Rock Chick

Rock Chick, Book #1

By Kristen Ashley

ISBN#  9781849231848

Author’s Website:  http://www.kristenashley.net/

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Heidi

India Savage has been in love with her best friend’s brother since she was five years old when he held her hand at her mother’s funeral.  And her friend Ally more than approves as they even made a blood pact when they were younger that Indy would marry Lee so they could be “real” sisters.  Oh and Indy will name her and Lee’s daughter after Ally 🙂 But after many “Lee maneuvers” and several years of rejection, Indy gave up on him and even started avoiding him (for the last decade!).  Which is pretty hard considering their families are so close, their dads are best friends, as were their mothers, before Indy’s mom passed away.  However, Ally and her mom, Kitty Sue never quite gave up the fantasy of Lee and Indy together.

And speaking of Kitty Sue… this was my favorite scene with her in the entire book…

“I turned to Kitty Sue and surprised myself by answering honestly, “I’m fine. Lee’s fine. Lee’s more fine than me. I’m having troubles adjusting. Lee seems pretty sure of himself. Lee seems pretty sure of everything.”

This, I realized, was true about Lee always. I’d never met someone as confident in my life. Well, maybe Hank, but Hank’s confidence was quiet and assured. And there was Lee’s best friend, Eddie, of course. But Eddie was like Lee’s twin, separated at birth, cut from the same cloth. Lee’s confidence, and Eddie’s, wasn’t like Hank’s. It was cocky and assertive.

“And you aren’t sure?” Kitty Sue asked.

I looked at her and thought maybe I should have lied. It was too late now.

“Nope. He scares me,” I admitted.

She nodded. “Yep, he’s pretty dang scary.”

I stared. My God, the woman was talking about her son.

“You agree?”

She looked at Lee then back at me. “Honey, that boy drives me to distraction. It’s like he’s not of my loins. I don’t even know where he came from. If Ally hadn’t been the exact replica of Lee, personality-wise, except female I would have wondered if there was a mix up at the hospital.”

I kept staring. Kitty Sue kept talking.

“Hank’s just like his Dad. Smart, cautious, controlled, taking only calculated risks. I’m sure Lee calculates his risks, but I think he allows for a much larger margin for error and counts on … I don’t know what he counts on to get him out of whatever scrapes he gets into.”

I couldn’t stop staring. She kept talking, and everything that came out of her mouth was like a verbal car accident. If she was trying to convince me to stick with her son, she should have tried a different tact.

“He does … you know?” Kitty Sue said.

I realized she was asking me a question, so I shook my head that no, I didn’t know.

She explained, “He gets out of every scrape. Always did and always did it on his own. Though it’ll take some kind of woman to live a life like that, knowing what he’s like, knowing the risks he takes.”

Her hand went to my knee and she squeezed it before she went on.

“Not anyone here would think less of you if you aren’t that woman. I’m telling you because it’s true. We all love you both and we’ll always love you both, no matter what happens between you.” She stopped, sighed and continued, “Anyway, I don’t even know if that kind of woman exists. I’m his mother. I’ve lived with him surviving scrapes that would make your hair stand on end and I worry about him every day. He scares the hell out of me.”

Indy owns a bookstore she inherited from her grandmother and her coffee guy, Rosie, has gotten her into some serious hot water.  Hot water that led to them getting shot at!!  Not knowing what to do, she calls Ally, who is always up for an adventure.  Ally convinces Indy for her and Rosie to stay at Lee’s condo for the night since he’s out of town.  Indy knows it’s a bad idea, but doesn’t see any other options.

Indy gets dragged out of bed by her ankle by a very stealthy, very big, and still very hot Lee when he comes home early!  She quickly explains what happened and he’s more than willing to help … for a price!  Lee wants a relationship with Indy and will use anything at his disposal to get it!

“Lee’s face changed and his eyes became warm.

“Are we together?”

 Oh crap.

I started thinking fast.

“We’re not not together.”

“I’m not entirely certain what to do with that.”

I explained, “We’re not exactly together and were not not together. We’re in together limbo. We’re test driving together to see if we want to buy it.”

“We go to your dad’s late, I could convince you to buy it.”

Rosie disappears during the night and now all the bad guys are after Indy to find the missing diamonds Rosie had taken.  Lee is on the case to find Rosie, the diamonds, and above all to keep Indy safe.  But she does make it hard as she never wants to stay where he tells her to or do what he wants her to, always putting herself right in the thick of things.  Now she’s caught the eyes of the criminal with the missing diamonds and Lee suddenly has competition for her affections!  Not to mention, Indy thinks if she can find Rosie and the diamonds before Lee, then she won’t have to go through with his … um … payment.

I really did not think I’d like this book.  The synopsis just really didn’t do it for me.  But books like this one are exactly why I occasionally read stuff that are a little different for me.  I’m so glad I took a chance on this book because I absolutely loved it!

I thought Indy was a lot of fun.  She was reminiscent of Stephanie Plum and Charley Davidson, both of which crack me up!  I was kind of hoping this whole series would center on Indy, so I was a bit sad to see it will shift to another couple with the next book, Rock Chick Rescue.  But it’ll be Eddie’s story so hopefully it will be a good one.

And Lee … I love the cocky SOB characters in books.  He was no exception, but he went over-the-top at times being too high-handed and controlling.  Indy was not a ‘yes, sir’ kind of girl so he definitely had his work cut out for him.  I think that’s why his friends and men enjoyed watching them!

“Maybe we should have this conversation in an alternate universe where Alternate Indy gives a shit what Alternate Lee wants her to wear.”

But with all Lee’s faults, he could also be a complete sweetheart too.  And he’d make any girl feel safe and protected.

“For what it’s worth, I’ll share my intentions. You and me, we aren’t practice for the real thing. It isn’t that too much is at stake with family and friends, it’s because I love you. You’re funny, beautiful and you care about people. I like the way you look at me, especially when you think I don’t notice it. I like that we have history and our kids will have a big family and share that history because there was never a time when their Mom and Dad weren’t together. If you were a terrible lay, I might have second thoughts but you and I are dynamite together. I intend to marry you and spend the rest of my life with you. If that freaks you out, tough, because now we’ve started this, there’s no goin’ back.”

I think the book for the most part had a good pace, although it did have a short while  that seemed to be running kind of long …. like the book should have already ended.  But then Lee and Indy went to look for Rosie together and there was a lot more book to go.  But really, I just didn’t want to put this book down.  This book sucks you into Indy and Lee’s world and doesn’t let you go until the very end.  Although I was expecting a little more of an ending…. But ending on sex isn’t necessarily a bad thing … it just seemed sudden.

Overall this was a really enjoyable read and I’m adding the remaining books in the series to my tbr (to be read) list so I can catch back up with the characters later on.

“What’re you doing? Collecting the straight, super-macho Village People?”