New to me author LJ Shen will no longer be one I let collect dust on the Kindle. I am beyond pleased to have been given a chance to read Sparrow. I will be completely honest in telling you the beginning is a bit of a struggle. But if you stick it out you'll have one hell of a read. 
 Told from both point of views, Troy and Sparrow, we get an insight into who these characters are. I gotta say, that's a must. For those of you sensitive to cheating this may be a read breaker for you. I feel that I need to explain. I hate cheating in books. HATE. But this isn't that kind of story. This is an arrangement and neither of them has interacted with each other before the literal marriage. 
 Troy is a "fixer" for the mob. He's not a nice man and doesn't pretend to be. He does what he wants when he wants and is unapologetic. Troy is direct and to the point about it all. Except for the reasons why he has chosen to marry her. 
 Sparrow is a girl who grew up in the neighborhood. Dealt with an absent mother and an alcoholic father. She has kept her wits about herself and is goal oriented and driven. Well... until she finds herself in a wedding dress marrying a man that scares the hell out of her. 
 Nothing about this is love. Nothing about it is fair. What it is is a situation that becomes more. Understanding, hate, attraction, loathing, revenge, redemption, and lust. I found the ending to be absolutely phenomenal. There is a strong connect that happens in the form of banter between these two. A give and take that neither one has experienced yet find oddly compelled to entertain. 
 I am giving it 4 stars only because of the wordiness of the first 30% of the book. I felt it lacked a bit of focus, but then it fell into a groove and I could not stop reading. 
 Great read. Give it a chance to capture you. 
 4 STARS 
 ~Tanja 
 *ARC provided by author in exchange for honest review