BlairI had dreams. Big ones. And Dean Carter did everything in his power to help me achieve them.Until we fell in love and everything fell apart. Now everyone thinks I tried to sleep my way to the top and I can’t say I blame them when the evidence points to exactly that.However, looks can be deceiving… DeanBlair McKenzie is the definition of perfect. She’s crazy talented and hot as…well, you … talented and hot as…well, you get the point. But aside from all that, she has heart and in this business, heart is hard to come by.
In a moment of weakness, I had a lapse in judgment and nearly cost her everything.
Now I need to do the right thing. Except it feels wrong.
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I really enjoyed it. Ryleigh melds two cultures seamlessly. Blair is a contestant in a singing competition held in America, but she’s from South Africa, so we get to have a sneaky into what it would be like to live there. Think wild animals, helicopter rides, tending to wounded lions on a game reserve and being part of a close knit family. Dean is one of the judges and tries to fight his attraction to Blair but ultimately fails. We get the cat fights behind the scenes between contestants and the drama that goes with a judge falling for a contestant on his team.
Although the story was about a singing competition it wasn’t completely predictable, it has a good plot with some great characters. There is heart and drama and jealousy and heat.
Erin Mallon and Zachary Webber narrate it, two seasoned voice actors that brought this book to life. Great narrator choices by Ryleigh. I was happy that Erin didn’t try to do a South African accent. I believe if you can’t do an accent flawlessly, please don’t try. A bad accent is truly distracting and often puts me right off an audiobook so her decision not to do the accent was a good one and much appreciated. As always she gave us all the facets of Blair and I always enjoy her interpretations of inner monologues. Timing is everything and she nailed it. Zachary gives us the cocky coach who ends up completely floored by Blair’s talent and beauty. He showed us what a bumbling mess Dean was around her and how he fully tried to repair the damage he had caused. All in all a great audiobook and I’m looking forward to diving into book 2 soon.
Back Beat was my first book by this Author. I found the story to be very engaging! From the start I was invested in the characters and their stories. I don’t watch reality TV or music competitions, but I enjoyed the competitive aspect of this story and the complex interactions of coaches and contestants. Blair is a strong woman who has traveled across the world to go after her dreams. She is endearing from the start and you can’t help rooting for her to win it all! I love her family, and her bestie (Maddie) is all kinds of awesome! Dean inspires swooning and you can’t help but get lost in the promise of his good intentions. Their connection is immediate and palpable, so you get all of the anticipation building up. Ultimately, this story is about falling in love when you least expect it, how easy it is to get lost in the moment, and coming to terms with the consequences. I really enjoyed this book and look forward to more by this Author! She has excellent choice in narrators! Erin Mallon & Zachary Webber are always wonderful performers and allow you to get lost in the characters and swept up the story. They really brought this story to life! Blair is from South Africa, so I was expecting the SA accent, but that didn’t take away from the story for me.
I received this audiobook in exchange for an honest review. I’m so glad I did and look forward to more from this Author! Drop Beat is Maddie’s story and I am diving into this next!
Forbidden love on a singing competition TV show
Audiobook version: 4 stars overall, 4 stars story, 5 stars narration
I enjoyed this nice little 5-hour audiobook about a taboo romance between a judge and a contestant on a singing competition TV show similar to The Voice. Blair is a talented 20-year-old female contestant who for a long time had a crush on Dean, the 28-year-old rockstar and judge on a singing competition show. When Dean heard and saw Blair perform for the first time on the show, he immediately became attracted to Blair and struggled to keep it a secret. The path of such a taboo romance was not smooth.
I recommend it to anyone who enjoys singing competitions, rock star romances, and/or Erin Mallon’s or Zachary Webber’s voices. This story has a few brief, moderately steamy bedroom scenes. It has a moderate angst level and a New Adult feel. There is a happy ever after. There is no cheating during the relationship, but I don’t like how Dean had meaningless sex with another woman a few hours after he met Blair (before Dean and Blair expressed interest in each other). I give the story 4 stars instead of 5 because Dean was lacking some emotional maturity for a while and did not communicate necessary information during the relationship. Dean was eight years older than Blair, but Blair was much more mature. I totally loved Blair as a character because she was strong, intelligent, and kind. I also really enjoyed the scenes in South Africa at Blair’s family’s game reserve.
