Crash Into My
(a Shaken Dirty novel)
by Tracy Wolff
She’s totally off limits, but this rocker wants a taste…
Jamison Matthews has lusted after Ryder Montgomery
since she was a preteen. But now that Ryder and her brother’s band, Shaken
Dirty, has made it huge, she’s just one of many pining for the brooding lead
singer. Too bad Ryder still sees her as a little sister. Not that it matters.
Her brother would never allow it, and the last thing Jamison wants is to be
another notch on a rock star’s bed post. Even if it’s Ryder’s.
Ryder doesn’t deserve happiness. After his
fame destroyed his last girlfriend, he swore he’d never fall in love again. So
when Jamison, the girl he’s been in danger of loving for years, joins the band
on the road, he’ll do anything to deny the sparks between them—even after one
hot night together. But Jamison is determined to show Ryder that he’s worthy of
love—her
love—and that she’s all grown up…and ready to play.
My thoughts:
4 Stars
Hot sexy rock stars. Need I say more? Okay, I will.
'Shaken Dirty' lead singer, Ryder Montgomery, may be a god to scores of women, but his past keeps him from developing any lasting or meaningful relationships with women. Jamison Mathews grew up around the band before they were famous, and has loved Ryder for years. She is the only one that sees the 'real' him and loves him for who he is and who he can be. If this isn't the perfect setting for an amazing love story, I don't know what is!
I love romances with hot guys dealing with their demons - the more the angst and the darker the past, the better. I'll admit, there were more than a few times that I wanted to shake Ryder so that he could see what was right in front of him, but only because I fell in love with his character! No one should punish themselves as much as he does, but it makes him all the more loveable.
Then there's Jamison. I adore her. She's smart, sweet, and organized, not to mention she has been in love with Ryder for years. BUT, little sisters of band member are off limits! After her carefully planned life falls apart, she is stuck on a tour bus with the band....and Ryder. It's a setting for some serious sexual tension, and trust me, there is plenty of it!!
'Crash Into Me' serves as a cautionary tale that when you are with the right one, no matter how much you try to convince yourself it's all fun and games, convincing your heart is another story. While the end of it seemed a bit rushed when compared to the rest of the story, it also contained one of the sweetest make ups ever. I can't wait for the rest of the Shaken Dirty series, especially Wyatt's story!
Excerpt
Onstage, the band launched into “Awake,” one of the power
ballads that had made them famous. The crowd screamed their approval and so did
she. Totally not her typical modus operandi, but she couldn’t help it.
Something about listening to Ryder croon the darkly haunting lyrics had her
knees trembling and her heart beating much too quickly. If she closed her eyes,
she could do what all the other women in the audience were doing and pretend
that he was singing straight to her.
So much better than remembering he’d written these
heartfelt words for another woman. For Carrie, who had killed herself and
broken his heart so many years before. Her own heart ached at the thought. For
him. Always for him. At twenty-nine, Ryder had already been through more
darkness and despair than any one person should have to handle.
“Awake” finally
came to a close, the last note hanging in the air for long, tension-fueled
seconds. Then the band fell silent and the audience did the same, as if they
were all holding their breaths. Ryder lowered his guitar, shuffled, and stamped
his feet once, twice. It was a familiar gesture, one years of experience had
taught her was his way of shaking off excess emotion. Again her heart twisted.
It devastated her that more than ten years after the fact he was still eaten up
by what had happened. Still determined to bury it under a bunch of layers that
not only insulated him from his pain but also hid the real Ryder so deep inside
the public Ryder that she wondered sometimes if he even existed anymore. Or if
the boy who had held her while she cried, who had let her whisper her
pre-adolescent fears without ever making fun of her, had disappeared forever.
She searched for him in that one endless moment.
Looked for him in the obsidian eyes that arrowed to the
heart of the crowd even as they barricaded his own emotions.
Combed through her own memories and expectations in an
effort to see Ryder as he really was instead of how he portrayed himself.
And when his eyes—his crazy, beautiful eyes—met hers, she
found him. Seconds passed, long, intense seconds where she lost the ability to
hear or breathe or even think. All she could do was look into Ryder’s eyes, at
the feral heat boiling up and out of them, and want.
She smiled at him, waved. He snarled back. But it wasn’t
a leave-me-alone snarl. No, definitely not. It was his I-want-to-fuck-you-up-against-a-wall
snarl—she knew it well, had seen it directed at a lot of women through the
years—and her knees gave way when she realized that this time, finally, it was
directed at her. It didn’t matter that there was no sign of recognition in his
eyes, no knowledge that the woman he was looking at like that was actually her. Jamison. For one moment, he wanted
her the way she’d always wanted him.
It was more than enough.
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