Audiobook Review: Dirty (Dive Bar #1) by Kylie Scott

Book info:
Title:  Dirty  
Author:  Kylie Scott
Series:  Dive Bar #1  
Genre:  Rock Star Romance
Published:  April 19th, 2016
Source:  Digital audiobook downloaded from public library
My rating:  5 stars

Once again I am blown away by Kylie Scott and her characters.  I love that this book features a character from the Stage Dive series, Vaughan.  My favorite part about that, is that means that one of  my all time favorite book boyfriends gets to  make an appearance, Mal Ericson.  Of course while he is there, he really does steal the story for me.  But anyway, this first book in this series totally brought me into this new world, and I can't wait to meet all the new characters, or find out what is going on with those characters we did meet.

The two main characters are Vaughan and Lydia.  When the story starts, Lydia has just ran out on her wedding after receiving a video of her fiance and his best friend/best man having sex.  She feels humiliated, because she honestly had no idea.  So she sneaks out of the house, and climbs over the fence into the neighbor's yard.  Once there, the only place she can think to hide is to go through a window that was left open on the little house where she's stumbled into the yard.  This window leads into the bathroom, and so as you can imagine, it is a small window, one that she has trouble fitting her wedding dress through.  When she falls in, she falls into a bathtub. And there she sits while trying to hide out until hopefully the people at the wedding stop looking for her.  Only, her luck runs out when the owner of the house gets home.  

Vaughan walks in and turns on the shower without realizing there is a girl in a wedding dress sitting in it.  Now, if you remember Vaughan from the last book in the Stage Dive series, Deep, he isn't shy about being naked in front of people.  Which, as well-endowed as he is said to be, that's probably no wonder.  Of course finding Lydia in his shower is a huge shock, and at first he's kind of ticked off.  But he's a good guy, something we also know from Deep.  So he lets Lydia stay and hide out.  Which works until her fiance and his family come knocking on his door.  

When Lydia is found by the wedding party, she has to explain and give away her fiance's secret to his parents.  Only, it seems as if maybe it isn't a surprise to them.  They had just thought he'd outgrown a phase.  And it turns out that his best friend is who sent the video to Lydia.  And now, the two men decide they are ready to be together.  Punches are thrown, many horrible words are said among the different characters, and the cops are even called.  Fortunately Vaughan is friends with the cop, and is able to convince them to let Lydia stay.  Soon Lydia must figure out whether she will take the family's offer to stay silent about the video and be paid off, or if she will spill the beans and get revenge.  Throughout this whole time she stays with Vaughan, and tries to figure out what to do with her life.  She and Vaughan definitely have a connection.  A physical attraction, and there is the temptation they must fight, each so sure that what they want for their life will not make for a good relationship between them long term.

As with the other books I've read by this author, the characters are all great!  Towards the end there is a point when Vaughan told a story, and it really was just hilarious the way he told it.  And honestly, there is something that really stood out to me and really impressed me with this book.  I don't want to feel like I'm preaching or telling anyone how to think, but my personal belief is that abortion is wrong.  And so when an event in this book happens, unprotected sex, instead of waiting to see what happens and then making a decision, they go get the morning after pill and take care of the issue right there.  Now, I also like that the story doesn't make it seem as taking that pill is just an easy thing, it talks about all the pain and other issues that come with it.  But I give the author kudos for bringing something like this into the story.  I really like the way she handled this situation.  Makes me even more excited to meet her at Apollycon in March!  And now, I'm stuck waiting till April for book two in this series, Twist. 

Now, I just have to wait until 

Audiobook Review: Rome (Marked Men #3) by Jay Crownover

Book info:
Title:  Rome
Author:  Jay Crownover
Series:  Marked Men
Genre:  NA Contemporary Romance
Published:  January 7th, 2014
Format:  Audiobook downloaded from library

Right now I have to say I am so glad that I decided to go to the NOLA Story Con in September.  I might never have picked up a book by this author if she hadn't been on the list for the authors that would be there.  And that, that would have been a tragedy, because I am so in love with this series, and these guys!  This story sounded perfect from the start.  Rome is Rule's older brother, and he is an ex-military guy.  I have been a fan of military guys for some time, especially after going to college in a town that was near to an Air Force base, meaning I met those guys at the bars in town when I went out with my friends.  So I was excited for Rome's story.  And other than the ridiculous mispronunciation of the name Asa by the narrators, I loved this audiobook!  If you haven't read the first two books in the series, you should click on their titles here to read my reviews, book 1 - Rule, and book 2 - Jet.   Now, on with this story's review.

