Series: Forbidden Men #7
Genre: New Adult Romance
Author: Linda Kage
Release Date: November 28th, 2015
Here’s the same old “girl posing as a boy” story but with a rock-n-roll twist.
Remy Curran dreams of one day being in a band, except the group she wants to join refuses to hire a girl drummer. So, she auditions as a guy…and makes the cut.
Becoming “Sticks,” a member of Non-Castrato, isn’t quite what she dreamed it would be, though. She spends most of her time keeping up the subterfuge and learning how to walk, talk, act, and drink like a man.
But what’s even harder to deal with is acting oblivious when the band’s heartthrob lead singer, Asher Hart, treats her like one of the guys and not a woman. She never imagined he’d be so much more than a pretty face with a nice voice. But he’s better than perfect. He’s perfect for her.
When love and lies combine, Remy must keep up the act or lose everything. But who knew lying to reach one dream could prevent you from attaining an even bigger dream?
Asher Hart didn’t need some fancy seduction to draw a woman in. He just had to be himself for me to want him. Bad.
I’ve been waiting for the lead singer of Non-Castrato to get his book since he first made an appearance in Be My Hero. My intrigue with him has only grown with each following book in the series. Asher may be the lead singer of a popular band and has females throwing themselves at him, but you could always see him yearning for something more…a deeper connection. This is not a typical indiscriminate manwhore that you’d find in most other New Adult books. Asher Hart was refreshingly different and I absolutely loved him for it.
This Girl’s Got Secrets focuses on a trope that’s just not done enough and happens to be one of my all time favorites. Just One of The Guys and She’s The Man were two of my favorite movies growing up. Did I just age myself? And if you haven’t seen those movies, I don’t even know who you are right now. But I digress. The trope is simple enough; girl wants in on an activity where only men are allowed. Girl dresses up as boy to prove a point but ends up falling for one of the men she’s deceiving. Sound delicious? That’s because it is.
Now fair warning, because at over 450 pages, this book is long. And I mean it’s looooong. But at the same time, I never once felt like I was reading something that was filler or unnecessarily stretched out. I did feel like my ovaries may explode if these two didn’t do it finally at some point, but that’s a different matter entirely.
All Remy Curran has ever wanted was to be a drummer in a band. When she hears that one of her all time bands, Non-Castrato, has an opening for a drummer, she knows that she’s just as good as in. She’s a kickass drummer after all. Too bad that it’s no girls allowed, and they don’t so much as let her addition. So what’s a girl to do? Why have your friend dress you up as a boy, so you can go an audition and show they what’s what!
But things rarely go as planned, and while the plan was to rip her mask off as soon as she rocked her addition, she ends up with a chance of a lifetime that she just can’t pass up. But when she begins falling for the lead singer, things get a whole lot more complicated…
Asher still remembers the woman that sang karaoke and stole his breath all those months ago and then disappeared, but he’s long since lost hope of ever finding her. He’s desperate for something meaningful like his half brother and his friends. He doesn’t want another band groupie that only wants him for what he is and not who he is. He’s also terrified of losing his little family of friends once they really get to know all his secrets. But somehow, he has no problem spilling his deepest secrets to the new drummer. There’s just something about him that bonds them almost instantly. He doesn’t care that Remy is gay or that he may have feelings for him. But Remy is hiding even bigger secrets that may ultimately cause everything to come crashing down.
I absolutely loved Asher. He was such breath of fresh air from the stereotypical manwhores I’ve read lately. The way he yearns for a real relationship and isn’t about one-night stands. He’s incredibly sweet but there’s an added edge to him from everything that he’s been through with his past and his father.
Even though the progression of the story flowed incredibly well and felt natural, I did find it too be a little too lengthy. Especially with such a large chunk of the book being the deception, it just dragged a little too long for me. I’m a little conflicted with my feelings on that simply because while I felt it was too long, it didn’t feel stretched out either. Maybe that’s just my book ADD kicking in? I’m not quite sure.
I really liked Remy as well. Her internal struggle of falling for Asher and trying to stay away from him as her “girl” part was difficult. You could tell that she wanted to come clean but was so afraid of losing him after she began to fall for him. And let’s be honest, how do you not fall for Asher?
This woman owned me.
Precisely.
Pick and Ten are still my top two forbidden men, but Asher Hart is now up there with them. While this wasn’t my favorite in the series, it was still a fantastic addition and I enjoyed it thoroughly. There was only one thing that left me scratching my head at the end there. Asher’s dad does something but yet I have no idea where he got the knowledge to be able to pull something like that off. It just didn’t add up for me.
I have three words for you to describe the absolute hotness that is Creighton Karas.
Meghan March has written some deliciously dominant alphas in the past, but damn, I think the woman simply outdid herself with the smutty awesomeness that was Dirty Billionaire. And it is smutty. SO smutty. So deliciously, ovary obliteratingly smutty.
