BOOK REVIEW - ROCK CHICK REVOLUTION by KRISTEN ASHLEY - ROCK CHICK # 8 - ADULT CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

By: Kristen Ashley
Published By: Kristen Ashley
Released: Available Now
Details: Kindle purchase, 530 Pages

RATING: 4.5 REVOLUTION STARS

Ally Nightingale has secrets. Secrets she doesn't even share with the Rock Chicks. But two men know what she's up to. One has her back. The other has her heart, but he doesn't know it.

As Ally rewinds the last year of her life, she knows two things. One, she’s never going to get what every Rock Chick should have—her own Hot Bunch guy. And two, she’s a Nightingale through and through. She just isn’t sure what to do about that.

But as her secrets are revealed, the men in her life react. Darius Tucker, a lifelong friend, as usual takes her back. Ren Zano, the man she loves, isn’t quite so sure. The Rock Chicks, Hot Bunch and the entire gang at Fortnum’s weigh in, and a Rock Chick Revolution starts brewing.

It’s up to Ally to control it and prove what she knows down to her bones.

She’s a Rock Chick, she deserves her hot guy and she’s going to keep the one she wants…

Because she’s a Nightingale.

BOOK REVIEW by Michelle:

Every Rock Chick book has been such a wonderful experience for me. They are the books you pick up when life is tackling you sideways. You can’t help but fall in love with all the Rock Chicks and their Alpha, neck grabbing, maximum contact men.

You will laugh out loud at Tex.

I really am gonna miss his character because he brought that booming, cranky, coffee making personality fully into the limelight when it was shone on him and then some. He was up for grenade throwing, gun totting and fist pounding in only the way Tex could.



“Can I get a coffee?” A man standing behind Mr. Kumar asked.

“Are you blind?” Tex asked back.

“Sorry?” the man queried.

Tex threw out a beefy mitt. “Don’t you see we’re havin’ a meetin’?”

The man looked back at Tex.” I thought you made coffee.”

“We do. We also fight crime. Don’t you read the papers?” Tex asked, and I heard Jet giggle.

I was right with her.

“Um...yes, but I didn’t know you did it when you were making coffee,” the man replied.

“Crime don’t happen when you want it to, “Tex returned. “You gotta be prepared. You gotta plan. And that’s why we’re havin’ a meetin’. Now shut it and wait until we’re done.”



He didn’t like boring.



“You were the shit,” Tex boomed, flicking the latch on the coffee grinder to fill the portafilter and doing it so hard the entire grinder shook. “It was fuckin’ frustratin’. Whole thing took, like, two seconds, and I only got one punch in on the motherfucker. Then he was down. Splat!”



Rock Chicks aren’t boring.

Let me chat about Ren.



I watched his shadowy head shake before he stated, “Baby, you’re gorgeous. The way you wear a dress is goddamned foreplay. The way you give me everything and nothing, making you a challenge only a real man would accept, is all kinds of hot.



“My people are Italian, loud and fuckin’ crazy,” Ren whispered to me. “And still, your people beat mine by a mile.”



Ren is all things Hot Bunch worthy. He worketh his sexy-man thing. He neck grabs, kisses, maximum-sleep-contacts like the best of them.

Ally was maybe not my fave Rock Chick, but that is okay. I think I am totally blinded by the men, anyway.  

I really enjoyed this whole series and feel kinda sad it is done and dusted for me now, but I know there is more to come in its own way and I am back on that KA reading order next week with For You, The Burg # 1. (I gotta say the cover art is a little erm, eye catching and a little freaky.) J

Rock on!

Michelle

BOOK REVIEW - ROCK CHICK REGRET by KRISTEN ASHLEY - ROCK CHICK # 7 - CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE SUSPENSE

By: Kristen Ashley
Published By: Kristen Ashley
Released: Available Now
Details : Paperback from library, 480 Pages

RATING: 5 HECTOR YOU SO SURPRISED ME STARS!

Blurb: Goodreads

Sadie Townsend is known by all as The Ice Princess and she’s worked hard to earn her reputation. Her father, a now-incarcerated Drug Lord, has kept her under his thumb her whole life and she’s learned enough from living in his world to give everyone the cold shoulder. But one inebriated night, she shows the Real Sadie to the undercover agent she knows is investigating her father, the handsome Hector Chavez, and he knows he’ll stop at nothing to have her.

Hector makes one (huge) mistake; he waits for Sadie to come to him. Tragedy strikes and Sadie’s got a choice, she can retreat behind her Ice Fortress or she can embrace the Rock Chick/Hot Bunch World. Guided by Hector, the Rock Chicks, the Hot Bunch and her new gay roommates, Buddy and Ralphie, Sadie negotiates a life out from under her father’s thumb, a life that includes poison, arson and learning how to make s’mores.


BOOK REVIEW by Michelle:

Ok so where do I start?

HECTOR is where I start.

Now I do love me Luke... but WOW, there was something simply wonderful and manly and toe curling about Hector and his Sadie handling... * sigh*

Double H.

Hispanic Hottie.


“Mamita,” his voice was rough with what sounded like laughter and something else altogether,” you think you could handle my mouth between your legs without freakin’ out?”

Yowzer! * grabs fan * 

Hector wasn’t at all what I was expecting from our previous meet ups where he has popped up in this series.

Oh baby, he was so much more.


Then he said, “I’ll give you time. You’ve been through hell, but when the time is right, I’m gonna pull her out.”


Hector was indeed in the words of Ralphie a Hispanic hottie.
I totally love Ralphie and Buddy.

Totally!

I love me an endearment and we get some Spanish ones.

Mamita.

Preciosa.

Mi Corazon.

Mi cielo... *sigh*



Shenanigans were shenanified in all their glory in this instalment.

