Midnight Blue
Hollywood Chronicles, Book #1
By L.J. Shen
ISBN# 9780996135696
Author’s Website: http://www.authorljshen.com/
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Heidi
*Beware of Spoilers*
Indie Bellamy was in a tough position. She lives with her brother, sister-in-law, and nephew in a one-bedroom apartment. Craig has lost his job and they are struggling to survive. She only hopes she can get this job. Then she finds out that she was misinformed on what the job really is. They’re not looking for a PA, but somebody to babysit bad boy rock star, Alex Winslow, while on tour and keep him off drugs and alcohol.
“He was supposed to leave six months ago and canceled for personal reasons. If he cancels again, he’ll have to pay thirty million dollars to the production companies. The insurance will never pay up, considering the cause of termination was him swimming in enough cocaine to bake a five-tier wedding cake.”
This is not the job Indie wants, but it would fix all their financial problems so she reluctantly agrees.
Alex is fresh out of rehab, still suffering a broken heart from his girl, Fallon, leaving him for his former friend, Will. The last thing he wants to do is deal with another babysitter. He’s gotten rid of the rest within a week of them starting and he plans to get Indie to leave just as quickly. Only she doesn’t. And, when his drummer takes an interest in her his possessive tendencies come out. Can they all survive the tour with this sordid love triangle playing out before them? And, what happens when the secrets that everyone close to Alex has been keeping come out at long last?
I didn’t know what to expect going into this book. I thought the synopsis was interesting enough and the cover was smoking hot, but that’s really all I knew.
I thought the beginning of the book was just okay as the author was weaving the story and letting us get to know all the characters. Once the storyline picked up though I couldn’t put the book down! It checked all the boxes for me, smoking hot and overly cocky guy (check, check), great sex (check), interesting characters (checkity-check), and raw emotion (definite long slow check)! I even found some humor along the way (check), mostly at Alex’s expense and often in his own thoughts.
“And this, ladies and gents, was why I chose narcotics over people.”
The text conversations between Indie and Alex’s PR team were quite funny at times as well.
I was a little surprised how Indie gave in to Alex. It seemed a good time for her to push him away further when she finally gave in to his advances. You want to be mad at her, but you really can’t … hot sexy rock star after all… #youtotallywouldgiveintoo
Speaking of Alex, I really enjoyed him! I love the cocky guys and he definitely had some swagger in major megawatt doses! I also really liked that he was this eccentric guy that looked down his nose at all other musicians and of course the Suits. I don’t know, I guess it made him seem more believable somehow.
“Indie; I think the ten-minute song is going to be really good.
Jenna: I hope you didn’t tell him that.
Indie: No, I told him it’s unmarketable.
Hudson: And what did he say?
Indie: He said I sounded like a Suit., specifically like Jenna Holden, and that Jenna Holden was hired to get him Balmain deals and negotiate fat deals with record labels, not produce his next album. He also said he’d once caught you nodding your head at a Maroon 5 song, and the fact that you’re not dead to him after that is a miracle in itself, so you should not push your luck. Again, his words, not mine.”
Let’s face it I really like rock star romance books! There is just something about them … tortured as they all seem to be, despite their fame or because of it?
“Because when you’re a rock star and make a crap ton of money, everyone wants a piece of the pie. A pie you baked. With ingredients you bought.”
Things were going great until everything comes crashing down. This is another time that Indie really surprised me. I think she was blaming Alex for things that weren’t completely his fault. I actually felt bad for him. I thought him dying the roses blue was really cute and found her response to it to be quite cruel. If you don’t want to be with him fine, but you don’t have to go about rejecting with so much venom.
“If you leave me,” he said, “you take my soul with you.”
Granted, by this point Alex wasn’t exactly innocent. He took her leaving hard and got back into things he really should have known better than to do. I had hoped he could resist, but he didn’t put up too much of a fight. And, I was yelling at him, not that it did much good. I wanted to laugh at him trying to get high on the bath salts at his hotel, but it was just so pathetic that it was just … sad.
“I’d been trying to get high off of bath salts unsuccessfully for twenty minutes when Lucas walked in and shut the door behind him.
Yeah, I was using again. Or at least trying. Shit, I wasn’t even good at being a drug addict. How embarrassing was that?
“Don’t even think about it.” I sniffed, trying to light up the little rocks of salt. How the fuck could you get high on them? I needed new mates. New, young, loser mates who’d teach me how to get high on pathetic things.”
Thankfully Alex eventually gets the wake-up call he needed and set out on his plan to win his Stardust back, although it’s a long-term plan! And there for a minute I thought I wasn’t going to like how it all played out.
I can’t say enough how much I enjoyed this book. I devoured it or maybe it devoured me? Either way, just go read it, you will be glad you did!
I thought about including a song with this review, but Alex feels every performer is below him so it doesn’t feel appropriate for this review. Not to mention, I’m a little worried what he’d think of my song selection.
“Congrats, Alex. I loved your ‘Back to Life’ tour! My personal favorite.” Bella kisses my cheek again. Now I smile my I-heard-your-music-and-I’m-not-sure-whether-to-take-that-as-a-compliment smirk, then turn back to the mic.”
This book did leave me wondering what his sound was really like. I loved his lyrics and was curious what kind of beat accompanies them.
I can’t wait to read the next book in the series, when it gets released. I really hope it’s about Jenna and Blake!
This is the first book I’ve read from this author, but it definitely won’t be my last!