Rome has returned from being over with the military in the middle East.  But he's come back a different guy than when he left.  He was honorably discharged from the army because of his injuries, he was unable to meet the qualifications to stay.  He lost a lot of his soldiers in the very event that caused his injuries, and he wakes up in the night from horrible nightmares of what happened.  These nightmares, along with not knowing how he fits in with his family now, have made him grumpy, and as Cora likes to call him, Captain No-Fun.  Cora is the woman who kind of runs the tattoo shop's front desk for the guys. And it is  her house that Jet and Ayden live in, along with Ayden's brother Asa.  We kind of join the story at a 4th of July party at Rule and Shaw's new house.  Now that Rome's brother Rule has become a home-owner, also finally being in a real relationship with Shaw, Rome feels maybe his brother doesn't need him anymore.  When Cora gets tired of Rome's attitude at the cookout, she dumps a beer on him, and Rome takes off.  He ends up in a bar run by another ex-military guy.  Unfortunately for Rome, who is a stereotypical big tough-looking military guy, there is a guy who is trying to get into a biker gang that picks Rome to try to start a fight with in order to get initiated.  Rome wins the fight, but not without a lot of damage to the bar and his own injuries.  He feels bad for the guy who runs the bar, and offers to pay him back, but the guy wants Rome to help him out by fixing the things that were broken, as well as helping him fix up other things around the bar.  

The bar work reminds me of The Karate Kid, because it is helping Rome work through his problems.  Until one day he gets a call from a friend in his unit that is still over there in battle, and in the call he learns that more are dead.  Rome feels guilty, as if he was still there, he could have kept those young soldiers from dying.  And he goes to the bar and starts drinking again.  When he needs a ride home because he's too drunk, the number that gets called from his phone is the tattoo shop where Rule works.  Unfortunately Cora is the only one left, but she decides to help Rome instead of bothering Rule, because of all the brotherly issues they've been having.  So Cora drags him to her house and puts him in her bed to sober up.  When she goes in to grab her things so she can sleep on the couch, Rome grabs her in his sleep and pulls her onto the bed and underneath him.  At first he just goes back to sleep.  But later on, he wakes up, and things happen, sex happens.  Everything on Rome matches exactly with what you'd expect a big guy like him to be packing.  And it's cute how Cora deals with the situation at first.  

Now, Cora has her own issues.  An ex-boyfriend who she found out was sleeping around on her with someone from the tattoo shop, and the sad thing was that everyone at the shop knew, but didn't tell her.  That's how she ended up at the tattoo shop with these guys.  The other guys at the shop tell Rome he needs to be careful, they don't want her getting hurt, and some of the guys even warn Cora that Rome isn't the "perfect" guy she has said she is now waiting for. But the two of them decide to try things out anyway.  Being with Cora helps Rome with some of the stress he's been going through, helps him to calm down.  But of course things won't be all smooth going from now on.  Remember the guy that tried to beat up Rome?  Well he's not done.  And that surprise night when Cora took Rome back to her house?  Well let's just say they weren't thinking about consequences and protection in that situation.  Rome seems to really be enjoying being in charge of the bar the more authority he gets.  He even ends up hiring Asa as a bartender when the bar starts getting busier.  What else could go wrong?  How about Cora's ex coming back into the picture?

Through all of this Cora and Rome must decide how much they love each other, how much they are willing to share with each other, and if they can make it through all the obstacles put in their way.  And I loved it.

Now, this is probably a spoiler, but it's something I have to say.  I honest to god LOVE that when Cora found out she was pregnant, not once did she mention having an abortion.  Not once was that an option.  I'm not sure how realistic that is, but I love that it is how the story goes.  I'm pro-life, although I don't have as much of a problem with abortions that early in a pregnancy.  But I love that the people in this book don't even think of that as an option.  These are my kind of people.  Sorry for the spoiler on that, but I had to point out how much that stood out to me.

Also, pretty sure I'm going to need to buy one of these t-shirts to wear when I go to meet the author!  The Captain No Fun stuck in my head so much that I called my brother "Daddy No-Fun" when he wouldn't let my niece do things on our vacation over Memorial Day weekend.

 

Review: And We Stay by Jenny Hubbard

First of all, thanks to Delacorte Press and Edelweiss for allowing me to read an e-galley of this title.  I just finished reading it the day before it was published, also the day it would expire.  It was a quick read.  At first I was worried that it was going to suffer in comparison to another school shooting book, The Hate List by Jennifer Brown.  But as I really got to reading it, I began to see how it was its own type of story, and truly, it wasn't really a school shooting story, although that is kind of what it is made out to be in the blurb on Goodreads.  

This story is told as we follow Emily Beam.  Her boyfriend is the one who brought the gun to school.  Only he ended up only shooting himself, and no one other than Emily ever had the gun pointed at them.  Emily had been pregnant, and while she knew she didn't want to have a baby at her age, Paul was excited and happy about it.  They'd said they loved each other, but with this hanging over her head, Emily now wasn't sure about what the future would bring.  Her parents took her away to Boston after all the tragedy, and she got into a boarding school.  The town is where Emily Dickinson was from, and like Dickinson, Emily Beam is also a poet.  And that is the one thing that really made this book its own story, in such an original and unique way.  We get to read the poems all through the story, and they paint such a vivid picture of Emily's feelings, the things that happened before the story started, and how her world is changing.  I could totally see, as a former teacher, how this could be used in a classroom.

As I said before, I was afraid I'd be disappointed as I began, but turned out it was a really great story, and the prose portion was just such an extra perk, making the story even more complete and real.  There is one quote I loved, it is Emily's roommate and friend K.T. who is talking to Emily about God, or really about whether things make you a bad person.
 "If God made us in His image, then maybe we have a right to play God when we can't find Him anywhere.  But we will find Him, eventually."
That is just so deep, and really made me think.  Hope you feel that way as well!