Midnight Blue

Holy Crap! L.J. Shen is trying to kill me. I've read (actually listened) to a couple of her books, and so I thought I was prepared. I. Was. Not. Vicious has just been kicked off his arsehole mantel. Alex is now firmly seated there, and he has no intention of moving. This is my favourite read of 2018 so far. It has everything I could have hoped for and more. This book gave me all the feels. It was written so beautifully. It felt very poetic. There were a few twists that had me sat there and just WOW, I did not see them coming, at all. I ALWAYS see them coming, what is this madness? If you like arsehole characters, this is the book for you. If you like your female characters with a backbone that takes no crap, this is the book for you. If you like books that make you feel, this is the book for you.

Alex and Indie are EVERYTHING! Their relationship was so beautiful, watching it build from nothing to something was an incredibly rewarding journey. One I loved so much that I cannot wait to do it again. At times I wanted to hug Alex, and at times I wanted to smack him in the head. He could be so sweet and then his arseholery would show. Then his vulnerability would surface again, and I'd feel for him. He's the type of guy that you can't help but swoon over but then you feel just a tiny bit guilty because, you know, females need to stick together and support each other, but yeah, he's irresistible. I have a total girl crush on Indie from her first meeting with Alex I just fell in love with her. The way she didn't back down. Go Girl! She's a spitfire, but she is sweet with it. The type of person you'd want to be friends with. The build-up to them getting together was perfectly timed and paced brilliantly. The passion was so believable and once it happened... get that fire extinguisher ready, sheesh, smoking hot doesn't even begin to describe it. There is some angst, I may have shed some tears (Dammit LJ), especially since some of those tears involved an inanimate object...I'm weird, deal with it. Once you read it, you'll get it. I laughed, I cried, I swooned, and I hoped. Yep, all the feels and more.

Now I need to talk for a minute about the fact that Alex and his band are British. Yes, this requires its own paragraph, this is something that is a selling/ or non-selling point for me, being British and all. I often read books or listen to them, with British characters from non-British authors, and honestly, the characters don't sound particularly British, they sound like an American's interpretation of a Brit, in my opinion. Nothing wrong with that, I've enjoyed many a book with characters like that. However, this book? This book didn't have that issue, from the first page Alex's Britishness was evident but often subtle. The odd word here and there, references and such. It wasn't just, let's drink tea and say bloody, and bollocks. I'm not knocking authors that do that, but it was refreshing to become so engrossed in a book and the characters, and not get pulled out of the story to think ‘huh, we don't all say or drink that' at times, I actually forgot that L.J. Shen wasn't born and bred here, and that is a mark of a fantastic writer.