I’ve never watched one...single...episode of Veronica Mars.

I KNOW!!

Now I wanna.

I also want me a s’mores.


“Fuckin’ A, woman. You’ve never had a s’more?” he boomed.

I shook my head.

“Christ, everyone’s gotta have a s’more before they die. Fuck that shit, I’ll build a fire in my backyard tonight and I’ll stop by Kumar’s on the way home to get the stuff. Everyone can come by –“

Tex!! I SO love it when he enters the story line because he is sure to amuse me.

“You make good coffee,” Tex replied.

I pushed New Sadie, though from his reply I wasn’t sure she was working for me. “Not like you. You’re a master.”

“Well, darlin’, you think I make good coffee, why the fuck haven’t I seen you at the store?” he asked.

“I—“

“Bullshit,” he interrupted me before I even got started.

Before I could think, my eyes narrowed. “What do you mean ‘bullshit’? You didn’t even hear what I had to say.”

“Whatever it was, it was gonna be bullshit,” Tex shot back.

It was then I heard Buddy laughing from beside me, and I decided to stay silent. Really, what else could I do? This guy was crazy.

Tex turned to Buddy. “Who’re you?” he demanded to know.

“I’m Buddy, Sadie’s friend.” Buddy put out his hand.

Tex took it. They shook, then Tex’s blue eyes turned to me. He leaned in then down, grabbed my hand and started dragging me across the bar.

Yes, dragging me across the bar.

“Excuse me!” I said to his back, trying to pull my hand from his and not succeeding.

He looked back at me but kept walking as people jumped out of his way. “Tonight, you sit by me.”

“But –“

“No lip!” he boomed as he led us to the Rock Chick table.

Oh blooming heck.



First, Tex leaned into me when the second song began and boomed into my ear, “If there’s a shootout or somethin’, you stick with me.”


“V...I...fuckin’...P!” Tex boomed the minute Shirleen, Daisy, Hector and I walked into Fortnum’s Used Bookstore ( Buddy was at my apartment with the “lab boys”).


Indy and a big, gray-bearded, long-gray-hair-in-a-ponytailed man wearing a black T-shirt that demanded you “Ride the Range” and a black leather vest with a rolled red bandana on his forehead were standing behind the counter.

Tex and Jet behind the espresso counter. Ally was clearing coffee mugs from the seating area.

“You!” Tex boomed, pointing at the people innocently sitting on the couch in front of the big, glass window at the front of the store. “That’s VIP seating. Up! Move!”


And then there is Ren Zano.

He was followed, to my horror, by the tall, handsome, dark-haired Ren Zano wearing a tailored suit ( and wearing it really well by the way). This making me acutely aware that I was wearing nothing but Hector’s t-shirt and a pair of dove grey satin panties, which, luckily, you couldn’t see as the shirt hung to mid-thigh.



Giddy up next book up is Ren's! But according to the KA order of readin' I gotta read Colorado Mountain first including Breathe, mix that in with For You from the Burg Series before Jagged in Colorado Mountain and then I am good to go with Rock Chick Revolution.

Me being me, I want the WHOLE KA reading experience in the order they cometh without spoilers.

Oh...and I get to meet her this weekend at RWDU15 on the Gold Coast. 

Huzzah!!! I promise not to yell out Tex quotes across the room.

Lordy if any of you lot have not started this series...BLOODY HELL !! Get on with it, you won't be disappointed.

Like dudes, we are talking the Hot Bunch here, people!!

Michelle

BOOK REVIEW - ROCK CHICK RECKONING by KRISTEN ASHLEY - ROCK CHICK # 6 - CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

By: Kristen Ashley
Published By: Kristen Ashley
Released : Available Now
Details: Paperback from library, 484 Pages

RATING: 5 BRING ON THE TUNES STARS!

Blurb: Goodreads

Stella’s the lead singer and lead guitarist of The Blue Moon Gypsies and Stella used to be Mace’s girl. Mace broke up with her, though, and the loss of him rocked her world. But Stella gets a call, late at night (again) from one of the members of her crazy band. She has to go play clean up (again) and runs into Mace and a shed load of police, and ends up getting shot.

Mace finds he doesn’t like it much that his ex-girlfriend got shot right in front of him but it’s worse. A very bad man has thrown down the gauntlet and all the Rock Chicks are in the firing line. Stella doesn’t want Mace to be the one to keep her alive, but she has no choice. Mainly because Mace isn’t giving her one.


BOOK REVIEW by Michelle:

Behold another Rock Chick book under my belt. This series is such a gluttonous delight for me.

I just soak up the shenanigans and the sexy lads.

Oh... the sexy lads.

*sigh*

Stella Michelle Gunn is the lead singer of the Blue Moon Gypsies and she’s got her hands full with her band members, Pong, Leo, Buzz, Hugo and Floyd. Well, Floyd is the one she has no problems with. The band members shenanigans always interrupted her personal down time.

She is a true Rock Chick in the name. I really liked reading her, she's a cool chick. We read so many books about guys in a band, it was refreshing to have Stella to read about. I particularly loved her onstage performances.

They rocked! Pardon the pun.

Stella has gotten herself noticed by resident villain, slippery as a snake, Sid. Sid is causing all sorts of danger and mayhem in this installment. He wants to exact some pain on those the Nightingale boys love.

Shiz starts going down...to the Castle, Lee announces. Is that what it's called?? Anyhoo, Daisy and Marcus's pad.

Enter Kai ‘Mace’ Mason. Mace has his own deep heartache to carry around with him. He's carrying around a lot of guilt. I could say so much more about Mace, he is such a gorgeous character, but you must read about him.

Mace and Stella have a past. He left her after they had dated for five months, but he had never really left her.