And I’m back….
Uh…yeah. Wait…what were we talking about here?
![Pageflex Persona [document: PRS0000026_00039]](https://i0.wp.com/dirtygirlromance.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/25162200.jpg)
Silent Scars was my first book by this author and I can say with certainty it will not be my last. I do think I did myself a disservice by jumping into book 4 in this series without having read the previous books. Don’t get me wrong, this works well as a standalone and I was never confused, but it’s clear there’s a history with the secondary characters that I was missing. Ryan’s relationship with his brothers is something I would have loved to have read first before jumping into this book, but it is what it is. I definitely plan on going back and reading the rest of this series now.
Diane Alberts remains one of my go-to authors in category romance for constantly delivering on the swoony and panty-melting romance with deliciously stubborn heroes. Her Shillings Agency series has been a favorite of mine from the beginning. I’ve been itching to get my hands on Steven’s book since a little peek of him in 
When I heard that Tessa Bailey will be starting a new Brazen series, to say I was thrilled would be a mild understatement. Her dirty talkers are my crack of choice and I’ll never get enough. Seriously. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Tessa Bailey books make my ovaries happy. I absolutely loved the setup for this series, and I already know the next books in it will be on my auto buy list. Now about Crashed out…
You know what I love about Penelope Douglas’s writing? Well, aside from the obvious everything. It’s her consistency. She never fails to deliver an absolutely enrapturing read with a strong heroine and an absolutely to die for hero. Her writing is magnetic, her romances are scorching, and her characters unforgettable. Misconduct is proof that not only can she write amazing New Adult Like Bully, or scorching hot dark erotica like Corrupt, but she’ll bring her A game to contemporary romance. And bring her a game she did, because I loved absolutely everything about this book.
The one thing I’ve come to truly love about Penelope’s writing, is her ability to write a devastatingly intense hero. Because let me just tell you, the first time Tyler Marek makes an appearance on a page, not an ovary within a 100 mile radius will be safe. He captures your attention immediately, and he keeps it completely. The man is absolute sex on a stick. 
The BDB series is sentimental for me. It’s the series that got me into reading in the first place. It began what was to become what I refer to as my PNR binge of 2009. I was obsessed with that series…until I hit book 6. Then it slowly but surely began to lose some of its luster for me. By book 11 I had given up. It became too muddied with too many secondary POVs that the romance began to wane in the background. I missed the original brothers, the romance, the true BDB, true? So when I heard that JR Ward plans to come out with a new series that will be back to what the first few BDB books started off as with the original brothers; Wrath, Z, Butch, V, Rhage? Well, let’s just say I knew I’d part with an ovary to get my grubby little hands on it.
Blood Kiss follows two couple story lines; Butch and Marissa and Paradise and Craeg. I’d estimate it to be about 60/40 with no additional POVs to be found. Just the four. I’ll give you a moment to contain your shock…
You know what I love about this series? The fact that sixteen books into it, each book continues to be just as good if not even better than the last. Kresley Cole continuously delivers with badass, sassy and snarky heroines, and tortured and oh so sexy heroes. That’s not to mention the addicting story line that’s guaranteed to keep you reading well into the night. Truth be told I was hoping to see a certain lykae twin finally be getting his book and I was a little thrown when I saw the character names in the synopsis and had not the slightest idea who they were. As a die hard IAD fan, even my puny brain memory manages to hold on to every detail of this series. I was a little afraid that the book may be filler, in order to really stretch out the fans’ want of the previously introduced characters. I should have never doubted the genius that is this author, however. And once you read the book, you’ll see exactly why. Kresley stays true to her characters’ world and everything that’s going on around them, and the story of Josephine and Rune is yet another puzzle piece that builds up to a larger picture. But let’s move onto the actual book here, shall we?
As an avid lover of the manwhores, I’ve read my fair share. And I can easily say that Rune the Baneblood is quite possibly the biggest manwhore I’ve read to date. Rune is a powerful warrior, half dark fey and half demon. His blood is as poisonous as his kiss, which is how he’s come to be the deadliest assassin for the Møriør. He’ll seduce the secrets out of his enemies, only to kill them in the blink of an eye soon after. He’s as skilled with his cock as he is with his bow and arrow. His past has ensured that his heart is as cold as the rest of him and not even a romp in the bed with a nymph so much as spikes his blood pressure…until a mysterious beauty turns his world on it’s axis…
Kresley Cole has a signature formula that she doesn’t waver from and I can’t get enough of. Her heroines are sassy and snarky as hell. I absolutely love it! Josephine may be young, but what she lacks for in years she more than makes up for in sass. And she definitely gives Rune the Insatiable a run for his money. Rune is as tortured as they come, and as more of his history comes to light, you begin to understand more and more about why he is the way he is. The chemistry between them is absolutely undeniable. If possible, I swear this series just gets hotter with each new book. And Sweet Ruin was practically scorching!
