King. Bully. Rebel Rocker.
MCKENNAThat’s how I knew him in high school.
And ten years later? Mason Payne is still the same.
The only thing that’s changed … is me.
And I’m not for the better.
In fact, I’m way worse than he can imagine.
It only makes him want me more.
MASON
I don’t deserve to have good things come my way.
I tend to turn them bad.
But when my bandmate tells me McKenna … makes him want me more.
MASON
I don’t deserve to have good things come my way.
I tend to turn them bad.
But when my bandmate tells me McKenna Beckley’s in town, well … I’m tracking down that good thing.
Only, she’s not the Mack I remember.
The sweet, shy, bookish schoolgirl that I screwed over has disappeared, and in her place is a gorgeous, curvaceous and jaded woman who’s gotten herself into some bad, bad things.
Me? I haven’t transformed one bit. I’ll always be the jerk she remembers.
Second chances? Hah. More like a second chance at ruin.
Problem is, it might just be my own.
BACKSTAGE WITH HIM is a second chance, enemies-to-lovers, bully romance with a rock star twist and can be read as a standalone. It has no cliffhanger.
Get ready for an anti-hero you’ll love to hate, a sassy heroine, and a happy ending!
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A riveting read that pulled me in from the first page. It is well written, well thought out, raw, emotionally wrenching, and will tug on your heart strings. There are twists, suspense, drama, ups and downs, and more keeping you on the edge of your seat. The characters you will like and hate but their growth is obvious through out the story; their chemistry is off the charts. Definitely recommended!
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
It has been ten years since high school but the name, Mason Payne still strikes a cord with McKenna Beckley. And vice versa for Mason. These two have a history that breaks your heart and makes you see red. Mason has become a very successful musician where McKenna went away to college and is now a high class call girl. This story is about how the tables can turn and how quickly life can turn. Can these characters rely or even trust one another to help the other?
Is it possible to find happiness? The past is dangerous waters but can it be water under the bridge? Enjoy!
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
A good read that kept me intrigued with a love hate relationship with the main characters but I enjoyed the concept of the storyline. It’s intense, twisted and enjoyable.
This was an ok read. When I started the book, I didn’t care for Mason because he was such a douche when they were young but slowly I started to warm up to him.
McKenna is a good girl but that changed once she was out of high school and through college. McKenna went down a road that no one ever should have to go down. Mason is rock-star and who made life difficult for McKenna when they were in high school together. Can McKenna and Mason forget there past and move forward? Can McKenna give Mason a second chance? Great read and I loved there story.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Twisted and tumultuous bully romance – Angst and emotion in spades
—>>> Mason is one tortured soul, and he does not know what to make of the rich and beautiful girl he latches on like a desperate survivor to a life raft, but that is what he does with McKenna. He soon become addicted to being cruel to his Big Mac, and taking what he can get from her – everything. But now, many years later, the circumstances smothering him have changed, although now he can admit it is a hollow victory, with two of his 3 band mates finding significant others. Seeing McKenna again, he wants a second chance to redeem himself for all the hurt and anger he had speared her with, an innocent which he had taken utmost advantage of. Puzzled with her new profession as an exclusive call girl, the only way Mason can figure he could wedge himself back into her life was to make an offer she simply cannot refuse. Angst and emotion in spades, this is a twisted and tumultuous bully romance of a girl who loves unconditionally and the broken boy who always needed her to be whole.
McKenna she’s not a very good girl she used to be but a twist of fate turned her from a collage coed with a future to a high priced call girl. Mack is both tragic and strong both likable and hate able but she starts out so small and wounded she grows but not without some major bumps in the road she travels. Both McKenna and Mason are broken but perfect for each other in there imperfections Mason is both her tormentor, her bully her lover her reason for never trusting and her savior he’s her perfect anti hero and both the worst and best mistake she ever made. And when fate brings them together Mack as her later ego Jane and Mason as a huge rockstar there passion and hate burst of the page he wants to save her she doesn’t want to be saved and with powers working against them Mack will be glad she let him back in her very life and freedom will depend on it.
