Once upon a time, a girl saved my life.I was p-ss-drunk, high as a kite, and about to jump from a bridge. She stopped me. I told her to f-ck off.Exactly how all great love stories start.A year later, I met her again. Sober this time, after yet another stint in rehab.She’s still pretty, still a spitfire, still lights up a room when she walks in.And she doesn’t realize I’m the guy from the bridge.… when she walks in.
And she doesn’t realize I’m the guy from the bridge.
Frankie doesn’t know anything about me or my past. She doesn’t know I’m a former rock star or an ex-junkie.
She doesn’t know that two years ago, someone died and it was my fault.
She doesn’t need to know. She’s got problems of her own, and they’re what keep her coming back to see me time and again, even when we both know she shouldn’t.
I should be staying far, far away from this girl, but it’s like telling water to flow uphill. Can’t be done.
Frankie and I may be going down in flames, but we’ll be going down together.
Ever After is a full-length, standalone novel.
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“Stop hating yourself for who you used to be.”
I fell hard for the Dirtshine rockstar family. It broke my heart that Liam let his addiction ruin his career and his life, and I kinda hated him for a while. I met him in Never Enough and he really pissed me off with how he treated his best friend Gavin. I’m sure we’ve all heard about how drug addicts lose sight of everything but their addiction and they’ll do anything for their next fix. I’m not the only one that struggled to see past his past… he did too.
I had mixed feelings about Liam from the get-go. On one hand, I wanted the original Dirtshine band to be reunited and the best friends to make up. But at the same time, I understood how many bridges he’d burned and how many times he’d tried and failed to get clean. I was very attached and protective of the other three band members and I didn’t want him to keep hurting them again and again. So, moving forward I embraced the story and tentatively turned each page holding my breath, hoping he’d pull himself out of the darkness and find his way back to his family in the US. At the very least I wanted him to apologize and work at healing their friendship, and at the very most I wished for him to earn their trust enough to be welcomed back as the drummer for the band.
I admit it was a stressful journey. I got totally caught up in his business, shaking my finger at him and warning him not to keep fucking up his life. And eventually, he won me over. I loved him through his accomplishments and his setbacks. When he felt that first connection with Frankie I just knew she would be the motivation he needed to fight for his future. But she might also be the forbidden drug that tempted him to make bad choices. She doesn’t know his secrets and he’s too ashamed to tell her. When he gets in his own way time and again, he almost drove me to drink.
What an emotional story this turned out to be. I agree that “What you want is only what you want, it’s what you do that matters.” And finding the strength to do the right thing is harder for some than others. The trip down to rock bottom is much faster and easier than the climb back up, especially when you’ve betrayed your support system. It’s hard to ask for help when you don’t feel like you deserve it. Being inside Liam’s head was a painful experience and I yearned for him to find his happily Ever After with Frankie. By the time I turned the last page I was an exhausted emotional wreck, but I had a smile on my face. I really enjoyed reading this series which was my introduction to Roxie Noir. Now that she’s on my radar, I’ll be looking forward to what she has for her readers next. The line forms here…
This book was incredible. I love how fated Liam and Frankie were in this book. The way they kept meeting each other long before it was time for them to be. And Liam struggling with his reovery from Heroine. Being there through it with him and seeing how Frankie, even as a stranger, was one of the reasons he was able to recover. This is a couple you are going to want to read about.
I have book one in this series and I’m kicking myself for not reading it sooner. I don’t have knowledge of Liam in full blown addiction. In a way, I’m kind of glad because I didn’t have any negative feelings for him in this book. But the alternative would be seeing him in his full journey. Either way, you can’t go wrong. You can read this as a standalone or start from the beginning.
I’m really impressed with this authors writing. Everything I’ve picked up from her has really taken me by surprise. She just has a natural ability to take ordinary characters and make them extraordinarily. I really can’t wait for what she brings us next!
I absolutely hated Liam with a passion in “Never Enough,” the first book in the “Dirtshine” trilogy! By the time we actually get to his story in “Ever After,” my attitude toward him had begun to soften a bit – but not too much. He was just such a total jerk and worthless idiot, which he insisted on proving over and over and over again. That his addiction fueled most of his issues wasn’t at all lost on me, but it certainly didn’t excuse any of his behavior.
In short, I didn’t think there was any way that Liam could become a sympathetic enough character to make me even interested in following his story. But I was completely wrong. The author does an amazing job of making him seem at least worthwhile enough to follow his story. It’s really a rather sad and depressing story, especially before Frankie comes along, but to a great extent, afterwards as well.
