Playing with Fire

A love story carved in secrets, inked with pain, and sealed with a lie.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

1. PLAYING WITH FIRE by L.J. Shen

SYNOPSIS

A broken boy on the path to destruction. A scarred girl without direction. A love story carved in secrets, inked with pain, and sealed with a lie.

Grace Shaw and West St. Claire are arctic opposites. She is the strange girl from the food truck. He is the mysterious underground fighter who stormed into her sleepy Texan college town on his motorcycle one day, and has been wreaking havoc since. She is invisible to the world. He is the town’s beloved bad boy. She is a reject. He is trouble.

When West thrusts himself into Grace’s quiet life, she scrambles to figure out if he is her happily-ever-after or tragic ending. But the harder she pushes him away, the more he pulls her out of her shell.

Grace doesn’t know much about anything beyond her town’s limits, but she does know this: She is falling in love with the hottest guy in Sheridan U. And when you play with fire—you ought to get burned.

BOOK REVIEW

“No promises, no disappointments.”

Ever since Vicious, I wholeheartedly loved and supported everything and anything L.J. Shen had to offer, but her recent works have been hit-or-miss for me. And so I’ve become highly conscious of diving into her books, especially after the clusterfuck that happened in Angry God. Naturally, I prayed Playing With Fire be good, and it definitely was. The book was by no means perfect and still lacked the magic of the ‘original’ masterpieces by the author, but I absolutely loved the main characters who were raw and easily relatable with all their insecurities and real-life struggles.

“Your beauty is just one brief chapter in your history book. Nothin’ but a sweet, elusive lie. Elegant wrapping paper, wrapped around a mysterious gift. And while it is true beautifully wrapped gifts are more appealing to the eye”—I cocked my head sideways, giving her body a quick, cold scan—”I’m sure whatever I have to offer under the wrapping paper’s worth more than your ugly words tonight.”

Grace ‘Texas’ Shaw experienced a truly horrible thing that stripped her of confidence but still failed to fully break her. From a first glance, she seemed timid and unapproachable but really was pure resilience and defiance and feistiness. The girl was a survivor. She was a fighter. Her character spoke to the teenage me, the one who didn’t feel pretty enough, good enough, deserving enough... As well as reminded to never let others dictate how to see me and never lose a determination to live life the way I want to. I adored how loving and caring Grace was and respected the hell out of how she faced her fears and insecurities. I loved to see how she removed the flame ring and became her own fire!

He was going to soar and burst like a supernova once he was out of this small Texas town and I was going to remain the ashes left behind—the stardust that slowly descended the earth in his wake.

West ‘Maine’ St. Claire had his own shit he had to deal with on a daily basis. He was a crude and uncaring bad boy, oftentimes reckless and constantly miserable (which was understandable considering his dark secret and trauma that was eating him alive from the inside out). The man had the uncanny ability to do nice things and still act like a complete and utter jerk, and had heartbreak written all over him. Sounds pretty basic in the NA world, huh?

Honestly, I’m still not sure about West’s character. You could clearly see his vulnerability and inability to make a coherent decision on what was truly important in his life. Because of his guilt, he was on this quest to make amends of some sort but forgot how to breathe without hurting. Forgot that there was more to life than earning money and surviving. Forgot that when you played with fire, eventually, you get burned… I thought West was stupid but still melted at the sight of his childlike selfishness whenever he was around Grace and protectiveness despite his annoying stubbornness.

I had officially stopped showing any signs of intelligence. I blamed his proximity. It made me drunker than the actual tequila.

Texas and Maine were actually a perfect combination with all the feels. I liked the gradual development of their relationship, but now that I think about it, it’s kind of hard to say that the book was friends-to-lovers since they obviously had feelings or rather physical attraction prior. All the witty banter was adorable. And the chemistry was really good. The sexy times were sensual and… normal. No weird-ass objects were involved, thank God (if you’ve read the recent stuff by L.J. Shen, you should know why I pay so much attention to this haha).

She put a mirror to my face. I put a mirror to hers. We saw each other at our best and worst. We made each other face our fears and insecurities and loneliness.

Anyway, Playing With Fire was a quick and entertaining read with a bearable amount of drama thrown in the mix. The book was a nice reminder about the importance to find someone who will love you with tenderness despite it all. Okay, now go and grab the book. Bye!