“Fake it till you make it.”A notion I once considered utterly ridiculous. Until one crazy night with a mysterious man resulted in a social media frenzy that had the entire entertainment industry talking. Seems a fake marriage was just what my career needed to make Hollywood come knocking. Convincing him to continue the charade was almost too easy. The chemistry between us made it impossible to … us made it impossible to keep my hands to myself. But it was all just pretend, right? Love was never in the script.
That is, until he re-wrote it.
13 Reasons You Should Stay:
1. I’m crazy about you
2. I make you laugh
3. You totally dig me
…
more
Oh. My. Days!! This woman!! Rhonda James is a goddess….a goddess who writes amazing words! ALL THE WORDS and ALL THE FEELS! This author can truly do no wrong, I loved 21 but I feel she has knocked it out the park with 13….and knocked my emotions seven ways Sunday!
I love Sophie and her sassiness from the get go! She has been hurt in the past and although a little guarded, she sparkles! The connection with Hawk is instant and I loved the banter and the flirting between them. Hawk is……Oh my! That southern accent and ALL that is Hawk wrapped up in a guitar playing, sexy rocker package!
I have laughed out loud, my heart has hurt, I have shouted obscenities at my kindle and literally melted into a puddle whilst reading this book. I tell you…..ALL THE FEELS!!
13 by Rhonda James is the second book in her standalone series, The List . This book is Sophie and Hawks story. Told in dual POV between the two main characters, this fake-marriage trope was well-written and well-paced.
At times I felt like Sophie was a bit on the immature side and wanted to choke her – but in all fairness she is in her mid-twenties, used to a certain lifestyle, and it fit with the characters as a whole. Hawk, on the other hand, was a true southern gentleman with a wicked alpha-style in the sheets. He was hot and most definitely book-boyfriend material!
The story had enough angst to keep you hooked but was an enjoyable read with great sexy-times, fun flirtation, hilarious secondary characters, and some real emotion. Enjoy!
I thought for sure that I’d found a winner in this book. I loved the beginning. I can’t say I loved seeing Sophie get her heart broken by Gavin, but I liked seeing where she was coming from when she met Jared aka Hawk and how the fake wedding came to be.
Speaking of Hawk, he was freaking amazing. He was a super talented rockstar, which made me wish I could hear him play in person. Honestly, I just loved him. He was such a great guy and honestly, there were times that I didn’t think that Sophie deserved him.
That brings me to what I had issues with…I loved the way Hawk and Sophie met. I loved that whole night and even the next morning and how she didn’t really want to leave and he was disappointed that she did leave. But where things started to go wrong for me is where they met up in real life. They weren’t expecting to see each other. By that time, Hawk knew that Sophie was best friends with his friend’s girlfriend. But he didn’t know where she was. Anyway, the way Sophie reacted when they saw each other…totally turned me off. I didn’t like how she acted and started accusing him of things, especially when they were incorrect and she did this in front of all his friends/bandmates. From that moment on, I just had issues with Sophia. The confident albeit brokenhearted girl I’d met turned into someone that played games.
Actually, as much as I really loved Hawk, it annoyed me that both Hawk and Sophie kept ignoring their growing feelings and playing it off as “I THINK I’m falling for….” No. I’m sorry but there’s no think here. That was just denial and it annoyed me. And I hated the self sacrificing thing they both did to push the other away. Nope. Not working for me.
I did push through the book, and while the overall story was good, it just wasn’t the best trope I’ve read. I really wanted to see more of Sophie getting parts or something and see Hawk’s band take off. And while we saw both of them get some success, both of them were miserable and a lot of their careers happened in the background.
13 is the second book in Rhonda James’ The List series and it is AH-MAZING. Sophie is an aspiring actress who is terrified of getting her heart broken again. Hawk is the lead guitarist in Chaos Rising who has always dreamed of love, but isn’t sure if it is in his future any time soon. They have a chance meeting in a bar and immediately sparks fly.
Their story is so incredibly sweet. When Hawk loves he really loves whole-heartedly and leaves nothing of himself behind (even if he refuses to acknowledge his own feelings). Sophie is aggressive, but vulnerable where Hawk is concerned and has no problem letting him know what she’s thinking or feeling (whether good or bad) at any given moment.
This book is definitely a must read. While I suggest reading 21 first, it isn’t necessary and can be read as a stand alone. Thank you Rhonda James for once again crafting such beautiful characters and a wonderful story to go along with them.
Sophie Banks is trying not to feel frustrated. Jared “Hawk” Hawkins is trying to impress. These are two unlikely people who find a way to make things work. They both work in tough professions that can be tough on a relationship. Our author is good though because she shows that it is possible.
In getting this review ready, I looked to see what tags Amazon was using and found it disappointing. They have this marked as coming of age. I don’t know who comes up with that for them but they may need to reassess. I think that someone saw the title and made a quick judgment. Would hate to see someone turn down reading this title based on that assumption. And Hawk readily agrees that Sophie is a woman.
Yes, the characters may be young but they are of drinking age and they live on their own. Sophie is in the process of healing her heart when along comes a man who just may be the one. You can see their attraction progress and I loved seeing the protection scenes. They were both cute and funny. There are secondary characters that were actually in the first book but you don’t need to have read 21 in order to enjoy this. They are friends so at some point you may want to check out the first book in the series – plus, don’t you want to see what the list is. The ending is their own happy ending and no indication of a next book so we’ll just have to wait and see. This book was my first by Ms. James and I’m ready to check out more.
I was not compensated nor was I required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
Entertaining fake relationship story!
This was a new author to me and I found this story to very entertaining. This is the second story in the THE LIST series, but I hadn’t read the first book and did not feel I’d missed anything.
Sophie is a struggling actress living in NYC, who thought a hookup with a rocker was true love. Stupidly, she does this hookup on camera! She discovers that Gavin is a cheating man-whore and she has given herself a reputation of being an easy slut. Now she needs to find a way to repair her repulsion and career! Hawk is a musician living in Florida and is the epitome of a Southern gentleman.
How will distance, fake relationships, strong personalities and different life/relationship goals work to give these two great characters exactly what and who they need.
Let me start off by stating: I AM A FAN OF RHONDA JAMES!!! AND THIS BOOK IS ANOTHER REASON WHY!!!!!
I loved how Hawk and Sophie meet for the first time at a bar and realize that pull right off of the starting block. Then, the second meet up….. Oops, sorry, not going to give anything away. Let me just say this, fate, yes fate was on their side too!!! What a ride is was. Then there is the list that Sophie finds… O! M! G!!!!! Get the tissues ready.
Ms. James just has a way of bringing the reader in from the very first paragraph. The emotions she brings through in her writing… SIGH!! The way she describes her characters, WOW! She makes the reader cheer for the characters no matter what.
I was gifted with a copy of this phenomenal book for my reading pleasure. In my opinion, you cannot go wrong with this spectacular book. I know I could not put it down once I started it. Good thing I started it on my day off, because I did an all-nighter reading it!!
Kudos, Rhonda James on this wonderful book!!! You definitely have a winner.
So, Reader, thank you for reading my review. Now what are you waiting for??? Go hit that one click button and start enjoying this book.