A Lush Betrayal (Lush) by Selena Laurence Review

Series: Lush #1
Publish: February 22nd 2014 by C.P. Writes
Format: ebook, 234 pages
Rating: 5 / 4

Synopsis: Joss Jamison has it all. He's the lead singer for the world's hottest rock band, Lush. He's wealthy, sexy, talented...and miserable. Twelve months ago, Joss lost his finely honed control and made a mistake he can't undo. A mistake that could end up costing him his best friend, his band, and maybe his heart.
Mel DiLorenzo has it all. She's been hired to document the world tour of her sister's fiance's rock band. She's gorgeous, talented, loved...and sick of being the little sister. When she agrees to the summer job, Mel has no idea she's walking into a minefield of friendships lost and hearts destroyed. She also has no idea what it means to be the object of Joss Jamison's affections.
One hot rock star plus one life-altering mistake, add a dash of sexy younger sister and a handful of broken hearts, and you've got a recipe for fire. Life on the road can be hot, but for the boys of Lush, it's about to get a whole hell of a lot hotter.

Review:
  This is my first read from this author so I don’t really have anything to compare with. Alone the cover, the synopsis and the fact that it’s about rock stars convinced me to read it. The story is basically about three friends and a lot of heartbreaking emotions.

  Joss is the leading man of Lush, a pretty famous rock band so you would think that he is a typical rock star persona. However as we get to immersed more and more into the story it became obvious that he is much more than that. He has a very deep And complex personality; he betrayed one of his best friends and keeping his action takes a lot out of him and the guilt slowly eats him away. He is afraid to confess the truth because he fears the consequences. So he is not himself when we first meet him. The truth is that he didn’t plan on doing what he did, but it doesn’t make it easier. But everything changes when he meets Mel. His guilt stays and the consequences only grow, but for the first time for a while he feels god in his skin and becomes his old self.
  Mel is beautiful, who was around Lush from the beginning since her sister is the long time girlfriend of one of the members. Somehow they still didn’t notice her presence, simply see through her. She was the invisible little sister. That’s why when her sister asks her a favor she has mixed feelings about it. For one, she is excited because it’s a fantastic possibility in regard of her carrier. On the other hand she doesn’t know if she can work with her sister, she had enough of being in Tammy shadow where nobody sees the real Mel. When Joss starts to show interest in her she doesn’t know how to respond since she knows well about his reputation with woman. In addition to this everybody around her tries to keep them apart, especially Tammy, who acts like a lunatic every time Mel and Joss are close to each other.
  Tammy is not my kind of a girl; I didn’t like her a bit. She is really conceited, extremely jealous and infuriates me a lot. The reason behind this comes to light but if she could keep her mouth shut there wouldn’t be a problem.
  Unfortunately the other characters stay in the dark; we don’t really get to know them. It’s a pity.

  The author interlinks the fascinating characters and the rock stars’ word in an exceptional way. I laughed a lot during reading thanks to the amazing writing. It’s easy to read and relate to the story. My only problem is that the big betrayal comes to light very soon in the storyline and because of this and the characters background it’s obvious that their relationship is doomed from the very beginning. After finishing the book I feel I didn’t get what the synopsis promised.

Broken (Broken) by Kelly Elliott Review

Series: Broken #1
Publish: November 17th 2013 by Kelly Elliott
Format: ebook, 354 pages
Rating: 5 / 5

Synopsis: Layton Morris and his brother Mike grew up not knowing what it would be like to live in a normal home. With no running water or electricity in their home, no parents around to protect them, they quickly learned how to survive and depend only on each other.
When a tragic accident takes Mike away from Layton, and the only other person that he ever let into his heart walked away from him, leaving his heart shattered, Layton focuses all of his time and energy into the ranch he and his brother dreamed of. He makes a vow to himself to never let love in again. The last thing Layton needed or wanted was more heartache.
Whitley Reynolds grew up in a privileged home in upstate New York. When she landed the star football player in high school no one was surprised, not even Whitley. She dreamed of a life with Roger living in New York City and happily followed him there.
The first time Roger hit her for arguing with him about a dinner party, she forgave him. The more it happened, the further Whitley withdrew from her friends and family. One fateful day things go to far. Whitley makes a promise to herself and finds the courage to do the one thing she thought she’d never be able to do.
Fleeing with her best friend Courtney, Whitley was determined to put her past behind her and start a new life in the small town of Llano, Texas, where no one would ever find out about her past.
Will they both ever learn to trust and love again, or will their pasts come back to haunt them, keeping them both alone and...
Broken.

Review:
  Kelly Elliott has an outstanding talent to create stories which are extremely sweet and steamy at the same time. Okay her books are a little bit predictable but not so much. She can create exceptional situations and can make the same situation a bit different every time giving them a novel feel, atmosphere. There is little bit of a similarity between this series and her Wanted series. Both takes place in Texas with cowboys and loveable best friends, whom stir up the events. But there are plenty of differences between them. First of all that in this book there is an older cast and has a more mature and darker topic.

  Both of the main characters have a lot of emotional and physical scars. They come from very different worlds, backgrounds still they have a similarly hard past.
  Layton’s father left him and his brother so they had to grow up really fast and only could rely on each other. If it wouldn’t be enough he lost his brother and the love of his life left him, too. While Whitley has a beautiful and good childhood but her taste in boys is not the best. The man she chooses for husband slowly turned into a monster and completely broke her. They hit rock bottom and thought there is no way out they met.

  Their first meeting is not roses and love; they are constantly at each other throat. However these little disagreements and the banter between them turn into attraction somewhere along the line. They learn to love again with each other help and thanks to this they get over the obstacles. The sexual tension and the chemistry are palpable. It’s impossible to put down the books until the two main characters confess their feelings and take the road to emotional healing.

  The plot is built typically in Kelly Elliott style, makes a full circle. It’s a fluidly flowing story that sucks the reader in completely. It’s full of romance, amusing little events, emotional debates and a lot of pleasant moments in the company of a freshly formed circle of friends. Of course there is a lot of drama and a bad guy too. The author not only endears her characters but makes the reader an addict. I can’t wait to read the next book, however not because of Courtney and Reed but because I hope there is more Layton and Whitley in it too. Courtney and Reed behavior with each other makes it hard to like them.

  About the cast? There is an extremely sexy cowboy, who is a bit closed up in the beginning but slowly opens up and shows his true personality. He is really passionate, caring and sweet and all of this without losing his masculinity. I couldn’t help myself; I constantly smiled during reading his point of view.
  Then there is Whitley who is the perfect damsel in distress, but still a very strong and persistent character. She is really honest and loveable; it’s easy to relate to her.
  We also get a very detailed description about the secondary characters too. And they are the levers for the main characters, whom on the edge of giving up in the beginning of the story. Despite this Courtney and Reed couldn’t get along, in each other presence they act like completely different persons and most of time it’s an ugly change. I know it supposed to prepare their story but it’s not really appealing.

  I absolutely love this book and hope there are a lot of people who agree with me. A fantastic story, I can recommend it to anyone who likes light romantic books.

By Viki