The dual narration was excellent. The talented Erin Mallon and Zachary Webber each did a wonderful job. They really brought the story to life with vivacity, sexiness, and a touch of humor. Each of them had a variety of believable character voices that blended well in their alternating chapters. My one minor gripe is that neither narrator attempted a South African accent for Blair – an accent that was alluded to in the text.
I requested and received a free audiobook copy via #AudiobookObsession, and I voluntarily wrote this honest review.
#AudiobookObsession Reviewer
This author is new to me and I gave this a shot due to the narrators and a recommendation from a friend. I’m soooo glad I listened!!
The story flowed really well!! I loved the nods to the show The Voice but the different twists on the show to give it a fresh feel. The main characters were fun and believable also. Riley was sweet and down to earth and so freaking adorable in her naïveté yet she has just enough backbone to do what she needed also. Dean is a rock god in this book but never once acts like it and that is a fun twist too! Down to earth rockstar for the win!! lol
Zachary Webber and Erin Mallon I will follow you two anywhere you lead me you are fantastic narrators
This is my first Ryleigh Sloan book. I actually won it from a giveaway on a Facebook group, and I’m very glad because this is a new-to-me author that I’m pretty sure I’m going to love! This book is an amazing start to something very special.
The premise of the story is that Blaire is auditioning for a reality TV music competition show that is a lot like the premise of The Voice (almost exactly like it, except that the Coaches break through glass instead of having chairs turn around, and the show’s name is Breakthrough or something like this). 3 of 4 coaches turn for her, and the one “playboy” guy is a rockstar that she’s been in love with since she was a teenager. He seems to be quite taken with her from the moment he lays eyes on her, too.
During the coaching and show progression, she makes a bit of an enemy of one of the other contestants, who makes it her mission to cause problems for Blaire. There is a family emergency back home and Blaire has to make the tough decision to return home. The other contestant takes the opportunity to cause even more issues when the coach gives her a comforting hug – the girl takes photos and posts them to social media, to make it look like they’re having a relationship and she’s getting extra-special treatment. What makes it even worse is that the coach, Dean, has begun to have feelings, and he returns home with her (it’s during a break in filming of the show), to give her support and some additional coaching time. The whole thing blows up and it’s a question of whether or not this will ruin his career on the show, and Blaire’s position as a contestant. Will their feelings towards each other ruin everything?
Ryleigh’s writing was extremely well done and I’m a new fan. I will definitely be looking for more of her work, and waiting for the release of the next book in this series, which I assume will be about Blaire’s best friend.
The audiobook was narrated in part by Erin Mallon, my fave female narrator, and Zachary Webber, one of my top fave male narrators. Extremely well done!
What a book! I love to watch all the music talent shows on tv so this was a perfect choice for me. And when you add the drama and forbidden love to the mix it is perfect. This book will definitely pull on your heartstrings and with the epilogue I definitely need to get the next to see another great love story.
Flock review. I loved this reality tv story, Blair and Dean’s story is quite good, their chemistry, connection, and everything in between was brilliant. It got me hooked from the start and didn’t let me go until I was done. The narrators Erin Mallon and Zackary Webber did a fantastic job narrating the story, they are both on my top favorite narrators and the editing and mixing was done pretty well. Definitely would recommend the audiobook over the book.
I’m not actually a fan of TV shows and don’t really watch much television (fellow bookworms know exactly what I’m saying), but my family seem to be addicts, and one thing they do watch is The Voice (U.K.) so I can say without a shadow of a doubt that this book has a lot of similarities, singers/rockstars/producers mentoring up and coming stars after picking them purely on the sound of their voice. You get my gist. Blair is that up and coming star, coming to America from South Africa to find her dream. Dean is the rockstar who is going to mentor and train her. Yep, you’ve guessed it. The chemistry is real folks. Not quite rockstar romance, very definitely forbidden romance. Both Blair and Dean made some silly decisions, and they paid for their mistakes. A sexy, sweet, small town girl, big city romance. I couldn’t get enough of it.
Narrated to perfection by two of my favourites, Zachary Webber and Erin Mallon.
#AudiobookObsessionReviewer
Audio review
I have a huge soft spot for a good rock story and this one is fabulous. In fairness, it’s not rock per se, but music beats out one of it’s many heart strings. This is a story with a golden core and it fills you with warmth. Dean and Blair are such worthy stars of the show that I found myself wanting to hear their music!
