Bane, the highly-anticipated next standalone in the Sinners of Saint Series by L.J. Shen is LIVE
Bane
Naked surfer. Habitual pothead. A con, a liar, a thief and a fraud.
Last I heard, he was extorting the rich and screwing their wives for a living.
Which is why I’m more than a little surprised to find him at my threshold, looking for my friendship, my services, and most puzzling of all—looking humbled.
Thing is, I’m on a boycott. Literally—I cut boys from my life. Permanently.
Problem is, Bane is not a boy, he is all man, and I’m falling, crashing, drowning in his sweet, perfect lies.
Jesse Carter
Hot as hell, cold as ice.
I wasn’t aware of her existence until a fat, juicy deal landed in my lap.
She’s a part of it, a little plaything to kill some time.
She is collateral, a means to an end, and a side-bonus for striking a deal with her oil tycoon stepdad.
More than anything, Jesse Carter is a tough nut to crack.
Little does she know, I have the f****** teeth for it.
EXCERPT
Bane
Then.
A liar.
A con.
A godless thief.
My reputation was a big wave that I rode, one that swallowed everyone around me, drowning every attempt to fuck with what’s mine.
I’d been known as a stoner, but power was my real drug of choice. Money meant nothing. It was tangible, and therefore easy to lose. See, to me, people were a game. One I’d always known how to win.
Move the rooks around.
Change the queen when necessary.
Guard the king at all fucking times.
I was never distracted, never deterred, and never jealous.
So, imagine my surprise when I found myself being all three at once.
It was a siren with coal black hair who robbed me of riding the biggest wave I’d seen that summer. Of my precious attention. Of my goddamn breath.
She glided from the ocean to the beach like nightfall.
I crouched down, straddling my surfboard, gawking.
Edie and Beck stopped beside me, floating on their boards in my periphery.
“This one’s taken by Emery Wallace,” Edie had warned. Thief.
“This one’s the hottest masterpiece in town.” Beck had chuckled. Con.
“More importantly, she only dates rich bastards.” Liar.
I had all the ingredients to pull her in.
Her body was a patch of fresh snow. White, fair, like the sun shone through her, never quite soaking in. Her skin defied nature, her ass defied my sanity, but it was the words on her back that made my logic rebel.
It wasn’t her curves or the way she swayed her hips like a dangling, poisonous apple that warranted my reaction to her.
It was that tattoo I had noticed when she swam close to me earlier, the words trickling down the nape of her neck and back in a straight arrow.
My Whole Life Has Been Pledged to This Meeting with You
Pushkin.
I only knew one person who went gaga over the Russian poet, and, like the famous Alexander, he was currently six feet under.
My friends began to paddle back to shore. I couldn’t move. It felt like my balls were ten tons heavy. I didn’t believe in love at first sight. Lust, maybe, but even that wasn’t the word I was looking for. No. This girl fucking intrigued me.
“What’s her name?” I snatched Beck’s ankle, yanking him back to me. Edie stopped pedaling and looked back, her gaze ping-ponging between us.
“Doesn’t matter, bro.”
“What’s. Her. Name?” I repeated through a locked jaw.
“Dude, she’s, like, way young.”
“I will not repeat myself a third time.”
Beck’s throat bobbed with a swallow. He knew damn well that I didn’t mess around. If she was legal—it was on.
“Jesse Carter.”
Jesse Carter was going to be mine before she even knew me.
Before I even knew her.
Before her life turned upside down and her fate rewrote itself with her blood.
So here was the truth that even my lying ass wouldn’t admit later on in our story—I wanted her before.
Before she became business.
Before the truth caged her in.
Before the secrets gushed out.
I never did get to surf that day.
My surfboard broke.
Should have known it was an omen.
My heart was going to be next in line.
And for a small chick, she did one hell of a fucking job obliterating it.
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Vicious
About LJ Shen
L.J. Shen is an International #1 best-selling author of Contemporary Romance and New Adult novels. She lives in Northern California with her husband, young son and chubby cat.
Before she’d settled down, L.J. (who thinks referring to herself in the third person is really silly, by the way) traveled the world, and collected friends from all across the globe. Friends who’d be happy to report that she is a rubbish companion, always forgets peoples’ birthdays and never sends Christmas cards.
She enjoys the simple things in life, like spending time with her family and friends, reading, HBO, Netflix and internet-stalking Stephen James. She reads between three to five books a week and firmly believes Crocs shoes and mullets should be outlawed.
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“Love is like death. It’s inevitable.”
Holy Hell! I’m not going to lie, I went into this book completely blind. I didn’t read the blurb and I glanced at teasers in passing but never took the time to stop and fully read anything that had to do with Bane’s story for one simple reason. I love the element of surprise. I wanted L.J. Shen’s words to shock the hell out of me as I have done with all the other novels in the Sinners of Saint series.
Bane is the fourth book in the Sinners of Saint series. Given the fact that the hothole’s stories have all been completed, Bane’s story is a spinoff.
Step aside Vicious you have been dethroned!
This man is seriously as f*cked up as they come, but given his background and the way he was brought into the world, one can’t blame him for the life he’s decided to live. I spent the majority of this novel intrigued by Bane’s lifestyle. He’s a surfer with a vendetta. A mission to prove he is nothing like the man whose blood runs through his veins.
Bane has a goal in mind, he wants to open up a surf plaza right on the beach. But with goals, comes the need of capital and there is only one man who comes to mind when he thinks money….Vicious. Ah, Vicious is still the same ol’ asshole that I loved from the start. It never fails when there’s a situation that can be manipulated, Vicious is never far away. I knew as soon as Vicious was involved that the outcome was not going to be a good one.
“Life is about looking at yourself in the mirror without flinching.”
Jesse Carter has been labeled the town slut. She even has the scars and the horrible memories to prove it. I’m not going to get into too much detail on Jesse’s background. Due to the ‘element of surprise’, but just to warn you, if you are sensitive to triggers, go into this novel expecting the absolute worse! Jesse’s background and her dealing with her past tore my heart out.
“They can’t hurt you if you don’t give them permission to. So don’t.”
Bane is on a mission to show Jesse that there is life after tragedy. There is a lot riding on this mission, six million dollars to be exact. Bane looks at this as an easy win, until he meets Jesse and is met head on with a feeling he’s never really possessed before. Love, Adoration, and a strong need to protect this woman from the world but most importantly from herself.
“Don’t fall in love. Fall off a bridge. It hurts less.”
Bane and Jesse’s story isn’t your typical romance. This is a story of two tarnished souls, that never really had a chance, uniting with their better halves. I couldn’t get enough of this story to the point where I honestly read it painfully slow just to absorb everything. My heart broke time and time again for both Bane and Jesse. Both characters have troubled pasts that they are trying to rise above and in the end each will help the other find the ability to fight the demons that lives deep inside.
“Snow White waited for the prince. You’ll be the one saving yourself in this story.”
Overall, I LOVED Bane and Jesse’s story. I loved the intensity that showed throughout the novel, the uncomfortable moments that show the true horrors of the situations Jesse lived through. But most of all I loved Jesse’s inner strength throughout the whole novel even when she was at her low it was still evident. Bane has an ending that in my opinion has trumped all endings in romance novel history!
Peace Love and Happy Reading,
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The ending was really good!
Omg, it was so good 😍🤩😍