rock star

The Summer He Came Home by Juliana Stone

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

The Summer He Came Home (Bad Boys of Crystal Lake, #1)
Grade-B
Hotness Level-Blaze
Kink Level-No Kink
Series-Bad Boys of Crystal Lake #1
Genre-Contemporary
Reviewed by Kay
384 pages

Cain Black was one of the Bad Boys of Crystal Lake. He left town ten years ago to chase his music dream. He’s back now for his friend’s funeral. His future looks pretty good considering his band is about to make it big. He recently got out of a disastrous marriage and was just looking to pay his respects to his deceased friend, then he was moving on. At the funeral reception he sees Maggie and it was love at first sight.

Maggie is a single mother with a young son, Michael. They don’t have much money but she does have a BIG secret. A dangerous secret. She makes her bills by cleaning houses. She lives in a little bungalow that’s perfect for her and her son. She sees Cain and at first she’s frightened but also attracted. She has no time for a relationship with a rock star that will soon be leaving town. She has a son to protect, she tells herself.

I read the second book in this series first and LOVED it. I truly enjoyed this one except for one thing. She’s married. Granted, she’s on the run from her abusive ex but I don’t like to read about adultery. At all. Honestly, it changed how I rated the book. I’m telling you this as a warning if adultery is a hard limit for you as a reader.

Otherwise, this was a great and very sweet book. Their relationship building was fun to read. There’s humor, suspense, sadness and some steamy sex in this story. I would recommend this series to anyone who believes in the healing power of love and I’m eagerly awaiting the next book.

Louder Than Love by Jessica Topper

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Louder Than Love
Grade: B
Hotness Level: Blaze
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary, rock star
Published: 9/17/13

Reviewed by Kate
 

Katrina “Tree” is a librarian who has been floating in a haze since her husband died.  She and her 4 year old daughter have moved back to her home town and have surrounded themselves with friends.  When looking for a musician for the library’s childrens’ program, she runs across Adrian Graves.  Adrian used to be famous and is now living a shadow of a life.  Tree and Adrian set out on a journey of self discovery and healing, falling in love along the way.

 

Tree and Adrian have so much hurt in their past that at times their struggles to return to life are hard to witness.  But their support for each other is sweet and charming.  I quickly fell for each of them.

 

I can admit to not being a huge fan of the rockers that are flooding the pool of romance heroes lately, but the way that the author wrote Adrian really worked for me.  I was pulled into the mystery that is Adrian so completely that I was almost halfway through the story before I realized that it was being told completely from Tree’s point of view.

 

My only complaint is that there is a small secondary story running through the middle of the book involving an ex-boyfriend of Tree’s.  It added a small element of suspense, but ended without a true sense of closure.  It just seemed really out of place in the story.

 

In this debut novel, Jessica Hopper has shown her strength in creating strong characters in an emotional story.  I look forward to seeing what she comes up with next.

 

I’m curious though.  Have you fallen on the rocker hero bandwagon?  Which is your favorite rocker hero?

New Sensation by Clare Cole

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

New Sensation (Curves for the Rockstar, #1)
Grade-D
Hotness Level-Inferno
Kink Level-No Kink
Series-Curves For The Rockstar #1
Genre-Contemporary
Reviewed by Kay
40 pages

This was a very short novella about a curvy photographer and a mega rockstar. Very cute premise because I always like the big girls getting the hotties but this didn’t grab me. At 52% in there was just one sex scene and it was the girl self pleasuring. It was a hot scene but I wanted the first love scene to be between both of them. Both lead characters were likable but just not engrossing.