Review: Dirty Headlines - 10/10
Updated: Dec 21, 2019
There's nothing better than a book that can make you laugh your ass off and sniffle your way through the Kleenex box (all with a Happily Ever After to finish it off!)--and that's exactly what you'll get with L.J. Shen's Dirty Headlines!
THE Basics
Title: Dirty Headlines
Series: No
Author: L.J. Shen
Genre: Romance
Tropes: Alpha Male, Billionaire, Asshole Hero, Boss
Kindle Unlimited?: Yes!
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H3F942S/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38396994
A forty-six year old lesbian who thought white, upper middle class men were Satan was my wingman. I think I wanted that on my fucking tombstone. -Dirty Headlines
L.J. Shen is a fantastic writer and a hilarious comedian. It's not easy these days to be a romance author who creates seamless books full of sock-rocking humor, hot sex, and killer plot considering how quickly you're expected to produce new books, but somehow Shen manages. In Dirty Headlines, she blends the intensity of a sexy moment with the kind of humor that makes you spew your coffee to create a unique vibe that will keep you reading all night long. I'm not usually a big fan of office romances, but this book definitely doesn't fall under the usual stereotypes of the genre. Instead, it's full of lady-dominance in the office (kicking her boss' ass will rock hard comebacks) and man-dominance in the bedroom (making her scream in pleasure from every dirty thing he does).
PLOT: 10/10
The plot of this book is fantastic. While it doesn’t have a true storyline in the sense of a crime needing to be solved or a person to be saved, it has the sort of plot perfect for an intense romance: Boy meets girl, both boy and girl have their own problems to sort out, boy and girl end up conquering the world together. It was just enough to keep me reading (I’m not into pure erotica or stories where the characters do nothing but sit around and think about each other) without taking away from the incredible passion shared between the heroine and hero.
POV: 10/10
This book is written in first person, from both our male and female characters’ POV. This is pretty much a necessity for me, as I like to see a love story from multiple points of view!
You gave me backdoor access--a woman's version of expensive jewelry. --Dirty Headlines
CHARACTERS: 10/10
I absolutely adore the main characters in this book! When I first started it, I was a little worried that the hero (Celian Laurent) was going to be too much of an asshole for me to handle. (I like my men to have a little sensitivity). But as the book went on, he developed beautifully as a character and became someone I truly adored—I even added him to my Harem of Book Boyfriends! ;) As for the heroine, she was kick-ass from the very beginning. Jude, or Chucks, as our hero starts calling her thanks to her adorable choice of shoes, is the perfect amount of both sassy and sweet to deliver a delicious read. She also has some of the funniest inner thoughts that I’ve ever read! And boy does she like to give the Friendly Finger from Friends!
SEX: 10/10
I can’t even say enough about how hot LJ Shen’s sex scenes are. This is an author that I go back and read whenever I’m having a difficult time writing my own naughty bits, because she’s just that good. She manages to make every scene both sexy as hell and well written enough to win itself some awards—a combination harder than you’d think! There is a feeling of dominance and submission to the scenes, though not in an outright BDSM sort of way. It’s simply the attitude of the hero, and the heroine goes along with it because she finds it hot as Hades. I couldn’t get enough of these scenes, and I often skip sex scenes if I don’t like their vibe. That means this one was a REAL winner for me! Overall, Dirty Headlines is one of my favorite romance novels that isn’t part of a series. It’s actually been sitting in my Kindle Unlimited library for about a year now, and I think I’ve read it four or five times! It’s probably about time for me to go ahead and just buy the book so I can free up that space for more KU reads….
…..And I just went and bought it! Definitely worth that $3.99, and it’s free on Kindle Unlimited, too. Love my L.J. Shen and really love Dirty Headlines. This is a Golden Reread for sure!