Louder Than Love by Jessica Topper
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
ARC kindly provided by PENGUIN GROUP Berkley, NAL/Signet Romance, DAW in exchange for a fair and honest review. Expected publication date: September 17th, 2013 - Spoiler free review. This is a stand-alone book and does not end with a cliffhanger. 5- Stars!
Katrina (Kat) Lewis lost her husband Pete to a horrific accident. Life for Kat and her toddler daughter Abbey will never be the same. Kat is devastated from losing Pete and must face life raising her daughter alone. They leave their NYC apartment to return to Kat’s childhood house in the NY suburbs. While volunteering at a local library, Katrina decides to put together a children’s music program. Katrina hunts down Adrian Graves, the singer/song writer of her daughter’s favorite PBS cartoon, to see if he will perform. The sexy and weathered British rocker shows up at the library and captivates the children’s hearts as well as Kats'. The slightly inebriated kiddie show singer turned out to be Adrian "Digger" Graves. He was the front man for the chart-topping, heart-stopping, panty-dropping 80’s heavy metal band Corroded Corpse. Adrian led the rock and rock life of debauchery and excess…landing himself with a criminal record, substance abuse problem and a painful divorce. The heart wants what the heart wants, so inevitably Kat questions whether she is doing the right thing by letting him into her and Abbey’s life. The two start to date and slowly let each other into their complicated lives. Katrina starts to understand) the complicated rock star whose old posters still adorn her brothers’ bedroom wall. Adrian tries to break down Kat’s emotional barriers. Will misunderstandings, lies, addiction and ghosts of the past allow these two damaged people to live louder than love?
Louder Than Love happens to be Jessica Topper’s first book. Truth be told I was surprised because her writing was flawless. This woman’s writing style and storytelling ability has that special “it” factor that does not happen in every book. Topper carefully crafted each character’s emotions and dialogue with such precision that the story felt as if it was non-fiction. Louder Than Love captivated me from the first to the last page. Topper took her time developing the emotional balance and energy between Kat and Adrian. Louder Than Love was a breath of fresh air. Topper changed up the whole rock star love story formula. This story isn’t one of those “insta-love” stories where the girl falls head-over-heels for a banged up rock star, nor one where they have the best sex/chemistry and everything is perfect. There are a lot of hot rocker romance books out there…and I have probably read and loved most of them. This isn’t a super smutastic book because there is a rock star in it. It’s an emotional journey of two very fractured souls…who might have a second chance at love.
Jessica Topper is a writer to watch. Five Metallica sized rock stars for Louder Than Love. This is some fine emotional driven heavy metal Kindle Crack. Rock on and add this book to your TBR list!
This review appears on www.kindlecrack.net, www.facebook.com/Kindlecrack, Goodreads, Amazon and Twitter.
PRE ORDER LINKS:
Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Louder-Than-Love-ebook/dp/B00AR49H2Q
BN.com - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/louder-than-love-jessica-topper/1114275241
iTunes - https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/jessica-topper/id589636488?mt=11
Google Books - http://books.google.com/books/about/Louder_Than_Love.html?id=laKBDBMmUWwC
Jessica Topper is an ex-librarian turned rock n' roll number cruncher. She can trace her love for the written word back to age three, when she memorized Maurice Sendak's Chicken Soup with Rice in its entirety.After her daughter was born in 2001, Jessica left the Manhattan library world and began working for her husband's music management company. He offered her a part-time bookkeeping job so she could “stay home for the baby's first year” and pursue her dream of writing. The baby is now eleven, and Jessica has been working her “full-time, sold-her-soul-for-rock-n-roll job” as Office Manager for veteran jam band moe. ever since. She may have traded in books for bookkeeping, but the written word is never far from her mind, or her heart. Jessica is a PRO member of the Romance Writers of America, and belongs to their Western NY and Women's Fiction chapters. She lives in Buffalo, New York with her husband, daughter and one ancient cat.
SOCIAL NETWORKING CONTACTS:
Web Site - www.jessicatopper.com
Facebook Page - www.facebook.com/JessicaTopperAuthor
Twitter - @jesstopper
Goodreads - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18068436-louder-than-love
EXCERPT:
“I’m Katrina Lewis, thanks for coming.”
“Lew?”
“No, Lewis.”
“No, I mean . . . do you ’ave a loo?” His watery blue eyes widened to stress the urgency of the situation. “I’m afraid I’ll burst if I don’t go for a slash.”
“Oh . . . yeah, down that hall.” It took me a moment to register his accent and his slang, yet my embarrassment over the situation was fairly immediate. I stood rooted to the spot after he thrust his guitar into my hands and rushed off. Leanna was still standing there, a witness to the whole encounter. “He’s . . . um . . .” I searched for the right words.
“Old? British? Drunk? Or D) all of the above?”
“He’s older . . . but he’s kinda cute,” I admitted, surprising myself. “Come on, drunk? It’s four in the afternoon at the public library! Please. Go get a seat. I’ll be in there in a minute.”
I waited at the end of the hall for my charge. After a moment, he came out of the bathroom, swaying slightly into the wall as he pulled a tin of mints out of his pocket. “Altoid?” he offered. The smell of Jack Daniel’s and his peppery cologne, which was somehow subtle and intense all at once, were noticeably foreign to the hallowed halls of my local library. I got the feeling this was not the sort of creature who normally frequented places with drop ceilings and fluorescent lighting; perhaps not even the sort who functioned much before sundown.
“You are drunk.”
“And you”—he popped two of the curiously strong mints into his mouth—“are beautiful.”
“Jesus Christ.”
“I’ll sober up soon . . . and hopefully, you will still be beautiful.” He grabbed back his guitar with a smile. “Are the throngs of screaming adoring masses here yet?”
