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?
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…
Having read 
I have a rule when it comes to Lauren Layne books: she writes them, I read them. Period. It doesn’t matter what she writes, because each and every time I know I’ll be in for a treat. Her New York’s Finest series has quickly made its way onto my favorites list as well. I loved 
I loved Maggie’s sweet but sassy personality. At first I thought she’d be another introverted little mouse, but she really grew into her own as the book progressed. Anthony was the epitome of an a-hole for much of the book, which is actually, what ultimately brought my rating down slightly. It took him a bit too long for my taste to finally remove his head from his ass. And let me tell you, when it came to relationships, it was very firmly planted up there. You have to know it’s bad when Vincent was giving him relationship advice.
What started in the erotically charged 
If you haven’t yet read EILU, my review will be absolutely spoiler free for both books.
What’s better than a second chance romance? A second chance romance written by Kate Meader. Something about her writing and her characters just works for me and this steamy little novella was no exception. This book was previously published in the anthology, 
I’ve been a fan of Lisa Eugene’s since my first book of hers, 
I want to tell you that I have been waiting for Painter’s book for forever, but that’d be a lie. Truth be told, he was pretty much on my shit list after 
God. That one line. Who would have thought that my heart could melt and break at the same time from just 4 little words? But when 221; killing machine, savage with no memories of his previous life and raised to be a cold blooded killer, utters those four words to Talia….I was absolutely done for.
When Talia discovers 221’s true identity, she knows that he’s not only forbidden. He’s something else entirely. There’s a history there that he’s not aware of and she knows all too well. But that doesn’t stop her from being intrigued by the savage. During his recovery from the drug that stole his thoughts and memories, she cares for him….but something else begins to develop between them.
Reap is not quite as dark as it’s predecessor was. While still leaning on the side of gritty, it wasn’t as brutal. It was definitely a whole lot more emotional, however. I think this is in part due to the fact that I had a true connection to Talia and Zaal together. Talia isn’t exactly my favorite heroine, but she was much more memorable than Kisa. I loved how she cared for Zaal and the way she fought for him.
