Nicole R Taylor

I swear this started as a Supernatural fanfiction and was converted to a full book series afterward. I kept hearing Dean as Zac and Sam was ... well, Sam. The sudden cliffhanger ending was horrible. (I have more thoughts to come on this.)

What I loved: Being inside the Australian club scene, the camaraderie and caring among bandmates, the glimpse of rock life, the way all the guys flocked together and were super-protective of Zoe, especially her best bud Dee, and the OMG hot sex.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved, but needed help with Aussie slang. Thank goodness for Kindle built-in dictionaries, to translate for a clueless American like me that arvo = afternoon, sunnies = sunglasses, and show more doona = duvet/bedspread.

Chapters were told alternately from Zoe and Will's POV. This mostly worked well, BUT... the author often unnecessarily repeated EXACTLY the dialogue and action from the other POV. While the general rule of thumb is "show, not tell" this is the kind of thing where for the reader's sake, telling an abbreviated version and focusing on the different emotions of the characters would have served better.

Other beefs: 1) MOST of the novel was written in past tense, with dialogue in present tense, but there was considerable drift, where the narrative was in present tense. 2) Sometimes typos/spelling were a distraction. For example, the things that guitarists step on to change the sound are ALWAYS "pedals," never "peddles." I've personally been anal about proper use of "it's" and "its" since missing it on a test in high school. There weren't enough typos to make me hate the book, but there were a couple dozen speed-bumps that took me out of the story. The past/present tense issue, the spelling issues, plus the Aussie slang meant that there were too many times I was puzzle-solving rather than being entirely carried away by the story.

3) The initial romance and attraction between Zoe and Will took a little too long to catch fire, IMO. Once it did, look out! Loved the heat and the tenderness between these two.

The sex scenes were A-MAZ-ING-LY hot, and kudos on the consistent condom use. (Yes, Virginia, you CAN use condoms without it ever coming off as less spontaneous or sexy.) If you're a fan of fast and furious when it comes to fucking(FFF), you've hit the jackpot here.

The author clearly knows her way around the clubs and music scene, and her world-building drew me in from the start. Even though I can't give it five stars, due to the issues mentioned above, I really loved this story. show less

i almost threw this against the wall in the first 40 pages, it seemed so poorly thought out, but stuck with it. the writing and plotting got better as the story approached its end...

I loved everything about this book – the cover, the title, and the story.

The storyline itself is strong and draws you in right from the start, and is a fast moving page turner. It is written with chapters alternating between Zoe and Will’s POV. I found this interesting because I don’t usually enjoy the alternating POV setup, but in this case it was great and worked very well – actually ……… it was awesome.

The author did a really great job with the characters – each one of them show more played an integral part in the story which gave it depth and made the relationship between the bands and the members interesting. I loved how each member of the two bands interacted with each other, and how they were there for each other. This was an exciting time for them all, and being on the road and in each other’s company 24/7 must have been difficult, and without the stability of good friendship, it could have all unraveled in an instant.

I especially loved the friendship between Zoe and her best friend Dee. Their friendship and how they related to each other was awesome. He is the type of person any woman would love to have as a best friend. He understood her and protected her from everyone, including herself. He loved her.

I loved the world-building in this book, I could visualize each and every club they played in, the dingy hotels and motels, and life on the touring bus. The author did a great job with this.

This was a really good book, taking a shy and insecure office worker and catapulting her to rock stardom works for me. Add to that the chemistry between Zoe and Will, wow, it was sizzling HOT!

Great book – I loved it, and could not put it down. show less