I WANT YOU TO WANT ME ( Rock Star Romance #2) by Erika Kelly-a review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date July 7, 2015

Derek Valencia finally has the success he’s worked so hard for. His band is touring its debut album and great reviews are rolling in. But when pictures of him tossing naked groupies off a balcony go viral, it’s damage-control time. He’s assigned a “babysitter” whose sole job is to keep him out of trouble.

Violet Davis swore she’d never work in the music industry again, but being a minder for a rock star will earn her enough to pay off the mortgage on her wildflower farm. And for a girl brought up in the foster care system, owning her own home means more to her than anything.

Though at first the two bang heads, the rocker and the farm girl soon grow close and realize that they make sweet music together. But can a girl who craves the stability of life on a farm really make it work with a man whose life is spent on the road with his band?

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REVIEW: I WANT YOU TO WANT ME is the second installment in Erika Kelly’s adult, contemporary Rock Star Romance series focusing on the rock band, now known as, Blue Fire. This is Blue Fire bassist Derek Valencia, and professional ‘minder’ Violet Davis’s storyline. I WANT YOU TO WANT ME can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous storyline is revealed where necessary. Derek Valencia is Emmie’s brother-Emmie is the heroine from book one YOU REALLY GOT ME.

Told from third person perspective I WANT YOU TO WANT ME focuses on Violet Davis as she is hired to ‘mind’ the members of the band of Blue Fire. Verging on stardom, the band begins to implode as the musicians begin to succumb to the excesses of fame including sex, drugs and alcohol. Violet is a minder- a professional baby sitter-of sorts-who must get the band on the straight and narrow before they become headline news in the gossip papers and paparazzi rags. What ensues is a building relationship between Derek and Valencia, one that began acrimoniously, and filled with spite and mistrust.

Derek is the twenty eight year old son of a famous jazz musician, whose own star is beginning to fall, and with it comes betrayal and heartbreak as the father tries to ride on his son’s burgeoning success. As a minder, Violet is practiced in the art of intervention, and her responsibility finds our heroine having to run interference not only between the members of the band and the media, but between a father and son whose history is filled with pain and neglect. While Violet tries to save one member of the band, Derek finds himself falling in love with a woman whose own past is filled with abandonment and regret.

The relationship between Violet and Derek is slow to build as Violet continues to push Derek away. Her own personal history is dark and heartbreaking, and with it comes the inability to trust. But Violet also sees herself as an employee of the band, and in this, she isn’t willing to risk her job for a temporary affair with one of rock’s ‘sex gods’ as the media has come to call him. There is an expiry date on Violet’s current assignment and with it an expiry date on her relationship with Derek Valencia. The $ex scenes are intimate and provocative. The attraction and need for one another is tangible but the constant misunderstandings, and push and pull of the relationship is a bit heavy. Violet’s lack of trust is fueled by the actions of the man with whom she is falling in love; and the belief that she is just another number in his long list of women and conquests.

The secondary characters include the members of the band: Cooper, Ben and Peter, as well as Slater Vaughn and Emmie from book one YOU REALLY GOT ME. Violet’s co-workers and friends at the wildflower farm-Francesca, and her daughter Mimi –Francesca has caught the eye of the band’s A&R manager Irwin Ledger. We are introduced to a new member of the band-Calix Bourbon-whose vocal pipes may give Slater a run for his money. The requisite evil comes in the form of Ray Montalbano, and Derek’s ex ‘Gen’ who still considers herself in the picture. There is another man vying for Violet’s affections-Randall Oppenheimer-who continues to drive a wedge between Derek and V.

The world building follows the band’s rise to stardom and the imminent fall from grace for one member of the band. We watch as drug, alcohol and sex fuel the after parties and egos; and how a turbulent past feeds the insecurities of two people who have fallen in love.

I WANT YOU TO WANT ME is an engaging, dramatic and sensual story of romance and love. There are moments of intense passion and heartbreaking misunderstandings; the premise is emotional but the constant back and forth between Derek and Violet is an irritation to the overall enjoyment of the story. The characters are colorful, energetic (meet Ben and Cooper) and not without some controversy; the romance is intimate and hopeful. Erika Kelly pulls the reader into an impassioned story of building love where our leading couple must overcome their insecurities and jealousies in order for their relationship to work.

Copy supplied by the publisher through Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy

You Really Got Me
Rock Star Romance #1
by Erika Kelly
Release Date:
Genre: adult, contemporary, erotic rock romance

Click HERE for Sandy’s review of YOU REALLY GO ME

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date January 6, 2015

Emmie Valencia has what it takes to be the music industry’s hottest band manager. She just needs to prove it. Determined to discover a killer new band, Emmie is ready to make her move. First stop: Austin, Texas.

As a sizzling-hot lead singer, Slater Vaughn has no trouble raising heart rates—but his band’s been flat-lining for years. When Emmie, his bandmate’s sister, crashes with them in exchange for some free management, her industry know-how lands them a spot in the biggest music festival in Texas. But it isn’t just her business acumen that catches Slater’s attention. Emmie is sexy and warm, and—for the first time in his life—he wants more.

But as irresistible as Slater is, Emmie is done with musicians. In her experience, a man can’t be a rock star and someone to trust with your heart—but Slater is determined to show her he’s both.