Review: ☆With The Band (Luminescent Juliet, 3)☆ by @JeanHaus

Even amid falling leaves

She was brighter

Than the summer sun

Fell under the spell of her

Smiling brown eyes

Faster than a breath

And when she’s gone

It’s always night

And I’m under a bleak moon

A bleak, bleak moon

I used to love all things New Adult, but lately it’s become harder and harder to find a book that stands out and doesn’t blend in with all the rest. You know what I’m talking about, it’s the NA recipe; you start with angst, throw in a dash of sexual tension, a dollop of melodrama, perhaps a pinch of stupid childish miss-communication, then top it all off with a bad boy hero and the good girl (possibly virginal) heroine that shouldn’t fall for him but does. Sound familiar? I bet it does. And this is exactly why I love this series and this author. Does it have some of those things? Sure. But Jean Haus manages to take a story that maybe may have been done before and throw her own unique spin on it, that I can’t really compare it to any other books I’ve read. My favorite thing about it is the way she’s able to fuse these books with music. I had my own soundtrack playing in my head as I was reading it. This is quickly becoming my go to NA series when I’m pretty much guaranteed a book that I will enjoy.

This story finally gives us a lot more insight on the reclusive and troubled bassist, Sam. Luminescent Juliet gets the opportunity of a lifetime when they’re offered to join a national tour. But then Sam gets a blast from the past in the shape of a blonde he hoped to never see again, Peyton.

Peyton is not exactly thrilled to see Sam again either. She doesn’t exactly have the fondest memories of their past. But when she’s offered to chronicle the band’s tour, it’s not an opportunity she can turn her back on. No matter how much she dreads seeing Sam or having to think about what happened that have made them hate each other.

There’s certainly no love lost between these two. But beneath their constant barbs and insults brews something…more. What starts out as hate, disdain, and loathing soon starts blurring into an undeniable attraction.

But can Sam and Peyton get over their past in order to deal with their future? You’ll have to read to find out.

Telling you anything else would be spoiling the book for you, and I’d recommend reading it without reading many reviews in order to truly appreciate it. I can tell you that when the truth of what happened those years ago comes to life…well, it was the last thing I saw coming.

I simply couldn’t put this book down. I was hooked from the very first chapter and got more and more drawn in with each new page. I love that Miss Haus made you really understand the characters and their past before she allowed the chemistry between them to truly shine through. It just made me all that more invested in their relationship. As much as I wanted to hate Peyton (since i think this would have been exactly the case in any other book), I simply couldn’t. Her struggle was evident, and you can see how much she grew in the short span of the story.

Sam. Sam is that bad boy that completely broke my heart. God I loved him. Yet my heart hurt for him at the same time. He was just perfection. The author took a subject manner that I haven’t seen in many books and wrote a brilliant story about love, loss, and learning to move on. It was a fantastic read with just the little amount of steam to make it that much better.

I loved catching up with the rest of the band, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we’ll be seeing Gabe’s book next.

If you’re a fan of well written NA rock star romances, I highly recommend this one. While it can easily be read as a standalone, I’d recommend reading in order since it makes you appreciate each character that much more. Plus they’re great books. What more reason do you need?