Blurb: Rush Osman probably watches himself in the mirror while he screws and kisses his biceps good morning. An arrogant, domineering, over-dressed rock star. The sort of man I’ve had my fill of for a hundred lifetimes. And yet... Rush has an energy about him that pulls me in. Captivating energy. Dark, magnetic energy. Big Daddy energy.
I feel it crackling between us every time I’m close to him. Now, my only choice is to get far, far away from him, or be pulled into a world that I swore I’d never set foot in again. A world that thrashed me, body and soul.
A world that Rush promises to protect me from, if only I surrender myself to him.
I’ve only ever trusted myself, but Rush is battering against my defenses. He pushes me to the brink and then holds me there until I shatter. His punishment is a rush. Falling for him is a rush. Loving him is a rush.
But being destroyed by him is the biggest rush of all.
Review: I'm used to dark from Brianna Hale, so imagine my surprise when I picked up her rockstar romance I expected an explosion of dark and seedy romance. But what I got was actually a really sweet romance (albeit with the inclusion of a pain fetish and daddy kink). How did she do that? Like, not disappointed in the least. I get an arrogant, brilliant, handsome rockstar and he's not an asshole. Like...awesome, sign me up.
And Rush, our beloved hero, was definitely everything a rockstar should be: confident, calculating, business-savvy and amazing looking. But he wasn't a drug user or an alcoholic or even an asshole. He was kind and thoughtful and considerate and totally aware of his power and how not to use it, especially on our heroine. I've read enough romance novels about rockstars who are dicks and need to be redeemed by the presence of the heroine. This is not that sort of book. He wasn't a selfish hero, he was a good person... a really rich and powerful good person. Dree is your down-on-her-luck heroine who needs the hero to step in and... rescue her is the wrong word. I guess, remind her that she's amazing and needs to see herself as such. I appreciated that Rush truly saw her talent and her potential and wasn't just pretending to see it in order to get in her pants or get her under his thumb. He wanted her talent before he ever wanted her body. And yes, it's a Brianna Hale book so you're going to get lots of sex. Hot sex. And yes, there's pain involved this time around (so it's more than just your usual daddy kink from her), but I certainly didn't think it was too much pain or too dark by any means. Sex between Dree and Rush was actually really emotional and romantic and it was fun to watch them both explore and learn to accept their kinky sides together, since neither of them were all that well-versed in the addition of pain and humiliation-kinks in their sex lives.
Loved the secondary characters, too. It would be really fun if Hale continued this rockstar series with some of their stories, but maybe that's wishful thinking.
All in all, just another great addition to my Brianna Hale collection.