3.5 stars: It has been may years since I’ve read a book by Penelope Ward. Way back when, I had loved Jake Undone and the subsequent books in that series. As my tastes have waxed and waned over the years and I’m back to reading more MF romance, I figured I’d give another one of her books a try. I also have a soft spot for rocker romances. Add in an age gap and I couldn’t pass this up.
This is the story of Emily (22) and Tristan (37). Tristan is the lead singer of a rock group and Emily falls into a job as a sort of “gopher” for the US leg of their tour. I loved how that all came about and how their friendship formed. The way Tristan would play little pranks on Emily just to be with her was cute. It took a while for their obvious sexual attraction to become something physical. When Emily’s “big secret” was revealed, I think it was well done and it all felt natural with the way things played out. There was a lot of emotion that I look for in books I read. I even had to grab some Kleenex a few times.
But there were a few things that didn’t work for me. I didn’t like the sex scenes. It’s a precarious balance between getting that emotional connection with the steam that everyone wants. These scenes were too porny for my taste. Too much wetness, too many juices, and drops of “hot cum”. 🤢 But hey, if you like that, enjoy! It just wasn’t to my liking.
I also really didn’t like the addition of the OM/OW stuff. Even though we didn’t witness any love scenes with these other characters, I didn’t see the necessity of their addition to the story. Things could’ve progressed perfectly fine without them. Just because someone is hurting doesn’t mean they automatically seek someone else out. That definitely affected my rating in a negative way.
I thought the name of the album the band released was offensive and tasteless. When Tristan called Emily that “nickname” it was only once and said in jest. I would have been irate to find that they named the album that. Another negative point, even if it’s minor.
Initially, I had been planning to read the other band members’ books. When I looked for them, I saw that only Atticus, the drummer, has a book. According to a few reviews I read, Ronan doesn’t have, and apparently won’t be getting, his own. The reviewers said that Ronan’s love story was boiled down to a few sentences at the end of Atticus’s book and it will only be a duology instead of a trilogy. So I think I’ll pass since Atticus’s story doesn’t seem to take place around the other band members. It’s a second chance romance between him and his ex-wife in a small town. I liked how Emily and Tristan’s story included the band on the road.