I cannot say enough about the voice talents of the gifted, acutely listenable, Erin Mallon and Zachary Webber. I could listen to them all day, and often do!
Back Beat was my first book by this author and I am so excited I found both this book and this author. Back Beat was a highly engaging and interesting read about Blair who has dreams of making it big as a singer. She leaves her home of South Africa and goes on television to try and achieve her dream and ends up meeting Dean, who becomes her coach on the show. Their chemistry is off the charts, though they also have a connection that seems to be deeper too. Despite their attraction, they keep things professional as Dean really wants Blair to succeed….until the day Blair’s world is turned upside down and she needs emotional support and Dean wants to be the one to provide it, and this sets them on a course that they might not be able to recover from.
I absolutely adored both Blair and Dean and I loved them together. I loved that Blair went after her dreams, even when her father didn’t approve and even when the chances of achieving them seemed out of reach. I loved how hard she worked and that she didn’t think it would just be handed to her. I loved that Dean saw something in her and truly appreciated her gift and wanted to do whatver he could to help her achieve her dream, and when push came to shove, he sacrificed himself for her.
I loved all the things about this book. I can see myself definitely checking out more of this author’s work as I loved the story line, the characters, and the author’s writing style. Absolutely 100% definitely recommend!!!
Blair’s voice is a natural, sure to win the talent contest on national tv. She’s forbidden, Dean is her coach, mentor, while on the show. Their connection is electric, they both struggle against their attraction. to each other. He’s done this before, but this time it causes a scandal.
I always know when Erin Mallon and Zachary Weber narrate a story, it will be a great listen. Both are excellent narrators and bring the story to life
audiobookobsessionreviewer.
This is a 5 Star Forbidden Rocker read
Everyone knows that Rock Stars are my favourite trope, so when a friend tells me she’s found an awesome book, I’m all over it like white on rice. This is my first read from Ryleigh Sloan and I’m rapt to have found her, because I’ve read two now and have absolutely loved both of them.
Ms Sloan packed a wealth of experience within the covers of this virtual book, from the technical aspects of correct breathing while singing professionally, through to life on a South African guest wildlife reserve. I enjoyed every moment, and I got to see a lot. I also had a steady picture running through my head of each scene as I read, and there was enough detail to round out the experience without burying the story under a mire of detail. Ms Sloan came across as passionate both about the music and the lifestyle of a working lodge and wildlife reserve.
Holy crap, the chemistry between Dean and Blair was another character unto itself!! Theirs is a forbidden relationship, so of course if makes sense that it was a relatively slow burn, but it was by no means tame. The energy between them crackled, and it certainly ramped up as the book developed!!!
As the first book in the series, we got to meet some of the best types of secondary characters! Blair’s best friend Maddie was as funny as a fight, and I definitely want to know more about Kade and his band. Of special note was Blair’s Pawpaw and Grandma who were legends. Grandma was not past giving out a right tong up to her son, Blair’s father, when it was needed. It was epic, just like they were in being her biggest supporters.
If you’re into the rock or music scene with your reading, or enjoy forbidden romances, this is one for you. 5 Stars.
3 1/2*
Blair is hoping to get her dream with the support of her best friend Maddie and pawpaw.
Dean is quick to hit the button on Blair’s audition but will she choose him.
A story of struggles, mistakes and learning to trust in yourself.
Back Beat is the first book in The Heartbeat Series, a Rockstar Romance. This is another great story written by Ryleigh Sloan. Blair and Dean’s story is fun, and beautiful. The storyline is set in a reality TV singing show. I loved to follow Blair and Dean in their journey. Blair is strong, talented, and determined. Dean is handsome, caring and supportive. They share an undeniable and strong chemistry. The storyline is well written, sweet, and sexy. The supporting characters are great. Erin Mallon and Zachary Webber did a wonderful job with the narration. Looking forward to listen to the next book in the Series. #AudiobookObsession
Back Beat (The Heartbeat Series, Book 1) is a entertaining listen that is surrounded around music and reality tv. I loved how its similar to the tv reality series The Voice I as I live that show. It was really cute. The characters were intriguing and the the story was stormy and ended sunny.
