Bane by L.J. Shen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Bane
Naked surfer. Habitual pothead. A con, a liar, a thief and a fraud.
Last I heard, he was extorting the rich and screwing their wives for a living.
Which is why I’m more than a little surprised to find him at my threshold, looking for my friendship, my services, and most puzzling of all—looking humbled.
Thing is, I’m on a boycott. Literally—I cut boys from my life. Permanently.
Problem is, Bane is not a boy, he is all man, and I’m falling, crashing, drowning in his sweet, perfect lies.

Jesse Carter
Hot as hell, cold as ice.
I wasn’t aware of her existence until a fat, juicy deal landed in my lap.
She’s a part of it, a little plaything to kill some time.
She is collateral, a means to an end, and a side-bonus for striking a deal with her oil tycoon stepdad.
More than anything, Jesse Carter is a tough nut to crack.
Little does she know, I have the teeth for it.

Bane

Unique characters and great settings!

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

The Hero: Roman Protsenko (a.k.a. Bane) – he is a pothead surfer with a reputation for being a liar, a con and a thief. His drug of choice wasn’t really marijuana, it was power. For him, people were a game. They could be moved around and manipulated. When he first sees Jesse, he is captivated. Though it was known she only dates rich people. He knew he could make her his, she intrigued him.

The heroine: Jesse Carter – she was the “it” girl in Todos Santos, California. On the night of a full moon, she was beaten, raped and her stomach was carved up by blue blooded royals of Todos Santos named Emery, Henry and Nolan. Her mom and stepfather were wealthy, her dad died when she was young.

The Story: a few years later, Bane found himself doing legitimate business with Baron “Vicious” Spencer. Bane wants to buy land on the beach and they are planning to open a mall, containing a surfing park, surf shop, surfing school, a food court and some tourist shops. He wants Spencer to invest and Bane would give him equity in return. Vicious says no, but gives him the name of a man who might be able to help him. That man, Darren Morgenstern happens to be the stepfather of Jesse Carter.

Morgenstern says yes to Bane’s proposal, with the caveat that Bane helps his stepdaughter. He wants to get Jesse out of the house and talking to people again. Jesse doesn’t like to be touched by anyone, but her therapist wants her to get a job. So Bane agrees to give Jesse a job in one of the shops in the mall he is building. Though Darren had some rules, first being that Jesse could never know and second was that Bane couldn’t sleep with her.

Though I liked Bane, the fact that he made money from having sex, turned me off in a big way. I didn’t mind that he made money from less than legal means, but being a prostitute is kind of my bar for why I wouldn’t date someone. Though he was a nice guy and I liked the way he looked out for Jesse. Jesse on the other hand, let the attack on her change her and scare her away from life.

I like the settings in this book, the beach, Bane’s houseboat, the coffee shop he owned, the mansions of Todos Santos. It was so California sunshine and blue water. There were secrets in this book and like so many other books with secrets, you just wanted Bane to tell Jesse his secrets because you knew they would come out in a terrible way the longer he put it off.

This book is told in dual points of view via dual narration and was narrated by Christian Rummel and Savannah Peachwood. I didn’t like Christian Rummel at first when I started listening to Ruckus but by the end I really loved his voice and his tone. Savannah Peachwood is always great and has a terrific voice. Overall the narration was terrific.

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