Not all rock stars a narcissistic a*holes… never enough.
After enjoying the perks of no-strings sex for a few months, Jack’s sick of meaningless one-nighters.
With their concerts selling out across the globe, he focuses all his energy on the band, their music, and the fans.
After Emily catches her fiancé cheating, her well-planned future crumbles, and with it her chance at happily ever after. Feeling adrift, she needs to figure out what went wrong before she can move on.
If she can move on.
When they meet, their chemistry is explosive, but she’s not interested in dating anyone, let alone a rock star. But Jack’s not a stereotypical bad boy musician.
Their attraction demands satisfaction, so she offers him one night.
With mere hours to convince Emily their chemistry goes beyond sexual, can he convince her to give him, to give them, a chance?
With You, book 1 in Jack and Emily’s trilogy, features a determined, overprotective hero who doesn’t know the meaning of the word quit and a stubborn, fiercely independent heroine who thinks she has to handle everything on her own.
Jack and Emily’s story continues in books 2 and 3 of the Rocked in Love series, No More Yesterdays and All Your Tomorrows.
~ Perfect for fans of intense, emotional stories with a side of humor and suspense, and friends who are family. ~
Steam Level: Incendiary
Suspense: Nerve-wracking
Feels: All of them
Tissues: Tears of joy, laughter, and ugly crying
HEA: Work in progress
All my current books are connected by found family. For the best experience, the reading order is as follows:
With You (Rocked in Love – Jack and Emily Book 1)
No More Yesterdays (Rocked in Love – Jack and Emily Book 2)
All Your Tomorrows (Rocked in Love – Jack and Emily Book 3)
Night and Day (Found Family – Eddie and Sheryl Book 1) Content Warning: Deals with heavy sht
Night and Day: Ever After (Found Family – Eddie and Sheryl Book 2) Content Warning: Deals with heavy sh*tmore
This review is going to be all over the place, so I apologize in advance. I’m not sure where to start. I’ve waffled endlessly with the star rating, so settled on a 2 star because part of me wants to give this a 0 (if that were possible) and part wants to give it a 3.5 because there are some okay parts. So I’m settling on a rounded up middle number.
One of my biggest issues with this book is it starts in the completely wrong place for a romance. We have to wade through far too many pointless scenes getting to know the main characters on their own before they FINALLY meet. All of that could’ve been handled as organic additions to the internal narrative once the characters have met. We don’t need to know all of that up front. It slogs and drags along and made me almost DNF several times.
Next in line is the quite literally 100 different characters. My goodness. Just why?! Not only do we meet many of them in the first few chapters, which is overwhelming to say the least, but it never ends. Every chapter we “meet” at least 3 or at most 10 brand new charatcers, complete with their names. It’s hard enough as a reader to get accustomed to the main characters and a few side characters. If you start throwing in an endless number of new names, you leave me forgetting who is who and it makes it impossible to engage. Not to mention how it starts to sound like a Dr Seuss novel because every sentence has multiple proper nouns and far too few pronouns and it starts to feel clunky and confusing and then when multiple characters with the same length name or same initial letter or… just no. My gawd, just no. I started rolling my eyes so hard every time a new named character appeared and that is not the reaction you want from your reader.
Oh, and then there are the extremely pointless and random hops into different POVs. You see about three pages of Nicki’s POV and the same of Elliot’s for literally no reason other than to exposition dump backstory about the MCs. Please, please, please don’t do this. Weave it in organically. It is so unbelievably jarring in a romance to suddenly leave the little bubble of the MCs headspace like that. Just don’t.
Those are my major beefs. There are others but I don’t have all day.
As for what worked for me? I did like the general plot. It feels like a fresh take on a tired trope. And I enjoy the MCs for the most part. General craft is handled well, for the most part. Definitely nothing I’d recommend to others, but barring my major issues above, it kept me reading to the end. Somehow.
I DNFed this at about 45% in, so keep in mind there’s a chance it gets better. This is only my take on the first half or so of the book.
I always strive to find the good in every read, as there are positives to be found in every book, so I’m going to start there. I enjoy rock star romances, so the plotline in general was a delight for me. I loved that Emily and Jack met in such a unique and untraditional fashion. A truly delightful meet-cute. I also enjoyed some of the dialogue scenes where the characters weren’t trying too hard to fit their stereotypes. When the author let go and allowed the characters to speak naturally, they were pretty wonderful. Relatable, down-to-earth, and witty.
Now, I’m not going to beat this book up, because I don’t do that. At the end of the day, not everything is for everyone, and this just happens to be something that isn’t for me as a reader. There were a lot of plot device and craft choices that jarred me and made it difficult to engage in the story or to relate with the characters. I was constantly being taken out of the narrative and struggled to get back into it.
So, again… perhaps this gets better, and perhaps it’ll be just the exact thing for you, but it wasn’t that for me. Sadl.y.