That Liam finally, finally, finally, after so many stops and starts and missteps, gets his act together, and holds on to not only his sobriety, but his girl, and reacquires his alienated friends as well, is pretty much a testament to the power of hope and faith and simply not giving up.
While I did not feel that this volume was quite up to the quality of the prior two in the series, I did find it much more enjoyable than I had anticipated, and ultimately was glad that I read it.
There is a certain edge to this entire “Dirtshine” series that not only entertains but also gives the reader pause to think about the weightier themes of addiction, recovery and personal issues that interfere with truly loving another person erotically, romantically and completely as we all wish for our hero and heroines in the books we love to read . It is much like “the edge”, the knife of life’s vicissitudes can visit upon a soul traveling through this earthly plane. We, romance readers though are a forgiving lot. We tend to appreciate brokenness and understand our characters varying capacities for loving.
In fact we pride ourselves in analyzing the characters presented to us and the author’s imaginings of the source of their hero and/or heroine’s failings. However, addiction to substances that steal one’s sanity, motivation and concern for anyone or anything other than their chosen substance of death is one of the most bitter themes to present to the reader of the romance genre. That Ms. Noir deals with these themes boldly and in most respects, realistically is to her credit. As such, this is not a straight shot at a hot romance nor are some of the hotter scenes entirely comfortable…and there are some very, very hot scenes!!!
Liam is the seriously entrenched heroin addict rock star that just about lost everything. His story begins at yet, another, rock bottom. He is on a bridge contemplating jumping in front of a train below. Actually, he feels more like wanting to fly away to escape himself. It is at this drugged-up, messed-up point in his life that he first sees her. She is Frankie and she has the nerve to admonish him in his contemplation of deadly flight by reminding him that it would really would be such a bother for so many people to have to deal with the aftermath of his remains. Without knowing who she is or ever hoping to meet her again he holds on to her beautiful face as a talisman during his latest year-long attempt at coming clean.
Frankie is engaged to an English Earl to be and she is visiting his family in Northern England where they rule all the townsfolk in the area through money, old English influence and tradition. They are however subtly and sometimes overtly disapproving of their “Alistair’s” fiance from New Jersey. Frankie notices, more and more, the domineering, manipulative and insincere traits of her husband-to-be. She is overwhelmed by this stodgy and actually hostile family despite the grandeur of their home and her accommodations there in England. She needs an escape from them and her uncomfortable feelings, so at night she sneaks out to the small local pub at the very edge of the property.
It is there that once again she sees Liam who is the bartender. She does not put together that he is the man whom she admonished on the bridge. Liam knows exactly who she is. It is at this point in the story that the dance of attraction between them begins no matter how much Frankie scolds herself in her attraction to another man while she is still engaged. As you can probably surmise, her engagement with the prig and bully, Alistair comes to an end. How it unfolds is truly an entertaining read.
What happens subsequently is some hot, hot hook-up sex between Liam and Frankie but underlying the whole episode is drunkenness. The reader is put in a peculiar position. Oh we do like hot sex and some of the drunken behavior is riotous…party hard and all that…but at the edge of our reading is this uncomfortable sensation that this isn’t quite right.
There is so much more story to be told which spans the Atlantic ocean. Our hero and heroine, our Liam and Frankie learn important lessons. They learn about each other. There is a determination to reclaim their own persons…reclaim some of what may have been lost. The read only gets rock star fantasy hotter. The fantasy is all the more enjoyable because we have been through valley with both of them. The reality is that love does not save the day…but it is reason that recovery saves the day.
Recovery is a very personal lonely road but one’s willingness to walk that road is a gift you give not only to yourself but to all of those who love and care for you. It is most precious to the one you chose and who chose you to be their partner in life. This gift reflected back to you in the gaze of your love is the reason for “joy” in the morning of the sorrowful dark night. I invite you to travel through the night in the words of this gritty honest and gifted writer and come feel the joy!
I loved it!! Ever After is the final installment in the Dirtshine Trilogy. This is Liam and Frankie’s story. Of course their friends make an appearance. We couldn’t say good bye otherwise. Roxie Noir put her heart and soul in these books. I highly recommend the Dirtshine Trilogy.
