NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR, ELLE CASEY, brings readers the New Adult Romance BY DEGREES.
Celebrities all suffer from the same disease. I call it the create-your-own-reality disease. Most of them start out normal, like you and me, but somewhere along the way they lose sight of up and down, left and right, and then eventually right and wrong. It’s my job to fix that.
Who … It’s my job to fix that.
Who hires me, Scarlett Barnes, otherwise known as ‘The Normalizer’? Agents usually. Producers sometimes. They know they can trust me to be professional, discreet, and above all, not personally involved with my clients. I come in, I take over their lives, and I get them back on track. Help them remember what it’s like to be an average Joe.
My latest job acquisition? His friends call him Tear-It-Up Kilgour, but I just call him Tarin – lead singer and guitarist for the band By Degrees. I have thirty days to get his butt back on planet earth before he loses his record deal, his movie contract, and possibly even his life. I’ve never failed so far, and I don’t plan on failing this time either, even if Tarin has other ideas.
Content Warning: This is a New Adult Romance, perhaps not suitable for younger readers due to foul language, sexual situations, drug use, and obnoxious rock-n-roll musicians.
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Scarlett Barnes, The Normalizer, has a new mission. Tarin Kilgour, a rocker who is on the edge of losing it, is her mission. Scarlett has a history with on the edge rockers that are about to lose it all. She lost her one true love, rocker Austin Betzer, two years ago to the lifestyle of the idolized. Since that fateful night in Chicago she has vowed that the lifestyle won’t destroy another life on her watch. She realizes she can’t save them all, but by golly, she’s gonna try.
Tarin broke into the world of rock and roll thanks to the help of Austin Betzer. His rise to fame, fortune, and iconic rock status has been faster than a shooting star. Just like a shooting star, it’s in danger of flaming out. He’s not irredeemable, but he’s close. That’s why The Normalizer has been called in.
This one is a quick read with just enough steam and twists to keep it interesting. However, Scarlett may get on your nerves about halfway through. There are some scenes that seem rushed and others that drag on. Some parts of the story are very predictable, but overall, it’s a good read that will keep you turning pages.
Good read, I enjoyed the characters.
I’ve read almost everything by Elle Casey, hell I’d read her shopping list! This story was fun! I loved the characters and how Casey had everything flow. There was some action on there but mostly it was a tumble into love from the word go! Highly recommend!
Scarlett has been given the nickname “The Normalizer” for her ability to fix wayward celebs who are out of control. He sass and hard exterior is a protection that shields her from growing too attached to her charges. She’s had loss in her past that’s wounded her, so when her next client is so much like the one she failed, Scarlett dives head first into the challenge. But when she finds herself falling for the broken bad boy, an invisible line threatens to become crossed.
Tarin is the lead talent for By Degrees, and has gone from the cheeky, heart throb to a drugged out shell of his former self. He wants to tell Scarlett to mind her own business, but when she makes it clear that he is her business, he gives in to change. But will it be enough to save his career and his life?
Overall, this book was fantastic. It was a new spin on the rockstar romance genre and Scarlett fit the part perfectly. She was witty and strong, but believably human in a way that’s hard to find in some books. Tarin fit the bad boy mold spectacularly, although by the end of the book, I felt like he didn’t deserve to get the girl. I won’t spoil the ending, but that ending…well, it spoiled the romance for me. Still, I gave it 4/5 Glass Slippers because, if you ignore the twist, it was a wonderful read.
Ihesitated to pick this book up. The cover was “uncomfortable”for ome reason.
I had not read any books by this author before.
I loved the book. The characters are very realistic and the subject mater is close to some of my experiences.
Dealing with drug/alcoholism is a touchy subject. The author wrote a story of a very strong woman doing a good thing to help those in need.
A book I will read again.
Great book.
Great story with characters growing emotionally as the story progresses.
To be honest if you want to pick apart a book keep moving, but if you want to get lost in something a little outside the line of reality this is the book for you. Our heroine is anything if not witty and stuck in her own ways. She is also carrying a boatload of her own baggage but seems to still find a way to help others with theirs. I can’t say there was much I didn’t love. I found it to be a nice quick read that is a great pallet cleanser after reading some darker genre’s.
Average
Great premise about a woman devoted to “normalizing” out-of-control rock stars as her way of making up for losing the rock star she loved to drugs and wild living. Interesting characters who suffered from an inability to communicate some very simple information that would have made considerable difference to the story development. Those inabilities were sometimes highly illogical. Excellent story however.
What a great book!
Seems rock stars have everything until they begin to spin out of control. That’s when a smart manager calls in a pro to get her client in-line and safe from his bad choices.
He doesn’t appreciate her management skills and it takes some challenges to win him over from a place that was taking him down.
The story was believable and the characters were endearing. This was my first Elle Casey book, but it will not be my last. I am about to start reading another one…because this one was so good
I normally love Elle Casey, but this book was a miss for me. I didn’t love the characters as much as others she has written and the book derailed for me about 2/3rds of the way through when the baby subplot moved in. It felt unnecessary and spoiled the book for me.
Overall the book was disappointing. I liked the promise of the cover, the unique idea of the story, and the book sample was pretty strong in the first few chapters that introduced Scarlet’s character, her job and the emotional conflict. But after that, it just fell apart for me, mainly bc of the way the pacing of the rest of story didn’t allow the readers to really connect with the characters and make the relationship believable. **SPOILERS** There was way too much Hollywood angst concentrated into that first day that she moved in and they started working with Tarin; a normal person couldn’t fit all that happened to them into a single day, which ended with them having sex that first night. I don’t have a problem with characters having sex on the first date or early on if the attraction is well developed, but I feel like her attraction to him was based on his similarities to her deceased ex at that point rather than him as an individual. So, the sex wasn’t as meaningful as I feel the author was trying to portray and certainly not strong enough to keep the attraction going after she’s beaten up by one of his crazed fans and then flees halfway across the US after finding out his connection to her ex’s death. Also, Tarin’s character wasn’t very well defined with the limited first person POV. So, what we see of him through his hot/cold actions early on I didn’t feel was very likable and not enough for me to want her to sleep with him that first night either. And then once they were supposed to truly be together, there’s a 4-month time skip before they jump into more angst and then a quick HEA ending. I feel the author missed an opportunity during that 4-months to develop their relationship without the past ghost of her ex affecting them to make the relationship and ending more believable. If the timeline of events had been extended a bit longer and there was more meaningful relationship development in between and also during the 4-month time skip, then this story would have been a lot stronger.
Great story line. Entertaining.
Enjoyed the realistic definition of characters.
It’s not amazing, but it’s not awful. To be honest the supporting characters were way more engaging. I didn’t buy the way events unfolded at the end and it left an annoyed feeling.
Very well written. Couldn’t put it down!
Wow! A must read!
My new favorite author!
I loved this book. I would try putting it down but, then within 3 minutes went back and picked it up again. I was up half the night until I finished the book. Cried when Scarlett did. I felt so bad for her. Beating herself over Austin was heartbreaking. Tarin was kind of pushy but, I loved him also. He had a big heart and loved Scarlett with a vengeance. The biggest draw back I had was, I’m not sure if he kept up his singing career. If he didn’t, shame on him for wasting his talent. He could parent and have a singing career at the same time. But all in all, I loved the book.