Ruckus by L.J. Shen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rosie 

They say that life is a beautiful lie and death a painful truth. They’re right. 
No one has ever made me feel more alive than the guy who serves as a constant reminder that my clock is ticking. 
He is my forbidden, shiny apple. 
The striking fallacy to my blunt, raw, truth. 
He is also my sister’s ex-boyfriend. 
One thing you should know before you judge me; 
I saw him first. I craved him first. I loved him first. 
Eleven years later, he waltzed into my life, demanding a second chance. 
Dean Cole wants to be my bronze horseman. My white knight has finally arrived. Hopefully, he isn’t too late. 

Dean 

They say the brightest stars burn out the fastest. They’re right. 
She sets my mind on fire. 
All smart mouth, snarky attitude and a huge heart. 
In a world where everything is dull, she shines like fucking Sirius. 
Eleven years ago, fate tore us apart. 
This time, I dare it to try. 
Getting to her is a battlefield, but man, that’s why they call me Ruckus. 
Rosie LeBlanc is about to find out how hard I can fight. 
And conquering her will be the sweetest victory. 

Ruckus

Ruckus and Rosie!

The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: ❤️💙💚💜💖
Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📘📙
World building: 🌏🌍🌏🌎
Character development: 😠☺️😋😎
Narration: 🎙🎙🎙🎙🎙
Narration Type: Dual Narration

The heroine: Rosie LeBlanc – for years she has been in love with Dean Cole, though he dated her sister Emilia first. When she hit sixteen years old and wanted to start dating her father wouldn’t let her because she was a magnet for the wrong kind of boys. She was racy and beautiful, small and ripe. She attracted attention like nobody else. So, she thought her sister Millie did deserve Dean. She was sick and her attraction to Dean wouldn’t be good for her since she knew it was a forever kind of love and her clock was ticking.

The Hero: Dean Cole (a.k.a. Ruckus) – the summer he turned seventeen, he got caught on camera doing something he shouldn’t, and he was sent to stay with his uncle and work on a farm for the summer. He didn’t want to jeopardize his Harvard education, so he went without complaint. Seven weeks into his senior year he met Rosie, though she wasn’t Millie, it reminded him of a bible story he read that summer about a man and two sisters.

The Story: Dean was nicknamed Ruckus because he caused all kinds of it. If you needed drugs, he had them; if you went to the principal’s office, he was already there; if you wanted to party, he was ready for it. When he met baby LeBlanc, he decided to forego his pursuit of Millie and go after Rosie. Though Millie soon came out and kissed him like nobody’s business. Dean promised to protect Millie from Vicious, who was bullying her. So, he somehow ended up dating Millie when he really wanted Rosie.

Rosie was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis at the age of three. It is a lung disease, and most people die between the ages of 30 and 50. After Dean graduated from Harvard with an MBA and Rosie was working as a barista and volunteered at a hospital, they ended up living in the same apartment building, which the hot holes (Dean and his friends) owned. She didn’t want her sister’s ex-boyfriend but was still attracted to Dean. Though he was a total player.

The story was interesting and steamy, and Dean was a good guy, not a bully like Vicious. He just wanted to get together with Rosie, while she was holding on to some old girl code crap about not wanting to hurt her sister by dating her ex, even though she knows that Millie never really loved Dean and now was marrying Vicious. Also Dean had a secret which really ended up surprising me which isn’t easy to do. I thought for sure I knew what it was but was pleasantly surprised when I was wrong.

This book is told in dual points of view via dual narration and was narrated by Christian Rummel and Savannah Peachwood. Savannah is great, she has a soft, feminine voice and does narration for a lot of romance audiobooks. I really like her. Christian Rummel wasn’t that familiar to me, but he does a good job and has a deep voice which is what I like for a Hero, though he kind of had a loud voice, but once I turned the volume down a bit, I really liked him.

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