Brilliant story Roxie, Let me start by saying that this Book 3 of the Dirtshine Trilogy. This is Liam and Frankie story, I always wonder what Roxie would do with Liam’s story, So this about to people that one that struggles with there addiction and the other has plenty of troubles of there own. Can they both over come all there struggles together or will it rip them further away from each other, Your just going to have to ONE-CLICK TO FIND OUT, you get no more from with telling you there whole story. A MUST READ, I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy
This is my favorite book in the series. Sad to see it end but Roxie did it justice. I love this series so much. Liam is my favorite and I’m so glad he was saved for last. I know everyone can relate so much to Liam, at some point in their life, when it comes to his feelings and giving up. I rooted for Liam and am so happy he got his ever after. If you have not read this series, you are missing out. Roxie’s best book by far.
It’s been a while since I had read a book from this author and especially in this series and I started reading this one kinda blindly one would say. See I am one of those people who reads I mean I READ a ton of books so sometimes characters get jumbled up from past books in the old head…until all of a sudden I am reading this book and I hit the part in the book where she mentions the bands name ” “Dirtshine”… and this major light bulb just lite up. And the first two books flashed thru my head. Now you do not have to had read those to appreciate this book at all. No the author gives you cliff note to catch you up, BUT if you really want a good book series that wouOd make one heck of movie series…then read Dirtshine 1-3.
Our author gives us everything we need and more. You see the scenes in your mind’s eye and hear the British accents just as it they are standing next to me. I can smell the sheep (yep you will understand what I am talking about) and the stout. This a well told book not a story at all. We get to see inside addiction and recovery… love, as well as the need to control and most of all we see the truest form of what call a family… Dirtshine itself. I usually read a book in a day and this book, I took my time and enjoyed and lived it. Roxie Noir you out did yourself with this one. I can not wait to see what flows from your hands next.
Roxie Noir has outdone herself with this book. I fell immediately in love with Liam. Every dialogue of his I read was read with a British accent. I want to be Frankie… how lucky is she??
The story line and characters were just simply perfect. I cannot say enough praise about this book and would definitely recommend this book to everyone!! I received this book as an ARC and this review is completely voluntary. This is my honest opinion of this book.
She Fell In Love With The Drummer
Liam and Frankie will captivate you from the very start with their spellbinding, sensual, sensational saga. Frankie can no longer ignore the fact that her fiance Allister is a class-a pompous clown. Quirks that could be ignored or looked passed stateside are so much more prevalent around his uppity family. They choose to look down their blue blood noses at her but truthfully she pities their sad existences. The only redeeming thing about the entire affair was meeting Liam, a handsome and down to earth bloke that makes her actually feel something. Liam never would have guessed that the woman that kept him from becoming a railway pancake would ever waltz back into his life. The minute Frankie opens her beautiful mouth he knows it’s her but apparently she doesn’t remember the tosser she helped off the ledge. Frankie should be off limits and he certainly isn’t in any position to offer her anything close to what the Little Lord has, but something about her has him wanting to be a little reckless. She doesn’t know who he was or anything about what happened, she isn’t tainted by his ugly past and she doesn’t want anything from him. With pasts lurking and futures uncertain, Liam and Frankie’s HEA is a story not to be missed.
Sometimes hitting rock bottom isn’t enough. Sometimes, you have to hit it again and again and again. Liam was at one of those bottoms the night he stared drunkenly, his body infused with drugs, at the oncoming train. He was angry and resentful when a passing car stopped and what followed foiled any plans he might not have realized he had.
A year later and he’s living a life in a nowhere place where there are no temptations. He’s just barely getting by with nothing but sheep to keep him company. The last thing he expected to find was temptation in the form of Frankie. Her wiggle and laugh, her snarky comments and dry wit enraptured him. The only thing stopping him from trying something with her was the huge diamond engagement ring.
Frankie is struggling to get along with her fiancee’s family. The titled English live by their own rules and she doesn’t fit into their ideal of suitable. After one particularly nasty evening she borrows an estate car and drives to the nearest pub. There she meets the rude and cocky Liam.
This was a deeply emotional read for me. It kept my stomach in knots throughout its entirety. And I loved every moment of it. This couple had a lot to work through, especially Liam, and I wasn’t sure how that was all going to play out. I absolutely loved both of these characters and anything less than a perfect happy ever after was not going to work for me. When they first meet their chemistry and banter grabbed me and pulled me immediately into the story ensuring that I fall in love with each of them. Together and separately.
While this was extremely angsty and dealt with topics I’m not a huge fan of, Liam will go down in history as my favorite Roxie Noir hero.
This is an honest review of an advanced copy provided by the author but I purchased a copy as well.