If a famous, sexy actor suddenly started to show an interest in dating me, and his response to what it was about me that intrigued him was “Talent will out”, I think I’d say, “Umm…ok?”
What’s it About?
Virginia is ready to rock the world, but will love, lust and dangerous desire kill the boldness she’s fought hard to embrace?
Environmental engineer Virginia “V.” Will, the youngest in a protective family, has played it safe for years. The death of her adventurous mother is a wake-up call. At age 39, V. leaves her job and joins the D.C. band Love Bunny as a drummer, but she wants more than just a drum throne and a voyeur’s view of the wild parties of her twenty-something bandmates. Just when she thinks her family was wrong about the dangers of the nightlife, she starts feeling very out of sorts at a band party. And did she just hallucinate her favorite actor Jack Leeds? Not good.
Jack Leeds knows how to blend into the background to enjoy a beautiful talent. He sees V. at a show. He must have her. He plans to approach V. at a listening party, where her odd behavior interrupts his kinky preoccupations. Can he keep her safe and protect his TV career and his heart? Hot sex, soulful art, empowerment, obsession and violent secrets give the lust and love story of Jack and V. its own seductive, bold rhythm.
Fans of BWWM romance, leading ladies with a sense of humor, power exchange, erotica and nerds getting love will have a blast dancing to the beat of Jack and V.
First Impressions
I must admit I had some trouble following along with this story at times. There wasn’t always a seamless transition between scenes, or between Virginia and Jack’s points of view, which made it tricky to distinguish who was even telling the story. I also couldn’t always understand which people or events our characters were referencing. In a way, it almost felt like I was coming into the third or fourth book in a series rather than starting one fresh. I will say there were certainly some moments that seemed rather poetic in their description. For example a line that really stood out to me was “I lack the words to do her justice. I wonder how many painters scoured cities and countrysides for the stuffs to mix into pale imitations of the shades of the objects of their obsession.” Such a thought-provoking sentiment!
The only issue though was that sometimes there were almost too many poetic streams of thought packed together one after the other after the other. You sort of lose the impact these poetic moments could have had if they’d been spread out more evenly, or even used more sparingly. Another writing method that was used quite frequently that I can’t necessarily say is my cup of tea was an abundance of short sentences. When you combine this with the quick switches between scenes, you sort of experience moments of literary whiplash. One such example was after Virginia finished a call with her brother and she muses to herself “Was that the third time Corey called me outside of my birthday? I bask in the love. I try to ignore the messy motivation behind it. I walk and drop three young adult novels into a community library box in the park. In the afternoon, I masturbate three times.” Woah, what?
A Medley of Plots
There are so many different story lines going on at once in this book that it contributed to a lack of focus to the overall plot. Each story in its own right held some merit, but none was really fleshed out to it’s full potential. We have:
- Virginia exploring a new musical career somewhat later in life
- Virginia’s relationship with Jack the TV star
- Jack’s tumultuous relationship with his ex-wife
- A few appearances by Jack’s son
- A creepy DJ who seems intent on drugging and raping Virginia if he can ever get her alone
- Virginia auditioning for a reality TV show
- Jack writing a play or book or some kind of project
- Flashbacks of Virginia’s past assault by a guy who may have been a boyfriend
- A mention here and there of Virginia’s sister who may have been murdered at the hands of said possible boyfriend
- A slew of family members and friends of Virginia’s that I could never really tell who was friend or family member
- The briefest of mentions that Virginia’s siblings were trying to locate other potential relatives from their father’s extra-marital affairs years before?
No one story line received the necessary attention for me to say with absolute certainty what the dynamic really was between any of the characters. We also get a rather abrupt end to the book, and it was a conclusion without resolution to some key plot points, such as whether or not the creepy rapey DJ met justice, or merely set his sights on another victim. In the end I felt like I came into a story at the halfway point, and left it before it fully concluded.
Who is in Control?
And on top of it all! We have this somewhat BDSM relationship developing between Virginia and Jack, where you could never really tell who was in control, how they got into bdsm, whether Jack was only newly discovering it because of Virginia’s interest in it, or whether they were both exploring it at the same time for the first time. After their first serendipitous meeting, Jack apparently starts to do research on dominance and submission, as though this were his first foray into the subject. He seems so intent on dominating Virginia, putting her on all fours, spanking her, etc. etc. However!
At the beginning of their very first date Virginia seems to be the one who is in control, and she gives orders to him by dictating how the date was going to proceed. She even limits Jack to what he could and could not touch. Throughout the rest of the book we see a constant switch back and forth over who is in control, which could have been a really interesting twist to the entire d/s motif we normally see in romance novels. I can certainly say I’ve never read one that features a dominant and submissive switching roles mid-scene, and it definitely could have been an interesting discussion here. Unfortunately I can’t say for sure if this was the true nature of their relationship because it was never focused on to its fullest potential. The groundwork was definitely there, but it just needed one additional push.
*A copy of this book was provided for an honest review*
Series: Stand-Alone
Final Impressions: All in all I felt like this book was kind of difficult to follow. I would say there were about 4 primary story lines happening at the same time, each of which contained their own side stories, twists and turns. Virginia’s music career, her family dynamic, her new relationship with Jack, and the impact of Jack’s ex wife on their newfound relationship. Unfortunately they didn’t all come together in a cohesive way for me, which resulted in the overall story feeling pretty disjointed and lacking in focus.
Smut Level: We’ve got sex swings, sex clubs, spanking, phone sex, rubbing, thrusting, fruit, and chocolate sauce.
Get it on Amazon: Click Here. $3.99 Kindle Price. Amazon Digital Services LLC. 166 Pages
Romance Novels for the Beach 