❤️ BROKEN HEARTS & SECOND-CHANCES = AN EPIC RIDE ❤️

When a listen has been great you really don’t want to leave the characters you’ve become invested in or their world and you also want to follow on with the other secondary characters to make sure they get their happily ever afters too. Well, this my friends, was one of THOSE books. Told from their very one-sided School years relationship - to the present years later, Phoenix and Lennon’s journey starts with an insecure plus sized girl infatuated and in love with the charismatic boy with big dreams of becoming a rock star. But he wouldn’t achieve those heady heights without sacrifice.. and that sacrifice was all hers. Leaving Lennon heartbroken, bitter, disillusioned with love and robbed of the potential she could’ve achieved. However, Fate and Destiny conspire to give them a second chance.. and the toxic, twisted, tempest-tossed journey that follows will have their intense chemistry, volatile thoughts and rekindled feelings pull them together until nothing can tear them apart. Not other women because there’s plenty.. not Contracts forged from desperation.. not guilt or righteous revenge.. and not Managers, Record labels or the mass of negative global opinions. Because here deep love will rise from the ashes of its brutal bloody massacre.. it will bend but it will not break.. and it will reform into something beautiful and unbreakable.

Worth a credit? One hundred percent yes. The characters.. the emotional torment.. the broken devastating backstory feels.. the tears and heart scars and unwanted hungers.. the sizzles and steam.. and the devastating lows and beautiful highs were all phenomenally written. And they were expertly brought to life by A List narrators Teddy and Erin making this, for me, a worthy and very addictive five star listen.

7 people found this helpful

I need more!

I can't get my head out of this book

I need more! Thank you

5 people found this helpful

Two broken souls...

Phoenix Walker and Lennon Michael couldn't be more different: he's the cool, talented bad boy all the girls want and all the boys want to be. She's the nerdy, fat, geeky loner everyone loves to bully. They were never supposed to cross paths. Lennon, like every girl in school, finds him irresistible, but completely unattainable. Phoenix doesn't let anyone get near. But he's failing a class and won't graduate unless he gets a tutor to help him and the teacher assigns him Lennon. She's always known he was special. Now he's making her feel like she is too. Until he destroys her using what's most dear to her. And she vows to never see him again.

Fast forward to four years later and Phoenix has indeed become a star, an uncontrollable star. No one can handle him because they all fall for his charm, so the best person to do it is someone who hates him. Lennon never wanted to see him again. Now she will make him pay. 

Boy oh boy... Thanks @jpbooklife for recommending this one and for listening to me rant and scream (and swoon too). I felt deep for Lennon. ALL the feelings. If you ever wore a piece of clothing bigger than a size 10 you will get her. Even if, like myself, you were never bullied, you will get all the insecurities and the self-image issues. Some people say that she has no backbone, but it's so much more complicated than that. Yes, Phoenix is a jerk and betrays her in a horrible way, but (not defending here, just explaining) he was 18 and and absolutely disoriented because he NEVER knew what love was until he met her. With his own feelings of no self-worth because of his dyslexia, his only lifeline is his music... and he sacrificed Lennon for it.

It's a hard story. These two are broken and their relationship is toxic at times, but they have deeply loved each other because they got to know each other's souls. It had to be messy to get to their HEA. It's a brick of a book (over 700 pages and more than 16 hours of audio) but it's worth every page. 

Narration: Erin Mallon is superb, bringing all the vulnerability to Lennon and Teddy does the same to Phoenix. A thousand stars. 

Rep and possible triggers: MMC is severely dyslexic and FMC is plus-sized. Child abandonment, child emotional and physical abuse, domestic abuse, bullying, grief, secondary character has early onset dementia, secondary killed in car accident, drug use, surprise pregnancy (secondary character)

3 people found this helpful

Good story but fell short of being epic

This story had every potential to be epic. Will I remember this story? Yes, I absolutely will. I LOVED the beginning with Lennon and Phoenix’s early friendship and romance. Every time he called her groupie I swooned!
I loved a bad boy, good girl story especially one when he’s broken- and broken he was. But Lennon had her own demons and insecurities. Ashley Jade never leaves a stone unturned and no plot holes- like ever- and this book was no exception.
What I didn’t like was the pacing of the story in the present. It felt like it dragged on and it was repetitive in a way, not excessively but but enough to make me want them hurry up and resolve their issues- i.e. him stealing her song and breaking her heart.
Lennon was easily loveable and relatable but man, Phoenix was 50 shades of effed up. Sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll is one of the reasons I don’t read a lot of rock star romance, but did this author I would, however the over abundance of the mindless screwing and BJs made me unfeeling towards Phoenix, and that’s without his remorseless attitude towards stealing her blooming song and claiming it as his own.
There are lots of sensitive reader warnings and TW that shouldn’t be taken lightly, they’ve all be written well by this author who writes with so much compassion and integrity.

