HARTSTRINGS (Jaded Regret #3) by L.L. Collins-review and book tour

HARTSTRINGS
Jaded Regret #3
by L.L.Collins
Genre: adult, contemporary, rock band, romance
Release Date: June 16, 2016

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / Amazon.uk /

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date June 16, 2016

Tanner Hart, the All-American bad boy bass guitarist of Jaded Regret, has one motto— play women’s bodies like he does the strings of his guitar— hard, in tune, and giving it his all until the show is over. The only strings he wants attached to him are the ones he plays on the stage.

He has quite the reputation, even with his own band, and he likes it that way. It keeps the truth of who he really is locked deep inside. But there’s so much more to him than anyone really knows…

Now that he’s successful, he can afford to find out what really happened to the only girl who’s ever held his heart. The only thing is…will he really want to know the truth?

When Mackenzie ‘Mac’ Shepard finds herself in a situation she’s been in too many times before, she expects to do what she’s always done— cover it up, accept the apologies, and move on. She knows trying to get out is futile. What she doesn’t expect is for the world famous Tanner Hart to burst into her life like a knight in sexy armor.

When their lives collide and hearts get involved, can Tanner keep his heartstrings from being tangled up in his past, or can he make a new kind of music… with his heart?

••••••••••

REVIEW: HARTSTRINGS is the third installment in L.L. Collins’s contemporary, adult JADED REGRET rock star, romance series focusing on the members of the rock back Jaded Regret. This is bass guitarist Tanner Hart, and PI Mackenzie Shepard’s story line. HARTSTRINGS can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from previous story lines is revealed where necessary.

NOTE: HARTSTRINGS is a story line focusing on domestic abuse and violence therefore the premise and some scenes may be triggers for sensitive readers.

Told from dual first person points of view (Tanner and Mackenzie) HARTSTRINGS follows the relationship between rock star Tanner Hart, and private investigator Mackenzie Shepard. While drunk and roaming the halls of a local hotel, Tanner accidentally gets caught up in a case of domestic violence. Mackenzie Shepard is found beaten and bruised, and Tanner refuses to accept what has happened and her inability to say no. What ensues are Tanner’s attempts to set Mackenzie free of her abusive boyfriend, and impotence in the face of future abuse and continued threats.

Like the previous installment, L.L. Collins takes the reader on an emotional journey where fiction becomes real in the face of violence and abuse. HARTSTRINGS looks at the battered spouse syndrome wherein our heroine is unable to walk away because of guilt, threats and proclamations of love further hindered by a father who is unaware of his daughter’s current condition. Our heroine is physically and emotionally abused; her psyche and psychological well being are threatened along with her life. Tanner Hart is a man determined to save Mackenzie Shepard in the hopes of atoning for the sins of his past. Mackenzie and Tanner are kindred spirits in that they have both experienced abuse and violence at the hands of someone who was supposed to have loved.

All of the members of Jaded Regret play secondary and supporting roles. We watch as the band struggles with their inability to understand the trauma that is currently claiming one of their own-a trauma they know very little about because Tanner has revealed very little about his past or his connection to the woman with whom he is falling in love. What the band members do know is that Tanner is a manwhore, a player, and worry about his involvement with a woman so fragile and broken.

HARTSTRINGS continues to follow Jaded Regret on the road, behind the scenes, and into the hotel rooms and bedrooms of the members of the band. With all of the members now married or falling in love, that leaves Beau’s – SNARED book 2– sister Natalie Anderson, the band’s manager, as the lone single member of the group. I am hoping for a story line for one of the security guys -A.J.-maybe he and Natalie will get together 😉 .

HARTSTRINGS is a story that runs the gamut of emotions from heartbreak to sorrow; anxiety to frustration; despair to relief. The premise is powerful and dramatic; the characters are affecting, courageous and tragic; the romance is comfortable and slow to build. The $ex scenes are intimate and seductive. L. L. Collins pulls at the ‘hartstrings’ with her emotional subject matter and happily ever afters.

Copy supplied by the tour operator.

Reviewed by Sandy

*PREVIOUS BOOKS IN THE SERIES: *

*SENTENCED (Jaded Regret, #1) *

Amazon US
Amazon CA
Amazon UK
Amazon AU

*SNARED (Jaded Regret, #2) *

Amazon US
Amazon CA
Amazon UK
Amazon AU

L.L. Collins loves spending her days in the Florida sun with her husband and two boys, reading, and writing. LL has been writing since she was old enough to write. Always a story in her head, she finally decided to let the characters out made her lifelong dream of becoming an author come true in the self-publishing world. She’s the author of the Living Again Series and the Twisted Series, plus a new standalone, Back to the Drawing Board. Visit LL on her WEBSITE

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