Stella just hadn't got the memo.

Things are a little touchy, a little complicated between Stella and Mace.

“You want in here?” he murmured, his eyes intense, so intense I felt my gut clench with fear. This was a fear I didn’t understand. It wasn’t even logical, but it scared me all the same. It was the same fear as yesterday morning, huge and uncontrollable.

“No,” I lied. Except for the ability to play my music, being in his heart was the only thing I’d ever wanted in my whole effing life.

He shook his head. “Until that answer changes, babe, you get what I’m willin’ to give you. My protection, my attention and my cock.”

I gasped at his frankness and my body went solid with fury.

“Unbelievable,” I hissed.

“When the time comes where you give me somethin’ without me havin’ to pull it out of you, where you give me a piece of you without me havin’ to take it, then I’ll give you a piece of me.”


Stella is still his and in true Nightingale Boys aka Hot Bunch fashion, bets are always floating about.

Shirleen totally made me crack up in this installment, she is hilarious.


Shirleen put a hand to her chest and reared back. “Oh, is that it? Well excuse me! You poor child!” Then she made a snorting sound. “Shee-it, any one of those boys wanted to push me around, I’d say bring it on. Hell, I’d pay for one of ‘em to move into my house. They don’t even have to do me. Just walk around so I can watch. Maybe in a towel.”

Jules looked at me and rolled her eyes.

“You don’t understand,” Roxie put in.

“Nope. That’s right, girl, Shirleen does not understand. So what trauma are we up against now?” Shirleen’s eyes moved to me. “You havin’ too many orgasms or what?”

Amen Shirleen. Amen sister!

What I really loved about this installment was the musical aspect. 

Now we know in any Rock Chick book the guy is gonna get the girl, that’s a no brainer. What’s also a no brainer is the Rock Chicks will inevitably get themselves involved and somebody will get shot at, or beat up or kidnapped.

That shit is inevitable. Just ask Tex or Duke. Speaking of Tex.


“Don’t call me motherfucker,” Tod threw down.

“Motherfucker,” Uncle Tex boomed.

“Oh lordy,” Daisy muttered.



“Tex, stop saying ‘fuck’ so loud!”

“Fuck!” Tex shouted back. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!”


Heheheee.

But, this time round we got the musical experience and as Kristen Ashley tells you in the front of the book under Author Notes, ya need to listen to the music when reading the scene because it enhances said scene.

When you actually have a rock chick in all her glory as a character, you gotta bring the tunes to the experience of reading.

This is a scene that I simply had to quote. I listened to the song while reading it the second time round and dayum, ya gotta read it this way. I really felt it.


Pong’s sticks clicked on the drums, Leo started the first chords, and I knew without looking that Buzz had clued in. He couldn’t help but clue in. We all knew what those clicks and strums meant.

“This one’s for Linnie,” I told the crowd.

Everyone screamed. The wave of sound hit the band, firing us up all the more even though most people probably had no idea who Linnie was. They didn’t care. Any song that was for someone was going to be something. And this song, a song we rarely ever played, they knew would rock the whole fucking house.

I glanced at Buzz and found his face was pale, but his eyes were on me and they were shining. I looked away, knowing if I kept looking at him I’d lose it, just as Hugo’s deep voice started smoothly delivering the lyrics.

And the lyrics were to ZZ Top’s killer, kickass “La Grange.”

Hugo sang.

A few more strums, a few more clicks.

I felt it in my belly, like I always felt it in my belly just like I knew Linnie always felt it in her belly.

Wait for it... my brain breathed in anticipation.

Pong’s drums went wild and Leo’s soft guitar went solid. The crowd surged in and my stomach plunged.

This is what it’s all about. This is what Linnie lived for, my brain told me what I already knew, because I understood Linnie. I lived for it, too.

Hugo’s velvet voice slid back in, “Have mercy...” then he smoothed through the “haw haws” and delivered the lyrics.

When it was time, Pong rounded out the beat and I went front stage and started to blow the lid off.

“Have mercy,” Hugo finished.

And then you have the scene that rocked Mace.



That was when I sang to Mace.

Yes, again.

And I felt it as the crowd pulled in their breath.

And then, through giving it to Mace, I gave them Pearl Jam’s epically beautiful ballad, “Black”.

After I finished the lyrics, I held out the “be” and shouted my “yeah” just as Mace came unstuck from my spell and started to push through the crowd, making his way toward the stage.

The band played behind me with a power and certainty that made it sound as if we’d played the song millions of times rather than just this once. The chords I played sounded angry, as if sliced from my guitar. Floyd’s fingers were pounding out the notes on the piano, notes to a song I didn’t even know he knew.

The crowd was still silent, stunned, watching, enthralled.

I let the final words to the song rush out of me, hoarse and filled with scratching despair, just like it rushed out of Eddie Vedder on Pearl Jam’s world rocking, genre-defining album “Ten”.

As I sang, Mace was nearly at the stage when I closed my eyes to shut him out as if closing my eyes could shut him out of my life forever.

Still playing, my head dropped and I rested my forehead on the mic, the vision of Mace, eyes never leaving me, pushing through the crowd toward me, burned on the backs of my eyelids.

I played lead, Floyd’s piano thundering around me, matching the same notes that came from my guitar. The band began singing their “da-do-do-do, do-do-do’s” and before my fingers could strum the angry riff and I could shout my anguish like Vedder, I was pulled roughly from the mic.

My eyes came open and I stared, frozen to the spot in disbelief.

Mace was there, onstage, right in front of me, right in front of five hundred people.

I stayed frozen as his hand wrapped around the neck of my guitar. He yanked it over my head and then jerked me forward so that my body slammed against his.

