Ripped by Katy Evans

As far as rocker romance novels go, this is a pretty good one. I just have one little question. Who the hell are these people?

What’s it About?

Pandora, the gothic friend of Brooke (Real, Mine, Remy) and Melanie, thought that getting her heart broken by her bad boy rocker ex could only happen once. But now, he’s back in town with the biggest concert of the year. Pandora hates him so much that she gets Melanie to come with her and play a prank on him at his gig. But when they are caught by security, and her ex himself is summoned, he decides not to press charges if she’ll follow certain conditions. Pandora likes none of his rules, or that he’s in charge of her, especially since they seem designed to make sure she’s in close contact with him again. But the closeness reignites the passion they once shared, and soon no matter how much she wants to hate him, it’s clear she’s still hung up on him. And worse: he knows it too.

First Impressions

I feel like the further we get into this series, the further away we get from how it all started. Did I like the characters? Yeah! Was it an interesting story line full of sex appeal? Sure! But I couldn’t help but feel like this novel in particular was really disconnected from the rest of the series. Pandora made a brief appearance in the last novel, and Kenna was her first love from adolescence. Not a whole lot of connection with the other characters in the series.

Lack of Connection

Overall, this novel had a very interesting story line of rekindling a past romance, and making up for lost time. However, I did feel like this was where we saw the biggest disconnect from the previous 4 novels. In the first 3 books, Remy is a boxer in an underground fighting circuit. In book 4, Greyson came to be in control of that underground. And Kenna? He’s a rock star. The underground is barely referenced at all in this book, other than a brief mention that Remy sometimes listens to Kenna’s music before a fight.

Lack of Struggle

In addition, I felt like this novel really lacked the sense of urgency and struggle that was present in the other books. Yes, there was some initial drama when our lead characters are first reunited after so many years, but once they sleep together everything is pretty copacetic from there on out. There is an interesting twist at the end which is introduced between Pandora and her mother. Unfortunately though, that story line never really comes to a full resolution.

Series: Real, book 5. Can’t imagine who the focus of the sixth novel will be.

Should you read it? If this had been a complete stand-alone novel I probably would have enjoyed it a lot more. However, I was left feeling a bit confused as to how it related to the series as a whole, as well as where the series will go from here.

Smut Level: Ohhh my. To be locked in a closet with a rock star. Seven unbelievably delectable minutes in Heaven indeed.

Get it on Amazon: Click Here. $8.99 Kindle Price. Gallery Books. 337 Pages.