Laura’s Review of Back-Up (Back-Up, #1) by A.M. Madden

Synopsis

THERE'S A NEW ROCK STAR IN TOWN AND HIS NAME IS JACK LAIR...

Leila Marino’s biggest dream is to become a rock star. A lucky opportunity has her auditioning with an up & coming rock band named Devil’s Lair. The band hires Leila as their back-up singer, signing her up for months in the studio and touring on the road with the sexy bunch.

Jack is the quintessential rock star…gorgeous…sexy…a walking orgasm. Jack Lair is the lead singer of Devil’s Lair and his dreams are becoming reality as his band climbs the ladder of success. He’s living the perfect life, and enjoying every minute of it. With a steady stream of sexual conquests that satisfies his raging libido, he thinks he has all he needs in life…until Leila enters it.

Jack is not prepared for the sudden pull he feels towards Leila, and struggles daily to deny his attraction is anything more. Leila finds falling for her new boss is constant torment. Both convince themselves friendship is their only option.

An intimate moment causes their willpower to collapse, and their erotic love affair to begin. Finding love was a bonus that neither Jack nor Leila anticipated. As they begin their tour together professionally and personally, life couldn’t be any better for the couple. Until a mistake from Jack’s past threatens their new relationship, and their perfect future together.

Warning: This book is meant for mature readers who are 18+. It contains explicit language, and graphic sexual content.

What I Loved

          I haven’t read a rockstar romance in a long time so I was excited to jump into this book and this series in general.  First of all I loved the story took place in my home state New Jersey and since I’m huge fan of Hoboken in made the reading experience all the more better.  I really liked the fact that the band, Devil’s Lair is on the cusp of stardom rather than being famous already.  They have recently signed a new recording contract and Leila has the honor of joining the band right when things are about to change for everyone.  As a reader you get to experience the before and after this way.  In that aspect this story really reminded me of the Thoughtless series by S.C. Stephens and since I loved that series I knew I would love this one as well.

           Leila Marino is a very down to earth character and a really easy person to relate to.  The way she was written made it easy for me to become engrossed in her journey.  The same can also be said for the hot and sexy and Jack Lair, a New Yorker whose band has finally found their place in the rockstar universe and is ready to step into the spotlight.  The story switches between these two points of views which I really liked because you get both sides of the story at all times.  It also added a layer to both main characters that you wouldn’t get unless you know what was going on from both of them rather than one of them.

Not So Much

          In the very beginning and sometimes throughout the story I felt like the sentence structure was a little fragmented making the plot come off robotic rather than natural.  The book opens up with Leila and Jack telling you their history, which is great because it laid out a nice foundation for the plot.  But it felt mechanical and being told to me rather than me experiencing the story.  I love that the author just laid it all out there but it wasn’t organic and it weighed down the plot rather than moving it along. 

          Also I felt like as the story moved forward there was just so many things going on all of sudden.  I get that this is a series revolving around Leila and Jack, so there needs to be elements layered in so the plot doesn’t get boring but towards the end it was just a little too much.  There was potential for drama between these two without adding in all these other aspects.

To Sum It All Up!

          I found out about this author through a friend and when I began reading the synopsis I got really excited to beginning reading this story and I was not disappointed at all.  I really love Leila and Jack and can’t wait to see what is in store for them next.  Although I felt like the foundation was not as free flowing as I would have liked it was still solid and a great jumping board for the plot and character development.  This was definitely a strong beginning to a very exciting series and I can’t wait to see where all of this will lead.