Read: Oct 22-23 2014
★★★★★
"Music major Maddie Taylor just finished her junior year of college and has a summer internship lined up with the LA Philharmonic, yet every night she practices guitar and secretly dreams of a louder life. But geeky girls like her don't get to be rock stars. That is, until tattooed singer Jared Cross catches her playing guitar and invites her to join his band on The Sound, a reality TV show competition.
Once on the show, Maddie discovers there’s more to Jared than his flirty smile and bad boy reputation – and that he’s just as big a geek as she is. With each performance their attraction becomes impossible to ignore, but when the show pressures them to stay single they’re forced to keep their relationship secret.
As the competition heats up, Jared will do whatever it takes for his band to win, and Maddie must decide if following her dream is worth losing her heart."
Oh, I absolutely loved this book!
This is a lighthearted (and short) standalone romance that just makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside, (and craving to go listen to some rock music). There were (obviously) more angsty parts, where someone got really mad or sad, but you have to have some of that in a story, otherwise it's like the ending wouldn't be worth it, it's kind of like the thing "what matters is the journey, not the destination".
It features a band (that Maddie joins) participating in a show much like The Voice called The Sound, but with bands instead of solo artists. Basically all of the drama you find in the book comes from them being in the competition. The book covers the time from when they get an audition (like the blind auditions on The Voice) to the final live show when the winner is announced.
It was a nice change of scenery for me, since a lot (if not most) of the book I read are about people with some type or another of inner demons and usually with some big secret they keep from their loved ones. This one has none of that, I'd say it's pretty straight forward, with some not-so-nice family history from both main characters, Jared and Maddie. You get to know that history fairly quickly, but the story still sucks you in.
One other thing I really liked about this book is that it took you backstage in the life of a contest like this. Obviously it is fiction, so I don't know the reasons the author decided to portray certain characters and events the way she did, but I thoroughly enjoyed the look I had at how a television music contest might work.
There will be two novellas to complete the stories of the whole band, one from before this one, and the other after.
Read: Oct 11-19 2014
★★★★★
"Darkness is the only thing I see. Ever since the day my life changed. The day that everything and everyone I held close to me ceased to exist. The day I lost it all and the demons of my past consumed my every waking moment.
I tried to keep others at arm’s length. Tried not to let my darkness taint them. Ruin them. Harm them. And whether I want to admit it or not, as much as I wish I could keep them locked out, they refuse to leave. Refuse to let me suffer alone.
If I hadn’t been so focused on keeping those demons from flying free, I wouldn’t have missed how one perfect angel was able to sneak her way under my skin—refusing to let go. Making me want things I don’t deserve.
She consumes me. Her beauty knows no end. The love she promises tempts me every time she’s near. But that pure heart that makes her MY Emmy is the one thing I’m convinced I’ll destroy if I ever let her close.
I’m a broken man. A broken man with too much darkness in his soul to ever let her light shine upon me. But even that doesn’t stop me from craving her with every single breath in my body."
This is the 5th and final book in the Corps Security series!
This is one of my favorite series, full of alpha males and seriously fierce ladies.
In this book we get to learn about Maddox and Emmy's story, which of course, we had been teased with since the beginning of the series.
The book starts with flashbacks all the way back to when Mad lost his leg and how horrible his family was to him growing up, and to when Emmy was learning to be a stripper at her parents' strip club (I totally didn't see that coming!).
The story however starts when they are both away from each other. Since the tragedy that had happened to the group of friends previously, Emmy can't take any more reminders of what once was and decides to go back to her parents and an abusive wannabe-husband (who only wants to be her husband so he can have the parents' club and seriously gave me the creeps whenever he was in a scene).
As would be expected, Emmy's return to her old life is very far from perfect or even bearable, and soon enough Maddox tracks her down and does the alpha macho version of taking her back home (super entertaining fights and steamy sex scenes included).
I obviously can't tell much more, because some chaos comes into their lives, one life is threatened, but all ends well for the couple, which to be honest, is all I ever want when I read a book!
I really loved this book. Maddox and Emmy are really entertaining when they fight and hot when they get into it. Plus, this is one of those stories where you don't have any other option but to cheer the couple on. Maddox had been pushing Emmy away for years, even though he loved her, so this how they got their second chance and how they expelled their demons away (hopefully) for good!
As a bonus, the very last paragraph of the book teases the new story related to this group of awesome people. I got very excited at the hint of a book about the kids (now grown ups) of the Corps Security guys, went to confirm that there really is going to be a book about them (Cohen and Danielle, for now anyway) and there is! I can't wait to know how much the kids are alike the parents!
