Deanna's World: rock star

Rock Redemption (Rock Kiss #3) by Nalini Singh
Purchase links: Amazon - Barnes & Noble - iTunes - Kobo - Amazon UK

My rating: star

Heat rating: Flame

Kit Devigny could have loved rock guitarist Noah St. John. Their friendship burned with the promise of intense passion and searing tenderness…until the night Noah deliberately shattered her heart.

Noah knows he destroyed something precious the night he chose to betray Kit, but he’d rather she hate him than learn his darkest secret. All he has left is his music. It’s his saving grace, but it doesn’t silence the voices that keep him up at night. Chasing oblivion through endless one-night-stands, he earns a few hours’ sleep and his bad boy reputation.

When a media error sees Noah and Kit dubbed the new “it” couple, Kit discovers her chance at the role of a lifetime hinges on riding the media wave. Wanting—needing—to give Kit this, even if he can’t give her everything, Noah agrees to play the adoring boyfriend. Only the illusion is suddenly too real, too painful, too beautiful…and it may be too late for the redemption of Noah St. John.

I'm going to cut right to the chase. This book is freaking brilliant. Stunning, beautiful, poignant, heart breaking but above all, brilliant. Nalini Singh is a freaking brilliant writer. Her writing is beautiful beyond words.

I knew from the start this would be an intensely emotional read and I was right. My heart ached right from the first word, and then proceeded to break over and over again as Kit and Noah found their way back to each other.

Noah is a broken, tortured hero, but unlike other tortured heroes, Nalini makes Noah someone you want to cheer for. She breaks rules with Noah, having him do things during the story that makes you stop short and think "Oh no! He didn't!" but he did, but Nalini makes it okay. She makes you love Noah, cheer for him, and want healing and peace for his agonized soul. She makes him a bright, beautiful person you care about with all your heart and you can't read fast enough to find out what happened to him as a child and then read even faster to find out how he heals. Nalini doesn't make it easy, it doesn't happen overnight but it happens with a steadiness and solidity that makes you believe what's happening is real and will last a lifetime. I adored Noah.

Kit is an amazing woman. She's all big heart, love and strength. It takes a strong, determined woman to love a man like Noah, especially when he's done the things he's done, when he's hurt her with an unforgivable act, and yet she forgives, she loves, she hopes and she fights for him. She's the kind of unspoiled, down to earth woman, I would be proud to call a friend, because I know she will stand by me and support me no matter what, as she so clearly demonstrates when Noah only wanted her friendship, before it became more.

By the time I got to the end of the story, I had highlighted passage after passage of words that reached in and squeezed at my heart and made my breath catch, but I won't share it here because I don't want to spoil the beauty of the writing for you. If you haven't read this series, you need to read it, if only to get to this point, of reading Noah and Kit's story. If you've read the series, run, don't walk to get this book as soon as it comes out and then devour it, savor it, and I hope you love every moment of it as much as I do.

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Goodreads | Goodreads series

