from this story. The actual plot was too thin to warrant the amount of angst from the characters. The female narrator was terrible. The nuances in her delivery were annoying. Her speech was drawn out, over the top and not natural at all. Daria had absolutely no redeeming qualities. She was also written like she had a mental illness (bipolar, split personality, depression, etc.) with no mention of mental health issues. Hard to through.

No. just no

I love a troubled angsty lead. I love the anti hero especially if its a female. but this chick is just mean for no reason. No redeeming qualities no reason to hope for her to get better of be rescued or to deserve the heart of the male lead. Just ugh. DNF

A great story with fantastic voice acting.

I didn't know how to categorise this story. YA or NA. Most of the characters are in their final year of high school and adults surrounding those students, but this is a dark romance, suspense and is a raw, angst filled tale that is too violent and sexually explicit to be a YA. 
Having said that, this was such a good story. The angst and intensity made this a raw story of both love and hate. While Penn and Darla are the main focus of the book, there are so many other relevant characters and they are so well developed. The whole plot is so involved and so well written.
 I cannot fault the narration by Angela Goethals, Maxine Mitchell, Michael Crouch. Their vocal talents give a voice and intensity to the story and bring it to life. This story requires proper voice acting and the narrators all delivered.

All the feels! One of Shen's best books to date!

Not sure I can do justice to how amazing this book really was. I devoured it so quick and now I am bereft. I love the characters. It was pure Shen magic. It is very difficult to capture the same magic when it comes to spin off series but honestly, she outdid herself with Pretty Reckless. Penn and Daria are not typical teenagers, there is so much depth to both of these characters. Shen is a master at making you feel for her characters and feel you will!!! All of the characters are flawed and human and so relatable and this to me is the best aspect of this book. This one would be reread many times over, for sure. Cannot wait for the rest for the series. Love love love LJ Shen and I wish she would write 100 hooks a year :) kidding... Not really :)

Fabulous

Great story and great voices
Daria has an encounter with a boy when they do something that impacts on both of their lives and the consequences that follow are amazing x

Not the best

The voices were okay but the storyline didn't capture me. the main characters didn't have a real connection and I struggled to finish it

So good!

Read it, loved it. Bought the audio, loved it & keep coming back for more! The characters are brilliant, the world we are already in love with and the voice actors just draw you in. If I could give it 10* I would!

Fantastic

I thoroughly enjoyed Book One in the All Saints High series.

Bad Boy from the wrong side of the tracks ends up being fostered by one of the Original HotHoles Jaime Fallowhill who unknowingly let the wolf through his daughter Daria's front door. Loved getting the glimpses of Hunter, Luna, Knight & Vaughn along with the cameo's from the older HotHole generation. Jamie is such a great dad in this series, especially when it comes to laying down the law to the teenage boy who sets his sights on daddys lil girl.

Angsty love to hate to love

I loved this, full of angst. I loved Penn from the start but the others took me a while

Good read

This is one of them books that gets you from the start to finish x

Pretty Reckless

Just loved this book it’s the first one so what’s the next one please . I see there’s a lot more I don’t normally buy these sort off books but I’m hooked so bring it all on brilliant so thank you xx

Not so guilty pleasure

I want to say this series is a guilty pleasure, because it’s raunchy and unapologetic, but I found myself telling everyone about it. The world she has created and the characters within it (even characters outside this series link in) are so rich and complex I was fully enthralled. On the surface it may be a dirty series complete with high-drama and high-angst that hits all the right notes for its genre, but it is so much more than that. Shen writes magically; at some point in each book in this series I genuinely sobbed, laughed out loud, and had to stop what I was doing because she pushed the story into a place I wasn’t expecting; un-afraid and again, unapologetic. Somehow I have never once cringed at her writing, which for its genre is shocking to me. The dialogue and the relationships between all of the characters is genuinely good; the clash and meshing of their personalities always precise and consistent, with Shen always leaving a good amount of room for them to banter. She writes each character so distinctly you can imagine them vividly.

The first book in the series focuses on the trope of the “mean girl/high school princess“, but joker style helps you to unpick and understand her and inevitably root for her. The way Shen writes Daria’s loneliness is magnificent, and the story itself I found complex and beautiful- like its characters. There’s always something that anchors her stories to our world, whether it’s pop culture references, music, or in this case poetry. The journal entries at the beginning of each chapter throughout this story themselves I found genuinely poetic and honestly so raw I wanted to cry. They were such a clever and tantalising way to update the reader on both Daria and Penns’ emotional progress and stance before each new chapter, and the way they’re written and develop and eventually come together is stunning. The voice acting in this story I also found fantastic, they really embodied their characters.

All of the books in this series are satisfying; each character addictive in their inherent imperfection and complex back story. A good reminder that everyone is dealing with something, even if you can’t see it.