His free arm sliced at a slant around my back, crushing me to him. His head came down, his mouth finding mine, and he kissed me, right there. Right onstage. Right in front of five hundred people. Open-mouthed, hard, wet and full of everything.

His body bent forward, pushing mine back so I was arched over his arm, my torso and hips pressed deep into him.

He kissed me and kept kissing me as the band played around us, pushing the song longer, longer...

Just to have a guy come up onstage and kiss you who is one of the Hot Bunch...well, WOW! But to have it done after you sang a song to him. Double WOW! Well, Stella was trying to send a message through said song.

The music all the way through this book was well thought out. Now I admit I love me some Billy Joel, I’m of that vintage and I have my albums lovingly in storage, but dayum I had not heard of, 'And So It Goes'.

That brings a tear to the eye that song.

See!!!!

The sub characters all bring their own little something to this series. Smithie pops up a couple times and he is growing on me.

“Crazy white bitches, the lot of you. ‘ Cept you.” He nodded at Shirleen. “You’re a crazy black bitch. Fuck,” Smithie finished.


“Smithie, sweetie –“ LaTeesha said softly.

“It’s covered, Smithie,” Shirleen put in.

“Yeah, it’ll be covered,” Smithie snapped at Shirleen. “You’re movin’ your ass in with me tonight and you’re bringin’ the boys. LaTeesha, that okay with you?”

“Just fine. I’ll make chicken and dumplin’s,” LaTeesha replied on a wide grin at Roam and Sniff.

“Can we have pizza?” Sniff asked.

Shirleen cuffed him gently up the side of his head. “What’s the matter with you, boy? You heard the woman. LaTeesha’s makin’ chicken and dumplin’s. You’re eatin’ chicken and dumplin’s.”

“I like chicken and dumplin’s,” Roam put in.

We get a little Luke fix along the way.


“I’m not wearing any underwear,” I lied.

“I’ll close my eyes,” Mace lied back.

“I won’t,” Luke put in.


Bahahahaaa.


Luke was floating between the doors, not wearing a windbreaker, but being generally badass, thus not inviting killer intentions.

I got to say, this was the best use of the conjunctive verb, thus , that I have seen.

Some of the songs performed in Rock Chick Reckoning.

I could of been mistaken for actually being part of the Blue Moon Gypsies audience at their gigs. From the songs played, they would have rocked the house.

No wonder the Hot Bunch were on duty...and the fact there was a real danger looming.

I could so see Duke working the front of the crowd. The house would have been pumping.

And then you throw in some Pat Benetar. ROCK ON!!! I so could see Stella rocking the stage with the band.

This is why you gotta listen to the songs when the Gypsies are playing a gig. I was there with the Rock Chicks rockin'.

I think this is the one Rock Chick book I really could see on the big screen as it came with that musical side which Kristen used very well. I could even see this whole series as a TV show. An hour a week of these lads would be a pretty good night in front of the box.

Now I gotta mention the Epilogue.

DON’T READ IT!!

LORDY MY EYES!

I can’t take it back.

I LOOKED.

Now I’m a little confuzzed as to why there was an Epilogue at the end of this book being # 6 when I still have several books to read.

GAHHH!

There are spoilers in it.

Maybe Ms KA wasn’t gonna be going on with the series at the end of #6 so she did an Epilogue?

But, Rock Chicks indeed went on.

So save yourselves and if you haven’t read Rock Chick Reckoning yet, be strong and don’t read that Epilogue.


In the words of Tex, ‘Jesus Jones’.

Take a bow Ms Kristen Ashley for this very 3D read for me, anyway. It brought back a lot of music and I spent ages reconnecting with these songs.

I was arm chairing these gigs, but you wrote the scenes so well, I was there in spirit.

Michelle

BOOK REVIEW - ROCK CHICK REVENGE by KRISTEN ASHLEY - ROCK CHICKS # 5 - CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

By: Kristen Ashley
Published By : Kristen Ashley
Released : Available Now
Details: Paperback from library, 486 Pages

RATING: 5 SHEE-IT LUKE YOU ARE ONE HELL OF AN ALPHA!

Blurb: Goodreads

Ava hates men, she has reason and she’s vowed not only never to get involved with another one again but also to exact vengeance on her best friend’s, lying, cheating husband. Since Luke, Ava’s childhood crush, is now a private investigator, she thinks to enlist him but changes her mind at the last second.

Too late, Luke knows she’s up to something and he’s already seen many a Rock Chick try to fight her own battles without the Hot Bunch stepping in. He’s having none of it. She’s having none of him. The clash of the Rock Chick and Hot Guy begins but Luke’s got the advantage. He has handcuffs and he’s not afraid to use them.


BOOK REVIEW by Michelle:

I know every time I open up a Rock Chick book I'm going to be having a great time escaping into the shenanigans that are bound to happen.

Truly! There are always shenanigans. I love me some LOVE shenanigans.

I want to bust-a-move and rugby tackle these chicks out the road every time they fight the attraction that is inevitable.

GiiirrrRrllll!!

Man, to be in the lives of these sexy as hell lads and their protective and direct ways.

Me caveman, you my chick, me use handcuffs if need be.

Once they set their eyes on you, no matter how hard you fight them, you are their woman.

LOVE IT!!

Luke Stark you are a dream come true, you are badass, smokin’ hot and you would make any woman purr.

Lordy, the things you say!

Then he spoke. “ The next part you pay is letting me cuff you naked to my bed and you stay that way while I eat you ‘til you come, and then fuck you ‘til you come again.”

Holy shit,” I breathed aloud, which was a feat, considering the fact that my lungs had seized.

You and me sister! I think I just needed a bib to wipe my drool.

Ava Barlow, you have your reasons, but dayum, let that man handcuff you.

Rawrrrrr...rrr...rrr.