3.5 I got burned by the sun stars

3 people found this helpful

I wanted to love it… Sadly, it took wrong turns…

The book had all the making of an amazing book… BUT the longer the book got the bigger dumbass Lennon (the FMC) got… like c’mooooooon! Did she really think she was going to sing the song? She was probably going to leave it in a book OR perhaps sell it but NEVER as a teenager nor as a college student… the level of delusional was obnoxious… how many people have amazing things that the world never saw? If she stayed upset that she thought he cheated OR wanted payment and royalties for her song? That would have made more sense but performing? Laughable, especially with how the author portrayed her… she only wanted to know how it was being on stage and was jealous of Phoenix who is the closet great guy…. Phoenix lived trying to make it as a singer… she? Not even once…

Okay, after saying all that… I’m disappointed in the book… it could have easily been 8 hours… we didn’t need thaaaaaaaat many rehashs on the feelings and don’t let me get started on the never ending inner monologues that were again, you guessed it! Stuck on rinse and repeat 🙄 OMG!
I wanted to DNF but again I have a number of books I need to finish this year and this has sucked me in, at first…

The book started wonderfully, even though I don’t like YA genre (which this seemed to be) the book had promise. Finally, a girl that’s not skinnier than size 0 then she becomes a size 10/12 PERFECT right? Wrong! Why make someone normal but make her rotten inside? This was just such a let down. She was supposed to be more normal! So disappointing!

Of course the MMC Phoenix Walker was a good person despite the 1 horrible thing he did and we had to hear about it for HOURS!!! I kid you not… if you are reading… it will be a log of empty chapters… I don’t know why they let this happen…

Anyway, this turned into ramblings because… sigh
I just don’t know what went wrong here… by chapter 3 I’m making everyone get it then had to call everyone and apologize… I’m never recommending anything until after it’s done…

Worth a credit? No but it may be for folks who don’t mind a lot of repeating if the same thing… I mean the story had good bones buuuuut… so 50/50? I really wanted to love it ☹️

1 person found this helpful

Awesome

Spice 5/5
Plot 5/5
Ending 3/5
It was a great book I just don’t love the ending not that it was bad I just felt I needed more. Honestly it’s so worth the time.

1 person found this helpful

Never Have I Ever

Never have I ever listened to a book in which I cringed, laughed, got angry, and cried all in a matter of minutes. Phoenix was so vulgar that this churchgoer had a hard time listening to it at times. At the same time, he made me laugh when he would say those things at the wrong time to embarrass Lennon. I love how Lennon is not the “perfect sized” beauty that many Romance books describe their females. When he was not being vulgar, Phoenix had a sweetness about him even when he was being cruel. I loved how loyal he was to Lennon even when he hurt her so badly. They are love-hate relationship was so funny at times. The thing I love the best though was the relationship that Lennon had with her dad. It was just so sweet how he loved her so unconditionally. It reminds me of my dad and how he never cared about my physical disabilities. He saw me as beautiful.

I thought Teddy Hamilton did a great job, but most of the story is from Lennon‘s point of view. I am not a huge fan of Erin Mallon. I can’t explain it, but the way she reads gets on my nerves, and her male voice is kind of creepy. I will say that her voice for the other characters was better than the one she had for Phoenix. still, that is not a reason to not listen to this book. Ashley knows how to write angst.

I can’t wait for Memphis and Skyler‘s story.

1 person found this helpful

Stellar!!

Loved this book from the first word! I really hope there will be more books as there are lots of topics/characters that could be elaborated.

1 person found this helpful

Everything you could ever want in a book

I’ve listened to A LOT of audiobooks and this one is definitely in the top 10 and not likely to drop from that list ever.

A. Jade did an amazing job capturing the emotion and pain in every word. It is raw and real and makes you want to cheer for them and then rip out you ear buds and throw them across the room.

All the characters are so well done and takes you a wonderful ride into this world.

1 person found this helpful

Beautiful

What a beautiful, sexy love story. Thanks for representing “not thin” women. We deserve love, too.