Excerpt

    KIT GROANED AT THE sound of her phone. Reaching out blindly toward the nightstand, she hurled mental curses upon herself for forgetting to turn it off so she could catch some uninterrupted sleep before her four-a.m. makeup call.
    It’d be fun and great for her career, her agent had said when recommending Kit take the superhero flick. Coming off two serious and emotionally wrenching projects, Kit had taken Harper’s advice and jumped on board the high-budget, high-octane venture. Unfortunately, Harper had forgotten to mention the four hours it would take to put her into the head-to-toe makeup required for the role. Daily.
    “What?” she snarled into the phone without checking to see who it was.
    “Hey, Katie.”
    Every cell in her body snapped wide awake. Lifting her eyelids, she just stared at the ceiling through gritty eyes. Her heart thumped, her throat moving convulsively as she swallowed. She hated that he could still do this to her, hated it, but her visceral response to Noah wasn’t something she could stop. She knew because she’d tried for the past two years and three months.
    “Noah,” she said flatly. “Do you know what time it is?”
    “Two fifteen,” he answered.
    Kit should’ve hung up. God, he’d hurt her. So much. But there was something in his voice that had her sitting up. “Are you drunk?” One thing she knew about Noah: no matter his bad-boy rep, he was never wasted. He might give a good indication of it, but look closely and those dark gray eyes were always sober.
    “Probably.” A silence, followed by, “I just wanted to hear your voice. Sorry for waking you.”
    “Wait,” she said when he would’ve hung up. “Where are you?”
    “Some dive.” He took a deep breath, released it in a harsh exhale. “I’m sorry for being an asshole. I wanted to tell you that. I don’t want to go without saying that.”
    “Noah,” she said, a horrible feeling in her stomach. “Where exactly are you?”
    “The Blue Flamingo Inn off Hollywood Boulevard. Far, far, far off.” He laughed, and it held no humor. “It has a neon sign of a blue—surprise!—flamingo that’s flashing right through my window. Looks like someone stole the curtains.”
    Having already grabbed her laptop, which she’d left beside the bed after answering some e-mails before sleep claimed her, she found the Blue Flamingo Inn. But Noah was already gone, having said, “I love your voice, Kit,” in an oddly raw tone before hanging up.
    He didn’t pick up when she called back.
    “Damn it! Damn it!” She shoved aside the blanket under which she’d been buried, having turned the AC to ice-cold as she usually did at night. Shivering, she tugged on a pair of jeans and an old sweatshirt over the panties and tank top in which she’d gone to sleep.
    Pulling her black hair into a rough ponytail to keep it out of her eyes, she ran through the house, phone in one pocket, credit card and driver’s license in the other. In the kitchen, she grabbed her keys off the counter and shoved her feet into the tennis shoes by the door that led to the garage.
    She was in her car and on the way to the motel three minutes after Noah had hung up, mouth dry and an ugliness in her gut. “Please be okay, please be okay, please be okay,” she kept saying, the mantra doing nothing to calm her down, but at least it kept her mind focused.
    She wanted to call Molly and Fox, or the others in the band, but no one was currently in the city. Schoolboy Choir had completed the final show in the band’s hugely successful tour just over two weeks earlier. Day after that, they’d all gone their separate ways to recharge and regroup.
    “Much as I love these guys,” David had said with a grin that reached the dark gold of his eyes, “I’ve been looking at their ugly mugs daily for months. We need to go blow off some steam separately before we start snarling at each other.”
    At the time, Kit had nodded in understanding, having had that same experience while working on location for long periods. Tonight, however, she wished the others were all here, not scattered across the country, because something was very wrong with Noah.
    “Noah doesn’t do drugs,” she told herself as she drove as fast as she dared, not wanting to risk getting pulled over and further delayed. “He isn’t the kind to—” She couldn’t say it, couldn’t even think of Noah ending his life. “No,” she said firmly, her hands white-knuckled on the steering wheel. “Noah isn’t like that.”

If you’d like to read the rest of this chapter, as well as the next, click this link.

Other books in the series

Book 1 - Rock Addiction

Buy links: Amazon US | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble | iTunes | Kobo

star

4 of 5 stars

Book 1.5 - Rock Courtship

Buy links: Amazon US | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble | iTunes | Kobo

star

4 of 5 stars

Book 2 - Rock Hard

Buy links: Amazon US | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble | iTunes | Kobo

star

4 of 5 stars
My Review

About the Author

author

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Psy-Changeling, Guild Hunter, and Rock Kiss series Nalini Singh usually writes about hot shapeshifters and dangerous angels. This time around, she decided to write about a beautiful, charismatic guitarist with a dark past. If you’re seeing a theme here, you’re not wrong.

Nalini lives and works in beautiful New Zealand, and is passionate about writing. If you’d like to explore her other books, you can find lots of excerpts on her website. Slave to Sensation is the first book in the Psy-Changeling series, while Angels’ Blood is the first book in the Guild Hunter series. Also, don't forget to swing by the site to check out the special behind-the-scenes page for the Rock Kiss series, complete with photos of many of the locations used in the books.

Author links: Email - Website - Twitter - Facebook

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