I”m going to start this review with a quick plot summary, move on to a negative expostulation, and finish up with the notes I made while reading.

Sebastian (Baz) and his band members are in exile on Tybee Island, Georgia because he beat a powerful business contact “within an inch of his life” for serious non-specified harm done to his brother. Stepping out at night, Baz meets Shea waiting tables at her uncle’s local bar. They fight their attraction for 1.2 seconds… something, something,  I skipped ahead… her daughter nearly dies in a drowning accident and the press gets hold of the story. Two cops and a Child Protective Services agent show up at Shea’s house in the middle of the night to take temporary custody of her daughter and hand her over pending an investigation of the accident at the beach. In this case, and this is where  A Stone in the Sea ended on a cliffhanger, the little girl is turned over not to her mother’s uncle, but the man who happens to be the person Baz beat up before the book started. Apparently, he came to town, got the local police to pay a call in the middle of the night, and convinced Child Protective Services to surrender a four-year-old child to someone who would take her out-of-state and whom she had never met.

NOPE!

Presented without comment, the notes I took while reading:

1. That is some seriously purple prose. Is it meant to be?
2. Anger issues are not sexy.
3. Fuck off
4. privilege
5. That’s cryptic.
6. Oh, there’s gonna be some DRAMA.
7. Goody! Everyone has secrets. Definitely lots of drama.
8. Oh, dear.
9. So, he’s a cliché. Excellent.
10. There’s  a character named Lyrik?
11. Inappropriate touching.
12. Weird.
13. He assaulted his brother, right? That’s the only excuse for this level of violence.
14. No, you’ve served him drinks, like, four times and he’s invaded your personal space once.
15. Not cool.
16. How would you know?
17. Rock star gives up career or divided family.
18. BROKEN? (One comment: Referring to “She’s just beggin’ to be broken,” when a friend sees an attractive woman.)
19. What if he gets mad at *her*?
20. Oy vey.
21. Boys will be boys?
22. He’s still a stranger.
23. Possessiveness
24. Are we sure he’s not a vampire?
25. Does he have a fear of first person pronouns?
26. Thank you?
27. Ewwwwwwwwwww.
28. No, you don’t.
29. Jesus Christ with the copy editing.
30. Do people actually do that?
31. If she didn’t correct it, how does she know?
32. So she’s straight from Central Casting.
33. After one date? Well, it is a romance.
34. The root of her ass?

Links to my other reviews can be found on my complete reading list of books sorted by author or Author Commentary & The Tallies Shameful.

Tagged: Bleeding Stars, book reviews, contemporary romance, rock star romance, romance review