Mason I hated him but was drawn to his character he was like a train wreck that you can’t look away from as a young man he gets off on others pain because he has plenty of his own pain and Mac is his favorite victim one he can’t stay away from she’s his drug of choice and every once in awhile you get a glimpse of a good person but just a glimmer and it’s a good thing because of what’s to come Mack doesn’t need a white night she needs a very Dark and dangerous one. And I can honestly say for anyone that reads this book by the end of this book you will freaking love him. I loved to hate this book I couldn’t put it down and I really hope the next book about Wyn will catch up with Mack and Mason.
I was allowed to receive and advance copy of this book via Booksprout and this is my honest review.
This is the first book I have read by this author. It is an interesting story. I feel that the characters needed to be developed more. The book has the potential to be a great story with some changes. Too much time spent on delving into the high school past and not enough on the present.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Definitely a different take on the usual rockstar romance. This is the story of Mason and McKenna who have known each other since childhood. Mason got his kicks in high school by bullying quiet bookish McKenna and getting his posse to do the nastiest things to her. All of this made her life a living hell and she couldn’t wait to get away to college. After catching Mason with their teacher in an uncompromising situation McKenna is further bullied into tutoring Mason. Once they start meeting she sees more of the boy under all the bullying and realizes that he has a tough home life and tries to help him. They get closer and become friends and maybe more, but that illusion is shattered for McKenna at graduation.
Ten years later life has greatly improved for Mason, he is now a member of a world famous rock band. Life for McKenna after graduation did not go the way she planned and has not been easy. Now she works as a high class call girl and this causes her to cross paths with Mason. When Mason finds out how her life is now he wants to rescue her, and offers to give her a ton of money to go on tour with him and leave that life behind. Can McKenna trust him this time or will it all be a cruel joke? As she is being threatened and needs the money she takes his offer but keeps her distance trying her best not to get hurt again.
I had a really hard time believing that Mason had changed after the cruelty that he inflicted on McKenna during their childhood. I think the guilt he felt from the way he treated her has caught up to him, and at the same time he knows that he owes her.
McKenna comes across as someone who has been through hell and has learned that she can only depend on herself. She keeps her distance from others, even adopting an alter ego when she sees her clients. Is it this now fiercely independent woman that Mason falls in love with or is the girl from high school that he left behind? Can these two damaged souls find forgiveness and their forever’s in each other, or will circumstances tear them apart. A great read that was hard to put down.
Mason and McKenna fight their way to love
I think I can honestly say that I’ve never worked as hard to feel empathy for an anti-hero as I did for Mason in this book. I’ve read many bully romances before, but this one really drove home the point that Mason’s tortured childhood brought out a sick, twisted, sociopathic side to him, and McKenna was the unfortunate victim/target of his most vicious and demeaning attacks, even after she started tutoring him (because she was being blackmailed into it) and even after they started sleeping together. Yeah, I get that he had to have an outlet for his rage against life and that somehow McKenna could still see the tiny grain of goodness buried deep, but she was so thoroughly traumatized by him and his friends throughout high school that I really couldn’t understand her attraction to him at all.
Years later, Mason is hugely successful with his band and McKenna, having had her dreams spoiled by her father’s criminal activities, is making her own way with a successful, though risky, business. Yet when he runs into her again, all he can think about is how she’s too good for the life she’s living and he must save her from it so that he can continue to see her on the pedestal in his mind. I would have preferred to see that he respected her and her choices, just a little, rather than just watch him demean her more all while insisting that he knows what she needs and that she must return to being the “good” girl that he remembers.
The end was a little rushed, his coming to her rescue seemed to precede his acquiring the information necessary to do so, and their decision to finally work together as a couple at the end felt like the beginning of a relationship rather than an HEA. And of course her career choices were conveniently taken away from her, so there’s no conflict about that. What she’ll do now (other than being Mason’s publicly disgraced groupie) is not even hinted at. Hopefully, we’ll get a little more resolution as the band’s story continues in the next book. I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book.