Ava has known Luke a long time, they lived across the street from each other...dayum girrrl!

Luke had always been a badass.

Two days after he moved in across the street I caught him in the alley smoking cigarettes. He was twelve and smoking in the alley, and at eight I thought that was way cool.

When he grew up, he drove muscle cars ( loud and fast) and motorcycles ( again, loud and fast) and sat in his Dad’s garage with the door rolled up, lifting weights. I watched this out of my bedroom window, and it was better than anything on television, believe you me.

He always had a different girlfriend and you could tell they were all easy, but a nun would turn easy at one look at Luke.

Shenanigans fill the pages. Tex and Duke know there is never a dull moment. I LOVE Duke's attitude. He just sits back and holds his opinion.

Mr Kumar! You little action man, you.

The Rock Chicks are never far from the new chicks shenanigans and their sidekicks.

I was introduced to the rest. A honey-blonde with green eyes and a fantastic smile (Jet). A dark blonde with blue eyes and a great outfit (Roxie). Platinum blonde that looked so much like Dolly Parton I thought she was Dolly for a minute, including the cleavage and a denim jacket with so many silver studs and rhinestones, she lit up the dim room. Her name was Daisy. The other black lady, older than the girls, with a Jacqueline Kennedy hairdo (May). And Glamour Girl (Jules).

Indy, by the way, was a tall, built, fantastic redhead, and Ally was tall, lean and gorgeous with shiny, dark brown hair.

Shirleen is hilarious, she claimed Ava, because May claimed Jules.

Then I called Shirleen as scheduled.

Shee-it,” she answered instead of saying hello. “ You still gonna do this?”

“Yes,” I told her.

She sighed. “I’ll be there in ten.”

I’d called her from Fortnum’s, and as she was my Rock Chick and Badass Motherfucker Courtship Mentor, she was bound by Rock Chick Law to help me (yes, it was weird, but at that point it worked for me).

... “I was getting worried. Nothing was happening. I thought maybe I got the Bum Rock Chick.

Tex! Nuff said.

He looked at me then he commented, “Darlin’, you’re shitfaced.”

I leaned into him. “Yeah. Isn’t it great?”

He shook his head and grinned but said, “I don’t mean to rain on your parade. You deserve a good night after a couple kidnappin’s, but you best be watchin’ your step. Your man ain’t likin’ what he’ seein’ and the atmosphere is gettin’ tense.”

I blinked at him. “My man?”

“Luke,” Tex told me.

I swung my head around and looked at Luke. He was watching me and it appeared Tex was right, he didn’t seem happy.

I turned back to Tex. “He isn’t my man.”

“Girl, it don’t matter you don’t think he is, he thinks he is. Therefore, in Badass Motherfucker Land, that means he is.

When Tex is on the scene he has no filter. I love his dialogue. I look forward to him popping up. I want to be a squirrel on his back along for the ride.

“Don’t look at me!” Tex shouted, if it could be believed, sounding even louder.” Jee-zus, huggin’ and cryin’ and badass motherfucker showdowns in livin’s rooms and takin’ a break from the action to have Sunday breakfast with your man’s mother, what the fuck?

Bahahaaaa!

I like Ren, he brought a little added spice to the story.

I stood there, the meat in a hot guy sandwich. Normally one would savor a moment like this, but the bad vibes flowing weren’t conducive to savoring.

Luke is a straight talker.

“I never expected I’d want you in my bed, but I always knew I wanted you in my life. The fuckin’ second you looked at my mouth in the office, though, I knew I would stop at nothin’ to get you in my bed. And I thought then, too, that for the first time in my life I might do somethin’ both my Dad and I would be proud of, and that’s bein’ with you.”

“This is the way it is for us right now. I know you fixed this place up, but I’m not givin’ up the loft so we’re gonna have to work somethin’ out about where we live, eat, sleep and fuck. We last, you’re gonna have to give up the Range Rover. They’re dangerous because they roll easy and I don’t like you drivin’ it. We go the distance, we’re havin’ a small wedding. I’m not fuckin’ dancin’. And I want three kids, all boys, but if we have a girl she’s not datin’ until she’s twenty-five, especially if she looks like you, got me?” 

Oh my.

All I can really say is if you have not started this series... bloody well get onto it. 

Seriously.

Also make sure you read them in order because there is so much enjoyment in reading them in order and learning the other characters.

Just sayin'.

Shee-it! Now I have to wait for my next two library reserves. 

*taps foot*

Michelle

Mace and Stella's book
Giddy up!

BOOK REVIEW - ROCK CHICK RENEGADE by KRISTEN ASHLEY - ROCK CHICK # 4 - CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

By: Kristen Ashley

Published By: Kristen Ashley

Released : Available Now

Details: Paperback from library, 441 Pages

RATING: 5 SHEE-IT STARS!

Blurb: Goodreads

Jules has got a score to settle against the drug dealers of Denver. Vance has made it his mission that Jules won’t get dead while dishing out vigilante justice. Jules doesn’t have time for romance, she’s too busy saving the world and she enlists Zip (the gunstore owner), Heavy (an ex-PI) and Frank (a mysterious recluse) to help.

The Rock Chicks of Fortnum’s Bookstore get involved to provide romantic advice and guidance, none of which Jules accepts at first. The Hot Bunch of Nightingale Investigations adopt Jules as one of their own. Even though Jules tries to hang on to her inner Head Crackin’ Mamma Jamma, the Rock Chicks; Hot Bunch; Jules’s long-suffering Uncle Nick; Jules’s friend the rotund, African-American, Jackie-O wannabe, May; and especially Vance will stop at nothing to wear her down.

