Pretty reckless

By L.J. Shen

First loves, First Times, First Heartbreaks – all things you never get over.

The Ugly Truth:

I was warned by my father that if we were to continue sharing a Kindle account, I had to stop buying books with dramatic pictures of boy models on the covers… Sorry, Dad. BUT, in my defense, this one was worth it.  

Now, I don’t often include them on this site because I like to keep my ~dark romance~ novels more to myself, but I have to make an exception with L.J. Shen’s Pretty Reckless. Despite being set in high school, this book captures the emotional turmoil that comes with first loves, first times, and first heartbreaks. Beyond that, it brought life to the darker emotions that everyone has experienced once before and was able to ground me as a reader in a way I do not often experience (the last line of the book really hits home for me).

I think I also enjoyed the fact that this was not as spicy or ~concerning~ as some of the other BookTok recommendations or trending dark romance novels are these days. There were moments of intense love and slaps of harsh realities, but nothing so unsettling that it had me questioning if I needed to wash my eyes out and find the nearest church (Rina Kent, I am looking at you sweetie). I think L.J. Shen always does a fantastic job of not just having the main characters hop each other’s bones for 300 pages, but actually creates depth and development, allowing us as readers to become attached and relate to the leads.

On that note, while I could not relate to the exact degree of Daria Followhill, I think she might be one of my most favorite misunderstood teenage angst characters. She was trying to be everybody at once and, by doing so, became nobody, even to herself. It was so important to have her inner monologue leading half of the chapters because otherwise you truly would have disliked this individual, but hearing her reasoning and really understanding her psyche painted a whole new picture of teenage girls and the jealousy we all face.

Penn Scully is a hero with his heart on his sleeve (or in his shirt, I should say). I would not categorize him as the author did as a “sunshine” character. He was jaded and had edges that I would not classically associate with the happy-go-lucky, but it was because of this that made his growth so much better. He embraced life, chances, and people so gracefully and wonderfully; it really was such a fun experience to learn more about his character and see his love for Daria grow as it did. He also played such a vital role in helping her restore her family bonds despite not having any of his own which just goes to show his selflessness and want for everyone to feel like they belong somewhere.

Of course, I have read L.J. Shen’s other books, so I was so happy to see mentions of our favorite All Saint’s High crew members and their kiddos (which is next up on my reading list).

All in all, this can be read as a standalone, but I recommend dipping a toe or two into the Saint’s universe, you might find you like it more than you think!