A Bookish Compulsion

This review also posted at A Bookish Compulsion

I ended up with this title as part of “Rockstar Romance” E-boxed set. As the formatting and navigation of the set itself was a nightmare, I decided to review the stories individually so as not to have the overall organizational mess impact the review of the story.

I thought this was a cute read, but not really for me.

There was nothing really wrong with the writing in this novella, however I found the story itself to be a bit of a mess. The heroine has major body image issues, the hero has back story issues, neither of which seem to be the current point, but both of which are reiterated again and again, creating a bed for miscommunication, insecurity and angsts. Plus I didn't really buy into the insta-cemistery thing they had going.

I think what the author wanted to go for was a more “real” take on love and relationships and how they take work and are not always tied up in neat little packages of happily-ever-after. While I don’t disagree with the sentiment, the implementation of it in this story was slap-dash. There was sexy time and sweet moments but never what I felt was real intimacy; love was thrown around as a four letter word and trust was an outside concept until the very end.

I will admit that I was likely not the intended audience for this book, as I’m not overly enamored of the “Rockstar” lifestyle, however several other stories managed to capture my heart despite that fact where as this one left me flat and not only not wanting more but kinda bummed about what I had read.

I give Hard Rocked two and a half stars.