Review: Hot and dark rock band story
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 24, 2013
This is book 2 in the Blow Hole series, this time telling the story of Faith and the band's front man, Finn. You probably could read it as a standalone, but it makes much more sense if you read the other books first. The characters from Playing and Finding Patience reappear in this.I really, really enjoyed this.The story was in 2 parts, the first 70% related events from four years ago and the remainder brings the story up to date.As with the Patience books, both Faith and Finn have troubled - and in Faith's case, abusive - home lives. Faith is the daughter of a devout preacher, virginal (I know, again, although it was actually plausible in this book for once), innocent and beautiful. Finn is the rough but misunderstood guy who has been sent to do his community service at Faith's father's church. The chemistry between them is amazing in this, it gave me warm and happy tingles. It wasn't all sweetness and light though as Faith's actions drew the attention of her abusive father. The abuse scenes were gripping and felt real, so real they were hard to read at times.At around 70% everything is going well, too well and I actually contemplated putting this down and stepping away because I knew the inevitable thing that was going to happen to pull the characters apart would be even harder to read than usual because I was so invested in the characters and because I know this author writes angst really, really well.I'm so glad I persevered though; sure enough, it was hard to read in places, but unusually for an angst wimp like me, I actually enjoyed the second part of this story even more than the first part. Four years on, Faith has won her independence from her father and she's struggling to support herself. Meanwhile Finn is now a singer in a successful rock band, embittered and cynical towards all women, using them and discarding them. Faith ends up cleaning the band's home so we get to enjoy the experience of them falling for one another all over again, but this time with the added zing of the painful 'break-up' getting between them too.It was hot, it was sweet and tender and in places it was dark. An excellent read.I'd really recommend this series to anyone who enjoys bad boy rock stars or darker reads.***I received an ARC of this book from the author in return for my honest opinion in association with A Girl Amongst Books Blog***