But Jules makes some bad guys pretty angry and one is dedicated to taking her out. Vance and the Hot Bunch have to pull out all the stops to keep her alive. At the same time, Jules and Vance learn the true meaning of home but once they find this precious entity they’ve been searching for all their lives, will Jules’s enemies tear it away?


BOOK REVIEW by Michelle: 

The little bits of Vance Crowe we got in the other books in this series always had me wanting to know him more and now I got my chance.

WOW! Humma! Humma! 

Vance is a most sexy guy and he is just like his other band of merry sexy men, The Hot Bunch, when he sees the woman he wants, he just takes control of inserting himself into her life.

Vance is prone to breaking and entering and Juliet Lawler aka THE LAW is who he is intent on entering.

Pun intended!


Then I stared at him.

Damn, but he was good-looking. Native American coloring, straight, black hair pulled into a ponytail at the back of his neck. He was about three inches taller than me, with a fantastic body, dark brown eyes, thick lashes, unbelievable bone structure, high cheekbones and a square jaw. It should be a crime to be that hot.


This installment had a different feel to it. I liked this feel, for a change. The Rock Chicks come into play, but Juliet can hold her own without these chicks and their shenanigans. Juliet's character opened up another group of characters and story line that could almost have been a spin off.

The Law is a vigilante by night and a social worker by day. She has her reasons for being on the street at night playing havoc with drug dealers. She is a strong kick ass chick.

Enter Lee and the hot bunch who get involved as the plot thickens.

Daisy is back strutting her hair do and stilettos.

Tex was a lot more subdued in this installment, but he does seem to steal the limelight when he gets excited about a new chick and what shenanigans she brings his way.

Never a dull moment and that is how Tex gets his kicks.


“What’re you havin’?” Tex boomed at Vance.

“Sorry, but I was next.” The male customer at the front of the line, clearly having a death wish, spoke up.

Tex’s eyes cut to the customer and his brows drew together.

Um.

Yikes.

“Oh yeah? You are?” Tex asked the customer.

“Uh...yeah,” the customer answered, now sounding not so sure even though he was standing at the front of the line.

“You a badass motherfucker who hunts down drug dealers at night?” Tex went on.

The customer stared at Tex, then he stared at Vance, then he stared back at Tex.

“Er...no,” he replied.

“You a badass motherfucker at all?” Tex continued.

The customer looked at Vance. Then he looked at Tex. The customer had thinning sandy-brown hair, was an inch or two shorter than me, was wearing a suit and was perhaps ten pounds underweight. He was no badass motherfucker. He looked like an accountant.

The customer decided belatedly to keep his mouth shut.

“That boy is a badass motherfucker. Badass motherfuckers get their coffee first. It’s a rule at Fortnum’s. You become a badass motherfucker, you get to go to the front of the line. You got me?” Tex declared.

The customer nodded, perhaps the only thing he was able to do, which I figured was why he didn’t turn around and leave.

Tex turned back to Vance. “Now, what’ll it be?”




“That’s the best goddamned seat in the house,” Tex explained to Indy, cutting into my thoughts, “and Law’s sittin’ there.”

“Tex...” Indy began.

“No lip!” Tex slammed down Nick’s cappuccino next to my special and the foam sloshed over the sides. Then he looked at me. “Sit!”

“All right, we’re sitting,” I said, smiling at him, hopefully placatingly. “Calm down, big man.”

Tex glared at the next customer, the unfortunate who’d opened his mouth. “She’s a badass motherfuckeress. She’d kick your ass soon as look at you. You’ve clapped your eyes on The Law. Count yourself lucky, sucker. Now, what’ll it fuckin’ be?”


Bahahhaaaa. Tex makes me laugh so hard.

We get introduced to some new characters, Zip, Heavy, Roam and Sniff. I’m looking forward to seeing what Kristen does with Roam after learning about him more in this installment.


“Zip, let me...”

“And you got the Nightingale Boys backin’ you. Christ Almighty, girl. Those boys’re crazier than you.” His eyes went beyond me. “Fuck, is that Indy Savage?” Zip asked, staring at Indy.

“Yes...” I began.

“Oh no. NO, no, no. I don’t want Lee Nightingale on my ass. You are not draggin’ her into this. She’ll recruit Chavez’s woman and Nightingale’s sister and it’ll be the Rock Chick Renegades against the Denver Drug Dealers. I see rivers of blood and pissed-off bad boys denied their pieces of ass and they’ll come after me. No fuckin’way, I won’t be a part of it.”


I LOVE hearing Zip say , shee-it. Bahhahaaaa.


Annd...

Then there was Luke...again.

“Babe,” Luke said low.

I opened my eyes and looked up.

He’d reclined on the couch and I was tucked into his side, my back against the couch, my head on his chest.

“Bed,” Luke said.

I nodded.

We got up and he walked to the door taking me with him, arm around my shoulders. He stopped at the door, kissed my nose and looked at me a beat. I bit my lip.

“Jules,” he said.

“Yeah?” I answered.

He stared at me a moment before answering. “I was playin’a game,” he told me.

It was my turn to stare at him. Somehow that hurt and I didn’t need any more of that. I had way, way too much of that.

“Now,” he went on, “I don’t know what the fuck I’m doin’.”

Oh my God.

Luke's book is up next and I am tapping my foot waiting for my reserve number at my library to come around...again. Somebody didn't pick it up from the mobile unit...or they diddled it. Don't blame them really , it is Luke's book. But! They could have diddled it after I had read it. I had to go in and see my good librarian and get her to check on what the deal was. She said she needed to do some emailing and then I should be up next...unless it got diddled. 

THEN...I am sending Tex in to sort out that mother&^%$$!! if they diddled it. Should have read it when I had it in my hot hands a couple months ago.

Lesson learned.

