Defy

Sinners of Saint, Book #0.5

By L.J. Shen

Author’s Website:  https://www.authorljshen.com/ 

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Heidi

Melody Greene has just been going through the motions of life since an injury robbed her of her ballerina career.  Now she’s working a thankless job teaching rich and snooty teens at All Saints High.  Her boss hates her and the feeling is mutual.

Things get even worse when she accidentally backs into her boss’s son’s Range Rover.  She’ll never be able to afford to pay for the damage to his overpriced vehicle.  However, she is surprised when Jaime comes out saying that he damaged her car.  She doesn’t know the game that he is playing, but she grabs onto the lifeline he’s tossing her with both hands … and maybe her feet too.  Of course, everything comes at a cost.  And, Jaime wants to have sex with his teacher before leaving high school.  They come to an agreement to have a fling that will end on his last day of school.  However, what happens when neither of them is ready for them to be over?

This book is the prequel to the Sinners of Saint series.  Of course, I’m reading it last because I have read this entire series out of order.  I find it a little strange that the book is titled Defy.  It mentions the game the guys play with that name a few times briefly, but it’s not a main part of the story.  Also, the other books are titled by the different guys’ nicknames.  It feels odd that Jaime wouldn’t have a nickname of his own that his book would be named.  Maybe Shen decided not to name it that since the book is actually from Melody’s point-of-view?  But honestly, Defy is nothing to her either.

I didn’t like this story as much as the others in the series.  It felt like a bad smutty romance that didn’t have much of a plot, to speak of.  The coming together felt forced and unnatural.  And, back to that point-of-view thing I mentioned earlier … I think I missed the alternating points-of-view the other books had.  I would have liked to have gotten to know Jaime a bit more.  Half of the epilogue is from him, but the rest is all Melody.

This story is a nice add-on for those invested in the series, but it is one you could easily skip.  If I had read this one first, I never would have read the rest of the series.