Scandalous
Sinners of Saint, Book #3
By L.J. Shen
ISBN #9781977569189
Author’s Website: https://www.authorljshen.com/
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Heidi

Edie Van Der Zee doesn’t live the life that most people think she does. The teenage daughter of the rich
and powerful Jordan Van Der Zee, people assume she’s a spoiled ice princess. They don’t know that she
prefers her hoodies and sneakers to a designer dress. Or that her paradise is out on the water surfing. An activity that is not an approved Van Der Zee pastime. She actually has to hide her surfing gear, so nobody can see it when they come to their house. Nobody knows that Jordan cut her off financially years ago. That she has to pinch pennies to earn half of her special needs brother’s monthly fee to stay at his group home so that Jordan doesn’t send him off to New York. Theo is Jordan’s dirty little secret, he doesn’t want anyone to know about, and he uses him to keep his daughter in line. Twelve thousand dollars a month is a lot for any teenager to earn and Edie resorts to stealing from the rich to keep her brother close. Then, there is her mentally unstable mother Edie takes care of. Jordan can’t be bothered to deal with his own wife… so many mistresses, so little time.

Now Jordan has insisted Edie work with him at his office. Something his partners are not thrilled about.
Especially Trent Rexroth, who recently caught Edie snipping his mom’s purse.

It appears Jordan has big plans and he needs Edie’s help to make them happen. He wants Trent off the
board at Fiscal Heights Holdings. If Edie doesn’t get him the dirt, he needs to make it happen, he will
send Theo away where she won’t be able to see him.

Trent’s daughter, Luna, doesn’t speak. She has the ability to, but chooses not to. Her therapist
recommends him bringing her to work once a week. And, Trent is shocked to see Edie get reactions from
his daughter so effortlessly. He quickly finds himself obsessed with Edie, despite her flaws. Now he has
initiated all Sundays to be days for Edie to come hang out with Luna and him … and a playdate for him
and Edie once Luna goes to bed. He knows it’s wrong to be having sex with a teenager, even if she is
technically legal, but he can’t stop himself.

“I wanted to get wet and let the tide wash over me without dipping a toe in the ocean. I wanted what was forbidden, and wrong, and fucking crazy. I wanted my partner’s daughter, who was nearly half my age.”

Edie has made it clear, even with their new arrangement that she won’t stop stealing from him for her
father. He has too much over her and she has too much to lose. Trent doesn’t know what Jordan’s
blackmailing her with. And, he knows she could be the very thing that destroys him, but he can’t step
away. His obsession won’t let him.

“You’re my Delilah, Edie, and I’m your Samson. You want to ruin me, destroy me, strip me of my power, and betray me. I should stay away from you, but I want you too fucking much. And when it’s all over, when all that’s left of us is sweaty flesh and shattered minds and torn hearts, you will remember me as the man who made you cry, and I’ll remember you as the girl I had to break to stay afloat.”

I always love me a good L.J. Shen book. This one wasn’t my favorite, but it was still a good read. And,
being a person that has read these books all out of order, I enjoyed seeing Bane again. His book is
actually the one after this, but I read it quite a while back. This is, in fact, the first book he showed up in,
if you’re reading them in the order they were intended. He’s Edie’s best friend and sometimes hookup.
Of course, Trent can’t stand him and forbids Edie from having sex with him anymore. Bane thinks Trent
is just another Jordan and will do what he can to protect her.

“Hey, now, old man. Chill your calcium-deprived bones and stop treating her like crap, or I’ll have to kick your ass.”

Luna is sweet and obsessed with seahorses. She and Edie taught me so much that I didn’t know about
the cute little creatures.

“For the next forty minutes, Luna and I learned everything there was to know about seahorses. We watched a male seahorse giving birth to a gazillion baby seahorses and laughed. She laughed because there were so many. I did because it looked like a man shooting his load after watching the filthiest porn ever recorded.”

Edie was a natural with Luna and I think her observation about the tide was spot-on.

“You fight the tide. You fling your arms, kicking your legs, trying to escape it, overpower it. The secret is to go with the flow. The secret is to ride the wave. Don’t be afraid to get wet.”

Trent was pretty tame for a Shen leading man. He is definitely still full of himself and does what he
wants, morally grey as some of his choices are. However, he was pretty sweet overall. He truly cared
for Edie and wanted to help her, whether she betrayed him or not. He also loves his little girl, and was
trying his best to do right by her.

I enjoyed Edie as well. Her dad was a total tool. It’s sad that a teenager has to take care of her mom
and her brother, while Jordan only cares for himself. Edie was a natural caretaker though and was great
with Theo and Luna. However, she could still be a brat too teasing Trent with Bane. Sometimes he
deserved it though.

“I should warn you, Edie. I’m not the prince in this fairy tale. I’m the villain. The poisonous apple, the flame-breathing monster.”

When Jordan finally made his big move against Trent, his tribe of friends banded together to protect
their own! And, oh how I love his friends! It was great seeing them again… especially when they were
ribbing each other.

“Did you hear that, fuckface? You finally got someone to love your cold ass. You need to put that shit on lockdown because she is still young and naïve enough to like you.”

If only we could have been a fly on the wall for this meeting between Vicious and … Bane.

“You should have seen the stare down between him and Vicious. Vicious straight up asked him if he was his Made-in-China version.”

This was a great read that I flew through in a couple of days. I know Shen’s books are always a good
time. I have finally worked my way through all the Sinner of Saints books, so I guess it’s time to hit the
ones I’ve missed in the spin-off series, All Saints High, which focuses on the kids of the characters of this
series.

“The ocean is her drug.
She is mine.”