Highly recommend this AWESOME hilarious and sexy series to anybody old enough to read hilarious shenanigans and uber sexy Alpha males.

Nuff said.

Michelle

BOOK REVIEW - ROCK CHICK REDEMPTION by KRISTEN ASHLEY - ROCK CHICK # 3 - CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

By: Kristen Ashley

Published By : Kristen Ashley

Released : Available Now

Details : Paperback from library, 416 pages

RATING: 4.5 HOT BUNCH STARS!

Blurb: Goodreads

Roxie’s on the run from a bad boyfriend who will not catch the hint that it is o-v-e-r. She’s in no mood for love at first sight, but when her eyes fall on Hank, it’s trouble from the get-go. Roxie tries to hold Hank at arms length but Hank wants to be a closer (as in, a lot closer). Roxie’s trouble catches up with her and Hank wants to help but Roxie knows in her heart that she’s no good for a white hat guy. The problem is no one agrees with her, especially her crazy hippie best friend Annette or her parents; the even crazier small-Indiana-town Herb and Trish. Toss into the mix the gang from Rock Chick and Rock Chick Rescue and Roxie finds herself totally outnumbered.

Climb in for another Rock Chick wild ride through Rock Chick Redemption. As the odds stack up against Roxie, she has no choice but to hold on and just ride it out through the kidnappings, car chases, society parties, a riot at the strip club, Hank getting “Mom Bombed” and one crazy night at the Haunted House.

During all this Hank works at convincing her she really wants to stay and he, along with the Hot Bunch, go all out to make her safe. Hank also needs to work on showing Roxie that her past decisions don’t mean her future can’t include something as downright delicious as… normal.


BOOK REVIEW by Michelle:

If you have not started this series...well get your asses to your local library like I did, and yes, my little seaside library stocks this Indie author.

That’s saying something.

I mean for starters my library is not very big, but this is an INDIE series!! This is the only Indie series I can find at my local library.

What can I say that hasn’t already been said about this installment?

Not much, if anything.

This is 417 pages of absolute goodness. The out loud laughs, the giggles, the snorting I did ( laughing, don’t want to give anybody the wrong idea), the mad cap mayhem that I truly wanted to be a part of.

Shee-it!! I just wanna join in.
Like, who doesn’t want to be running through a corn field while monsters jump out to scare you and a chainsaw is started up?

These are big , thick books filled to the brim with shenanigans and the HOT BRIGADE or HOT PACK or just plain ol’ HOTNESS.


Sitting on the couches, all drinking coffee, were a bunch of men. Not just any men. It looked like GQ was having a convention and all the best looking guys had decided to have a coffee at Fortnum’s before going to seminars on how to cope with being really, unbelievably, fucking gorgeous.

Lee is with Indy and Eddie has Loopy Loo aka Jet and now Hank, aka Whisky, has set his eyes on Roxie. 

Let the fun begin.



“Fuckin’ A, Roxie. Right on!” Uncle Tex boomed and I stared, not knowing what in the hell he was talking about.

“What?” I asked.

Uncle Tex didn’t answer me. He looked to Mace and Vance and declared, “You boys gotta learn to move faster or all the good ones’ll be gone.”



“Sweetheart,” he said in a low voice. “You were here to see your uncle until you stepped into Fortnum’s and saw me and I saw you. You know it and I know it. You want me to convince you. I’m prepared to do that.”



He kissed my neck then lifted his head and looked at me.

“Sweetheart, I intend to move so fast, you’ll be dizzy,” he promised.



“Sweetheart, I’m thirty-five years old and I’ve had a fuck of a lot more lovers than you counted on your one hand last night. I’ve come to the point, with women, that I know what I want when I see it and I haven’t seen anything in a long time that interests me as much as you.”

The girls are all a hoot.

Thirty one year old Roxie, the niece of Tex, brings the shenanigans in this installment , but the others are not far behind.



I wore my hair to just above my shoulders and got it cut at a place that cost a fortune so it was all soft waves and little flippies at the ends. I did up my face and put on a charcoal-gray wool, to-the-knee skirt that fit like a second skin, cupped my ass, straight at the front and flicked out in kick-pleats at the backs of my knees. I wore this with a black, figure-skimming, wool turtle-neck sweater and a pair of gorgeous, spike-heeled black boots that cost so much money I feared Billy was going to have a seizure when he saw the price on the side of the box.

Tod and Stevie are on hand for fashionista advice and they crack me up , every time. I gotta say , I want something from the House of Burgundy.

Tod swung his eyes to me, "Do you have something to wear yet?  Or have you had time to shop in between shootouts and running for your life?"

"Fuck that," Tod cut in. "You're shopping at The House of Burgundy. Tomorrow night." 

Daisy is just an absolute cracker of a chick. The visuals I get of her are just so colorful and entertaining.



At that point, Daisy powered in the door wearing a hot , velour, skintight, Juicy Couture track suit with the top’s zipper unzipped to what could only be called the Cleavage Danger Zone, and a braided terry cloth bandanna around her forehead, looking like Dolly Parton halfway morphed into Jackie Stallone, but younger.


She was wearing a skintight, faded denim jumpsuit, the crotch to bosom zipper unzipped to maximum cleavage potential, rhinestones adorning the outer sides of her legs, up her hips, waist, sides, and down the inside of the sleeves. She was wearing matching platform, high-heeled, faded denim boots heavily encrusted with rhinestones. She had a pink chiffon scarf tied around her neck and her platinum blonde hair was teased out to peak volume.


Tex, who in my mind looks a bit like Grizzly Adams...but not, abso..lute...ly stole the limelight in the first few chapters of this book. He loves his cats and he has no filter on his mouth.



He was nearly as tall as he was wide, which made him humongous. Barrel-chested, blond-headed with dark blue eyes and a russet beard.



