From award-winning and international best-selling author Melanie A. Smith comes a standalone steamy contemporary romance about a rock star, a former fan, and the real meaning of redemption.
Kristoffer “West” Westberg is just out of rehab and ready to reclaim his rock-god status. But when his return to fame is threatened by a former fan turned rock magazine writer — and huge critic of him and his band — West is forced to reckon with the reality that he’ll need to prove himself before earning his redemption.
Max Marshall is feisty, a little too honest for her own good, and so not here to babysit a fallen rock star. And nobody has fallen farther in her mind that Kristoffer Westberg. So when she’s forced to catalog his so-called “apology tour,” she has little hope that it’ll be anything but a headache dealing with the entitled, washed-up rock star she used to worship before she knew better.
If West hopes to have a snowball’s chance in hell of changing Max’s — and his fans’ — minds, he’s got some serious groveling to do. Will he manage to fake it till he makes it, or will he be exposed as the lost cause everyone is convinced he is? And will he learn the real meaning of redemption in time to win Max’s trust and her heart?
Review:
Finding His Redemption is Melanie A. Smith‘s latest, a standalone contemporary rock star romance with an enemies-to-lovers flavor. (It’s not true enemies-to-lovers, but more of a past superfan-turned-disillusioned-and-disappointed one meets her former crush and he’s a raging a-hole…until he isn’t.) It is loosely connected to Everybody Lies , but you absolutely don’t have to have read that one to enjoy this book.
I have to admit–I honestly wasn’t sure Ms Smith was going to be able to pull Kristopher/West out of his total a-holeness and give us a true HEA–good grief, the man was a mess. We’re a bit hopeful early on as Max and he get close enough for her to get glimpses of the guy he is underneath–OMG, watching them grow closer was everything!–but then he torches everything with the world’s most potent metaphoric flamethrower, and yikes. Talk about black moments…
In the end, though, she absolutely managed to pull it off–thank goodness! West had a ton of work to do on himself behind the scenes–which was a good choice, because I’m pretty sure actually watching him do the bulk of it wouldn’t make very good reading–we get to see just enough of it to make readers hopeful that this time he’s going to pull through. And that epilogue? So satisfying…
If you’re able to read and listen to music at the same time (unlike me–I only can if it’s instrumentals, otherwise I’m listening to the music instead of paying attention to my book) there is a Spotify playlist you can listen along to. Alternatively, each chapter mentions a specific song to set the mood, and you can call them up yourself on your music provider of choice–miracle of miracles, I actually knew some of them! 😉
Rating: 4 stars / A-
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.