Erin Mallon, Zachary Webber did a sensational performance narrating this audio. I absolutely love Zachary Webber’s intonation and he is always a deep pleasure to listen to. Erin Mallon is a talented narator and she portrayed Blair perfectly.
Audiobook Obsession
Back Beat is a well developed story with ups and downs and great characters. I’m interested in listening to more of the series, though it can be listened to as a stand alone. I would definitely recommend the audio version as I think the performances enhanced the story.
Erin Mallon and Zachary Webber did a great job bringing the story to life. It wasn’t my favorite Erin Mallon performance, but that’s only because she’s set the bar so high in the past. This was the first time I’ve heard Zachary Webber, and the two of them together were fabulous. I always appreciate dual narrators for dual points of view.
#AudiobookObsession
Back Beat
The Heartbeat Series, Book 1
By: Ryleigh Sloan
Narrated by: Erin Mallon, Zachary Webber
I know when I grab a Ryleigh Sloan book, I am in for hours of enjoyment. When I started this story, I wasn’t sure how it was going to go. Rockstar romances are all a little different. This one is right up my alley. I love to watch The Voice, and this simulates a reality TV show similar to that. Blair is live the dream and when she gets to pick her judge, she chooses the Dean Carter, the performer of her dreams. Dean see potential in Blair, but he is also attracted to her. The show forbids any romantic inclinations, so this season is going to be a tough one. Will they make it through undetected? Will their reputations survive? And will her live out her dream? It’s funny, it’s flirty, it’s a little angsty(not too much) and a real good time. There are emotional tugs at your heart, and lessons of life to be learned. I love Sloan’s writing, and can’t wait to see what she has in store for Blair’s friend Maddie next!
With a book like this and a powerhouse narration team of Erin Mallon and Zachary Webber, it’s impossible not to fall in love! Mallon brings her all to Blair, giving her confidence and insecurity all at the same time. Her talent brings out Blair and we can feel her learn and grow through her time on the show. Webber is perfectly cast as Carter. A little arrogant, a lot swoony and his talent shows through with a personality befitting the judge. These two bring it all to life!
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Great Story & Audible Listen Captivating & Heartfelt! 4.5 Stars
Back Beat
The Heartbeat Series, Book 1
By: Ryleigh Sloan
Narrated by: Erin Mallon, Zachary Webber
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it is well written with interesting storylines that are captivating from start to end. The characters are likable and easy to relate to. It is Blair McKenzie is in L.A with her friend Maddie, Blair is following her dreams and is in L.A. after a successful audition she won a spot on Breakout, a music reality show. Three judges wanted her on their team but she chose to be on Dean Carter’s team, her favorite musician and the one she was crushing on. Dean took a liking to her the moment he laid eyes on her, he knew he wanted her on his team. Amongst relationship and family drama there is drama amongst the contestants, especially trouble stirring Danielle. I liked how every thing plays out in this book, the story is fast moving and there is never a dull moment with plenty of drama, angst, some heartfelt moments and a romance that could cause Blair to lose everything she dreamed of. Ryleigh Sloan, thank you for this great story and emotional rollercoaster ride.
I listened to the Audible edition, Erin Mallon and Zachary Webber are fantastic narrators and voice artists. They do an amazing job portraying the characters, bringing them to life, giving each their own voice and personality. They set the perfect tone for the story, capture the character’s emotions and project them into their performance. They are entertaining storytellers and a pleasure to listen to. Thank you for another great listen
Back Beat was a story that kept my attention from start to finish!
I loved everything about the book, kind of felt like watching an episode of The Voice and I really liked both Blair and Dean.
Blair travelled from South Africa to America for the competition! But things go decidedly awry when one of her family becomes ill and she has to rush home. Why is Dean going with her? For support or other reasons?
When social media goes crazy, what happens to her spot on the show? The suspense gnawed at me but I absolutely loved how it ended! Great work!
Raleigh Sloan has had my interest since I first started reading her books. She always creates storylines, plots and characters that enthrall you and demand your attention. Obsession is a word I would use with Raleigh Sloan. She knows how to write words that effects every part of you.
The story of Dean and Blair created so many emotions in me. I went from happiness to sadness to laughter in a matter of minutes. Their chemistry is hot and their relationship is so much more than meets the eye. Their story is full of twists and turns that leave you hanging onto the edge of your seat.
I highly recommend this book!!