Louder Than Love by Jessica Topper

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?

Surrender Your Love by J.C. Reed

Surrender Your Love (Surrender Your Love, #1)
Grade-D
Hotness Level-Inferno
Kink Level-No Kink
Series-Surrender Your Love #1
Genre-Contemporary
Reviewed by Kay
324 pages

Another story where the male lead is a wealthy business man. Jett has made a name for himself with his family’s money in the real estate world. He comes to a meeting with a realty company and meets Brooke, who is actually quite rude to him. She spurns his advances and heads home, pissed she was essentially stood up for a business meeting.
Fast forward a bit and there’s a drunken one night stand that she doesn’t really remember. She just wakes up in bed with Jett and a hangover. There is also another night, off page mind you, where she’s drunk and they have sex. She then finds out that he is her new boss and leaves on a trip to Italy with him.  There is a deep dark secret for both of them in their pasts. Are you as confused and bored as I am yet?
I really didn’t like the main characters at all. Jett was a little whipped in the beginning for me and Brooke, who claimed she never gets drunk, was kind of a whore. If you can have nights of sex you forget because of being drunk, then I see a pattern in your behavior. The sex was hot but the story just was boring . I don’t need to read on in this series.

New Sensation by Clare Cole

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.