3.5 stars
When Jack sees a beautiful woman at one of his concerts, he’s instantly drawn to her and sends an invite to her and her friend to meet him backstage. Emily has been badly burned recently, and she’s not looking to repeat it, so she wants to decline the invite the gorgeous rockstar extended her. But, her friend is all for it and pulls the birthday guilt trip on her, so she allows herself to be dragged backstage. And that’s when she meets the man who will change her life in a short period of time.
But, as badly as her heart’s been broken just may mean she can’t allow herself to feel the connection Jack insists is there between them. Will she break his heart as badly as her cheating ex broke hers?
I have to admit that I did not realize this was only a part 1 in a series, and it irritated me when I realized that I have to download more stories to find out Jack and Emily’s full story. But as part ones go, With You isn’t bad. It’s fast paced and sexy, and Jack is adorable. I didn’t really like Emily, but Jack made up for her negativity by being a sweetheart, very unlike the typical rockstar. I’m not sure if I’ll bother to read more of the series, but I did mostly enjoy this first part.
I signed up to ARC review the second book in this series through Hidden Gem, not realizing it WAS a second book. How lucky was I when I opened the file up to find BOTH the first and second books there! This series got off to a fabulous start with two very real, genuine characters-one who thinks she’s totally flawed in every way and one who doesn’t realize he is (although hes pretty super, just need some polishing). Following their relationship as it unfolds at rock star, warp speed keeps it interesting. Plot and characters are well developed and secondary characters are not just extras or name dropped but have actual value in Emily and Jack’s life and story. Loved the steamy scenes, my heart ached during the tough parts (I may have cried a time or two), and there are both sweet and funny moments in between. I love rock star romances and this one does not disappoint!
Some times all it takes is a glance across the crowd and you know you’ve found the one. And that’s what happens to Jack when he gets a glimpse of Emily in the crowd of his own concert. I won’t get into details about the plot. What really impressed me is how well-written the story was. The plot kept me glued to my e-reader, with its many twists. The characters were extremely well-developed, not only Jack and Emily, but the secondary characters as well. There’s a quality in them, that made them feel real to me. Each character’s personality is complex, as each person carries their own emotional burden, especially Jack and Emily.
Yes, the story ends in a cliffhanger. Apart from the romance side of the story, there’s also the mystery of Jack’s stalker. We don’t get much information on that front in this installment of the story, but I’m certain we’ll get more in the next. Still, if you put aside the stalker situation, and don’t mind a somewhat abrubt ending, the book could be read as a standalone. But I highly recommend giving this story arc a chance.
This a beautiful romance with a touch of suspense. I keep waiting for Christie to appear and cause trouble but she’s still back there in the wings. I think the characters are great. I enjoy the relationship the guys have with each other and how protective they are of each other’s women. I like Emily’s character a lot. She has a great sense of humour and provides awesome advice even ones I would take. I can’t wait to read more on Emily and Jack’s relationship as well as Curt and Nikki’s. Oh and the sex scenes are great too, can’t forget to mention that!
An new author for me, I think that this is her debut book, and what a debut! Jessica gives us something different from the usual rockstar romance. In this compelling story, hot and sexy rockstar Jack jaded from all the groupies that he has to fight off sees Emily from the stage and knows immediately she is someone special that he has to meet.
Emily is just at the show to support her best friend and to get back out in the world after a bad break- up with her fiance. The last thing she wanted or expected was to meet Jack the badboy rockstar, and so different from her usual type of guy. The connection is so intense that she decides that a meaningless one-night stand with him would be a good for her to help her to forget. Unfortunately things do not always work out as planned as she finds that Jack is not what she expected and even after one night he is falling for her but she can’t handle it. It is too much too soon and she is not ready for another relationship.
Can Jack convince her that he is a good guy and is serious about her without scaring her off. Can Emily let herself have feelings for someone so different and in the public eye. Questions to be answered throughout this simmering their story. Then WHAT!! Jessica gives us an unexpected cliffhanger that had me desperately searching for more.
Now I can’t wait for part two to see what happens, so be prepared for a great read with a sudden ending, it will leave you wanting more too!
Emily has had her broken heart. When her friend drags her to a rock concert and she catches the eyes of Jack the rock star, I couldn’t put the book down. I loved Jack. I loved how he was persistent and wanted her. They have great chemistry and I’m so glad this is book one of their story. Can’t wait for more of these two!!!
The Rock Star’s Insta Love
This is a little different because it’s the rock star that falls instantly for a woman he sees in the crowd at one of his concerts. Emily is there just because her friend begged her to go and she had nothing better to do since the breakup with her fiancé. She didn’t dress like a groupie but she still stood out in Jack McBride’s mind. There was just something about her that he “just knew”. Now Jack has to try to convince Emily that there is more to it than any one night stand.
Emily has already been through two traumatic events in her life and is trying to re-group but does she do that at a chance with Jack who just might be just what she needs in her life. He is the nicest most caring guy to those around him AND he sure knows how to make her feel like a beautiful woman who is wanted. (more than her fiancé ever did!)
There’s one more element to this book and that is that Jack has a stalker and this person knows his every move. Is Emily safe? Be warned this book does end in a cliff hanger. I can’t wait to start the second book in this series.