Thursday, August 14, 2025

Book review: HANDSOME DEVIL, by L.J. Shen


Forbidden Love #3

Tate and Gia

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Gia and Tate’s relation went from toxic to devoted and we got to enjoy the turbulent ride.  Gia is a beautiful and kind woman with a lovely British accent, biracial due to a Jamaican father and white Cuban mother. Tate is everything dark, ruthless, a predator with a perfect body and broken mind.  He’s obsessed with Gia, and when she needed help with her ailing mother, he pounced and demanded marriage in return.  Then the war began!

This was similar to the movie War of the Roses.  They were both feral, but under all that toxicity there was attraction.  Gia fought her attraction, denied Tate of his marital rights, he was horrid in his treatment of her, and yet, underneath it all, you could sense that he was taking care of her.  


As the book progresses, I enjoyed seeing a Tate that starts to care for his wife, protects her not out of responsibility but of concern for her safety. Gia is snarky and sassy, never gives an inch, but is falling, very reluctantly, in love with her husband.


I loved how his heart jump-started and started feeling again, although it took a lot of rife and mayhem and danger, before it happened.  His horrible childhood and Gia’s family loss were very sad moments in the story, but it was balanced with the subtle humor, sarcastic prose, and slightly unhinged moments of the story.  There were some ick moments (e.g. the Ferrantes initiation), a kidnapping, some gritty violent events.  Even though the author warned about triggers, none of it fazed me except the ick moments, and they only caused some indigestion.


All in all, this was another fantastic journey into LJ Shen’s brilliant and creative world, where anything goes, it’s all crazy ongoings before the couple settle into domestic bliss.  It was certainly a page-turner full of all the emotions, highly entertaining.


Purchase links


FREE in Kindle Unlimited

ebook: https://amzn.to/4cTjUqJ

Audible: https://tinyurl.com/hdljsaud

Deluxe Edition Paperback: https://amzn.to/3ELzTtZ

Indigo Exclusive Edition: https://shor.by/NMB5

Walmart Exclusive Edition: https://tinyurl.com/y979h86h

Add Handsome Devil to Goodreads: https://tinyurl.com/hd3ljsgr

 

Start the Forbidden Love series todayhttps://amzn.to/4lsG6LX  


About the author


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 translated in over twenty different countries, and she hopes to visit all of them.


She lives in Florida with her husband, three rowdy sons, and even rowdier pets. She enjoys good wine, bad reality TV shows, and reading to her heart’s content. 


Connect with L.J. Shen

Website  www.authorljshen.com 

Instagram (@authorljshen)

Facebook group at http://goo.gl/QZJ0NC

Sign up for her newsletter at https://bit.ly/3LhsIrb, and text SHEN to 313131 to get new release alerts (United States only).

Join LJ's mailing list for exclusive material ➜ https://bit.ly/3LhsIrb

Website www.authorljshen.com


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