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Review

4 stars!

A beautifully emotional rock-star romance with great chemistry, lots of heart and a hot and intense love story. As expected, AL Jackson brings the feels, and once again I found myself easily swept up in her gorgeous writing.

Sebastian Stone is the lead guitarist and singer of rock band, Sunder. Broody, intense and bitter, Baz has been through hell, and his temper has gotten the best of him again and he finds himself facing assault charges after sticking up for his troubled younger brother. So, the hot-headed bad boy has been sent down to Savannah with his bandmates and his younger brother to lie low for a while.

Shea Bentley is a gorgeous, kind-hearted good girl. She works at her uncle’s bar and lives a quiet but happy life. But little does she know that the tatted-up stranger who walks into her bar and claims a quiet booth in the back is about to turn her whole world upside down.

From that first moment that Baz and Shea locks eyes, the chemistry between them is palpable, and the sexual tension sizzles. Baz wants Shea, and he keeps coming back night after night, his desire for her building every time he sees her. Shea feels the connection, but she knows that Baz is only in town for a short time, and she wants nothing to do with the bad boy. But it’s only a matter of time before all of those feelings become too big to ignore, and they are unable to hold anything back.

“Do you think I like it that you’re the only think I can think about? That when I close my eyes, what I see is your face? That when I close my eyes, what I see is your face? That I don’t even know you, and somehow you feel like one of the most significant people to have ever walked into my life.”

I really loved the development of this relationship. It’s intense and fast, but I could feel their chemistry, and I was happily swept away in the passion and excitement of it all. Baz and Shea are so freaking hot together and the sexy time is passionate and intense. but there is so much more to them than just sex. There’s a true emotional connection, and as much as they may have tried to resist it, they both find themselves falling, and falling hard.

“You see me, Shea?”

Baz opens up to Shea in a way he hasn’t with anybody outside of his band, revealing a damaged, vulnerable side of himself, and I love watching the big, bad rocker crumble under the strength of his feelings.

I dropped to my knees and framed her unforgettable face in my hands.
Floored
“Don’t understand this, Shea. Not for a second. But I’m never going to be the same.”

But both Baz and Shea have demons in their past and there are things they haven’t shared with each other. And when those secrets threaten to destroy their happiness, we are left with a brutal cliffy that leaves us wondering how they will deal with fallout, and whether they can move forward together.

I’m such a sucker for these kinds of stories. I love a rock-star romance, and the bad boy/good girl thing is just the icing on the cake. Yeah, it may be clichéd, but it’s always guaranteed to suck me in, and I really enjoyed this one! Sebastian and Shea are complete opposites, yet there’s something about them together that just works. There’s a synchronicity about their relationship that I couldn’t help but cheer for, and I loved them as a couple.

“I wasn’t supposed to fall in love with you.”
… “Yes, you were.”

I’m a big fan of A.L. Jackson and found myself easily sucked into the romance and emotion of this story. I did find the repetitious nature of the writing a bit annoying – especially when both characters were doing it – but I listened to this as an audiobook and I think the brilliance of the narration by Sebastian York and Andie Arndt pulled me through what may have irritated me more had I read it rather than listened.

I loved this book, and I’m so excited to continue on with the series – not just for closure for Baz and Shea, but also to read about the boys in the band (Baz’s best friends who all bring so much to the story), and his tormented younger brother, Austin. There are mysteries to be revealed, and with that massive bomb dropped at the end of the book, I’m diving straight into the follow up.

4 stars.