Review: More please, need rest of bands stories!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 26, 2013
Read from October 03 to 04, 2013Book Infoebook, 250 pagesExpected publication: October 7th 2013 by Entangled: BrazenISBN 1622663497 (ISBN13: 9781622663491)series Shaken Dirtyother editions None foundSource: PublisherBook Buy LinksAMAZONB&N;BOOK SYNOPSISJamison Matthews has lusted after Ryder Montgomery since she was a preteen. But now that Ryder and her brother's band, Shaken Dirty, has made it huge, she's just one of many pining for the brooding lead singer. Too bad Ryder still sees her as a little sister. Not that it matters. Her brother would never allow it, and the last thing Jamison wants is to be another notch on a rock star's bed post. Even if it's Ryder's.Ryder doesn't deserve happiness. After his fame destroyed his last girlfriend, he swore he'd never fall in love again. So when Jamison, the girl he's been in danger of loving for years, joins the band on the road, he'll do anything to deny the sparks between them--even after one hot night together. But Jamison is determined to show Ryder that he's worthy of love--her love--and that she's all grown up and ready to play.My Thoughts[On a personal note growing up in the time of MTV and VH1 watching rock music videos it was so easy to "feed" my fantasies with the long haired, tattooed, pierced and physically ripped male specimens who filled my television screen daily and my dreams nightly.My own personal real life crush however was on the young man who lived down the street from us. His long brown hair/tight jeans/tighter tees, sexy guitar playing, rock music singing self was only a few years older than me but in our small South Texas town his (in my naive eyes) "worldly experience" was very appealing to a girl who lived a very sheltered life thanks to a very overprotective father.Despite misgivings that same "Rock God" and I have been married close to 32 years, he still wears tight jeans and plays and sings rock and roll music and I still have a "crush" on him for it all these years later! Good thing he does not mind my "crush" on book characters like Ryder, right?]Rock bands and their "bad boy members" have long been some of my favorite lead male characters in a contemporary romance. Ryder Montgomery personifies such a character, right down to the tight jeans and tees that hug every delicious inch of the "rock god" front man for the mythical band "Shaken Dirty"!Jamison Matthews for all intents and purposes is pretty much treated like the kid sister of the bands members, Ryder in particular seems to want to never remove her from that status and after 10 long years of being in love with her big brothers best friend she is determined to at long last prove she is a grown woman who knows her own heart's desire!My favorite scenes between Jamison and Ryder brought me to tears as the emotions portrayed were so raw and so real that you just want so badly for the two to work out as they totally belong together.With what happened in his past Ryder feels like he can never take a chance on hurting Jamison and he constantly pushes her away time and time again. Here is his explanation:The chemistry between him and Jamison might suddenly be off the charts, but that didn't mean there could be something between them. Because there couldn't be. He wouldn't allow there to be.Later on in the story there are a couple of scenes where Jamison feels lacking and unsure that what Ryder feels for her is more than just base lust, you will melt like I did:She felt beautiful when he looked at her like that, when he touched her and held her and stroked her like she was the only woman in the world. She knew it was a lie, knew he'd probably be with another woman before the week ended, but she couldn't bring herselfto care. Not when he was looking at her like she was his whole world.He stopped kissing her abruptly, tilted his head up until those gorgeous onyx eyes of his blazed into her own. "Jamison?" he asked, his voice still husky with desire. "Are you okay?"And just that easily, she relaxed. Hearing him say her name, knowing she was more to him than some nameless, faceless body soothed her as nothing else could have.He smiled then and her heart stuttered a little in her chest. Because it wasn't the smile he gave the hoards of screaming fans, wasn't the smile he gave the other guys or his friends or even the women he slept with. She'd seen all those smiles a hundred--a thousand--times through the years. No, this was his Jamison smile. The one he kept just for her, and the fact that he was giving it to her now helped settle her like nothing else could.Time on the road together brings Jamison closer to the entire band, each member having at some point in her life helping her through a few milestones of girlhood thus cementing their place as friends she could count on when needed. Jamison had missed that since the band's career started to take off and their touring took them on the road for long stretches of time.Taken out of context of the intimate moments between Jamison and Ryder these snippets of scenes in no way completely convey the intensity that comes through as you read the story but they do give a glimpse of just how passionately sincere the characters emotions are, particularly this heartfelt confession Ryder makes to Jamison when he realizes just how much she has come to mean to him despite his best intentions:"I never knew I could feel about anyone the way I feel about you. It's so huge, so monumental, that it terrifies me. Because you see me. You see all the way inside of me to places nobody else even knows exist. And I can't understand, can't imagine, what someone like you could possibly see in someone like me."The author touched upon the band members relationships briefly, more so their individual backgrounds with Jamison which explained why they were all so protective of her, and I look forward to the further exploration of each character in future works about the group as they release. As a longtime fan of rock'n'roll and the "bad boys and girls" behind the music this contemporary friends to lovers romance hit every emotion and it has the potential for a series to rival that of one that I have loved since the beginning of Sinners On Tour written by author Olivia Cunning , without being quite as raunchy but still holding it's own and looking forward to the rest of the band members tales in future![E-Copy from Publisher in exchange for honest review]