The red dot arrested on the wall as I blinked at Tex.

“Petunia’s goin’ loco, darlin’ girl, jiggle!” Tex ordered, staring at the wall.

I simply love listening to him in my head. He has a voice. He sounds like Tex and not me reading. If that makes sense.

Getting Tex to use a cell phone, is not an easy task.

“You should have saved your money, won’t use it,” he replied.

“Uncle Tex.”

“Won’t use it.”

“Uncle Tex!”

“Darlin’ girl, that’s sweet, but I won’t use it.”

Vance the Native American is a fave of mine too. He gets a bigger part in this installment. Looking forward to Rock Chick Renegade, it's his book. Giddy up!

Duke pipes up with his own memorable moments and sometimes thoughtful comments.


Duke was staring at me.

Then he looked at Tex. “Couldn’t we have, like, maybe a week before the next one rolled in the door?”

“Gotta take life as it comes,” Uncle Tex returned with a shrug.


“I can see it comin’, “ Duke retorted.

“Hallelujah!” Uncle Tex boomed. “No lag this time. Keep ‘im hoppin’, darlin’ girl, that’s what I say.”


"You're all right," Duke told me on an approving nod.

"I am ?" I asked.

He turned to me, leaned a hip on the counter and crossed his arms over his black, leather vest.

"You are. These boys need women who can take the heat without meltin' like butter, and sometimes that heat is fiery. They need women who can give back their shit so they don't walk all over 'em and get bored out of their fucking skulls. And they need women who can go soft when the situation demands, because they get hard knocks on a regular basis, sometimes literally, and comin' home to somethin' soft is the only way to cope."

THEN...enters...

It didn’t take much to know this was another one of Lee’s boys. Not Big Truck Dude. This guy was tall lean, wearing black cargo pants, a black, skintight t-shirt and black boots. He had black hair, cut close, and the absolute best facial hair I’d ever seen on a guy in my life. A thick, black mustache that grew across his lip and down the sides of his mouth, shaved clean and precise. He looked like Harely Man morphed with Just Plain Hot Man.

“Hey,” I said to him.

One side of his mouth went up in a sexy half-grin.

Good God.



HOLY-MOTHER-OF- PEARL!!!!!

LUKE!

LUKE!

LUKE!

GOOD GOD!

GOOD GRIEF!

Annnd GOOD GOD again.

Where does one start?

This could take a while.


“Things don’t work out with you and Hank...”

I waited while he paused, my eyes wide, my lips parted, my heart thumping.

“You can erase my day.”

Oh...my...God.


If he was a real lad, OMG!!!!



“You aren’t anywhere unless I’m close enough for you to touch me.”

I gulped at any thought of touching him.

“Okay,” I said, but it sounded kind of strangled.

“We straight?” he asked.

I nodded.

“Roxie, listen to me,” Luke ordered.

I stared at him. If I listened any closer, my ears would start bleeding.

“I know you’re Hank’s woman and I don’t give a fuck. I also know the stories of the two who came before you, Indy and Jet. You mess around, do something stupid, put my ass on the line, you answer to me. Got that?”

I nodded again. I definitely got it.

“You don’t want to answer to me,” he warned.

I suspected he was right, but I had to ask, out of curiosity. “What would...” I cleared my throat, “answering to you entail... exactly?”

“You don’t wanna know,” he replied.

I nodded and decided I didn’t.

He got closer and his indigo eyes went funny.

“I’d never raise my hand to a woman,” he assured me.

I nodded again and let out the breath I was holding.

“Therefore, I’d have to get creative,” he finished.

Good God.

Seriously the guy lights my fire.



Luke was standing there. He’d changed nuances of his overall look. Still all black, his t-shirt skintight, except this time with long sleeves. Instead of just plain boots he had on black motorcycle boots, and instead of cargo pants, he had on jeans. As a fashion maven, I appreciated the subtlety that still managed to pack a punch. As a woman, I just appreciated him.

“Jumpin’ Jehosafats, I think I just creamed my pants,” Annette whispered, staring at Luke.

Luke’s eyes locked on me. He lifted his hand and crooked his finger.

“I was wrong about before. Now, I’ve definitely creamed my pants,” Annette breathed.

I got up and walked to Luke.

He put a hand in the small of my back and propelled me into the books.

We turned tight, into the biography section, and stopped.

“Got plans tonight?” he asked.

I blinked at him. “I’m going to a strip club,” I answered.

His eyes flashed, momentarily showing his surprise.

Then he gave me one of his sexy half-grins.

My heart stopped beating for a second.

“Why?” I asked.

“I’m you date,”” he replied.

My heart stopped beating for five seconds.

Then I breathed. “Excuse me?”

“You’re not on camera, you’re with me,” he said.

I have notes and quotes coming off my notebook pages.

I looked at the ceiling.

"Denver me are buts," I told the ceiling.
He walked forward, grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the door. 

"Denver men are men," he declared.

Good grief.

I will be ordering my set of these books for when I get to fan girl in front of Kristen at an Australian signing in March 2015 and good God that line is going to be long.

Hopefully by then I can be calm and act like Luke, all cool and, well, not sexy, but if I can pull off cool and not some cray cray reader in front of her, it will be a good start.

Hank Nightingale...the other brother, is all things we love in a guy, but when Luke made his entrance, I think all the panties dropped among the readers.

Not fair really, cause I love all the guys, but LUKE...MY GOD!!!

Needless to say I am having a lot of fun in Kristen's world of HOT GUYS and shenanigans.

I shall be back with Rock Chick Renegade.

Michelle

The first thing I do when I pick up the next installment in the series for me to read from my local library is I study the cover. 

I know!! NERD ALERT!

But there is much to be learned from the covers.