I said fuck it and I quit. review to come. it won't be pretty.

The first half of this book was fire. Incredible chemistry between the main characters and what seemed to be an epic second-chance love story. Aaaaand here's the problem with books where the two leads get together wayyyyy too soon. You just can't do that and have much of a storyline after because who wants to read about the female getting pissed every time the male throws his worn jeans on the treadmill instead of hanging them up in the closet? It's not fun reading because I have that crap at home. So authors can't really write about the doldrums of the day to day.

What happens is the author has to come up with tension for the rest of the story and in this case it was a quick coke addiction relapse that was cleared up Speedy Gonzalez style with the help of a sponsor and no rehab. The entire storyline takes up like 15 pages and stretches over only a few days. Because rock stars only take coke for a few days. *thumbs up emoji*

BUT... despite this flaw... I liked it. The chemistry was good and really well done in the first half. It's worth a read, especially if you have a rock star fetish like I do.

Man, oh man, why couldn't I love this book like everyone else?! I really wanted to love this story, but sadly it was just another "okay" book. Everything was just okay...including the story and all the characters. I just ended up feeling indifferent about it all.
I understand why many people love it...hot and steamy with hot rocker dude. It just left me thinking, "So that's it?!"

I knew it was a risk reading a romance book written in 2012. This book shows its age. I hate to leave such a low rating but this book is so unbelievably cringey. The first 75 pages or so are alright. The premise is nice. A lovely Mary-Sue situation of a girl whose childhood best friend is now a famous rockstar and he remembers her. He has 12 years to “catch up on” and takes her on all these cute dates to make up for her 12 birthdays he missed, and it’s all so thoughtful and sweet. Every time she walks in a room and meets new people, the author has every new character comment on how beautiful/hot she is. The gay P.A. ALWAYS calls her by a pet name, ad nauseum.

She goes on tour with him to be the author of his biography and almost immediately cheats on her boyfriend with rockstar Jake. I don’t even care about the cheating. The second they start sleeping together, Jake turns into a possessive, melodramatic asshole. Not even in an alpha-hole way. Just in a childish, petulant way. He is bipolar like crazy. He constantly “roars” at her in fights, and then grovels in the next scene. Over and over and over again. Every chapter is a new reason he is “roaring” at her in a fight, and then him groveling.

He gets back on drugs and she leaves him when she finds him in bed with some girl, and then he roars at her fifty more times while groveling for her to take him back.

The end? When he sings her a song at the last concert she’s covering “for the book”, and she DRAMATICALLY runs to him after the song and they swap platitudes non stop? Good lord.

This feels SO 2010-2012, in all the worst ways. All of the fights are unnecessarily dramatic, and almost the exact same verbiage. They are almost as childish as “I know you are, but what am I?” Our heroine “lets out the breath she didn’t know she was holding” like 8 times during this book.

I saw reviews saying this book has unnecessary drama and I can’t agree more. I’ve read great romance books with drama and anguish and 2 characters healthily working through heavy things, and this was none of those things. This feels like Twilight level bipolar abuse. The appeal in 2012 of the AMAZING ROCKSTAR just obsessed with the heroine and fighting with her and FOR her and “I can’t live a life that doesn’t have you in it” is obvious. It’s just… ugh. I don’t know why I requested my library pick up a license for this ebook/audio book, and it must have been YEARS ago, so I kind of felt guilty and that I had to read it… but this does not work for me in 2022. Lol.

DNF

Wow, this was a long book. And while there were parts that dragged a little bit for me (which is why I can't rate it five stars), I can't think of anything that could be taken out for the story to have still been the same.

What a sweet story. Lots of angst. Lots of uncertainty. Lots of unresolved sexual tension for a while. We knew Tru and Jake would get together, but what would it ultimately take for that to happen? How patient would Jake have to be? I sort of wish Tru had broken up with Will before starting with Jake. And while I understood Jake's jealousy of what Will had with Tru, I felt like his reaction to Tru wanting to keep their new found/recently rekindled feelings for each other under wraps a little over the top. I understood why she was trying to protect Will. I was glad that ultimately (after a bit), Jake realized it as well and apologized.

Wow, they were hot and cold a lot. Sometimes their arguments seemed like they were worse than they should have been. Many times, because Jake was used to getting his way, he acted like such a child. But then he could be so sweet when he realized he was acting like a child and became contrite. And when they were good, they were really good. Tru even said that herself near the end.

I loved after the ending, when we got a peek into how Jake felt about their first reunion. It was really cute to see how nervous he was about seeing Tru for the first time in twelve years.

I tagged this one with minor editing issues. It might be more than minor, but less than serious. There were many instances where "too" should have been used, but "to" was, and other things kind of like that (words misused). And really funky punctuation that had my brain backtracking. But the story was really good.

1/2 star bump for spice and angst. liked a lot, but just couldn't love. I'll read Wethering the storm at some point soon, but the fact that I'm not dying to find out what's next, is telling.
noted some needed edits- found some issues with typos,tense and incomplete sentences. frankly as wide read as this book is I'm surprised to find editorial issues...

AWESOME READ!!! You will experience almost every emotion reading this book. Loved this book!!!

i had no clue i would fall for another damn rock star! lol Trudy and mr mighty storm over here are awesome. the whole story from the beginning was sooo cute! of course you know everything thats going to happen, its obvious. but that didn't take away from the story at all, i really enjoyed the banter between these two.

trudy was a pain in my ass though. when she was stuck between these two i was like, "ok KIERA, make up ur fkn mind" im glad she wasn't like that through the entire book.

the drug use was a good twist. i couldn't see it going anywhere because they were so damn happy i was way over it lol but the darkness crept in and i loved it.

While I didn't fall in love with this book, it wasn't that bad either. First of all there was the cheating issue, which normally doesn't bother me, because, hey, it's fiction, but this time it really rubbed me the wrong way. Tru was in a committed relationship and she cheated on poor Will, and then had the nerve to get jealous when Jake is out with another woman. So immature.

Secondly, I know it was Jake and Tru's story, but the way we left Will was horrible. He didn't deserve to be treated the way he was. Tru kept thinking to herself what a bad person she was to be happy after what went down and every time, I would agree with her. So, I guess what I'm saying is that I really didn't like Tru.

Would I recommend this book? Probably not. Will I read the second book? Yes, haha. I just have to see if Will comes back and is happy.