Review: Rock Addiction (Rock Kiss #1) by Nalini Singh

New York Times bestselling author Nalini Singh stuns with a sizzling contemporary romance…

A bad boy wrapped in a sexy, muscled, grown-up package might be worth a little risk…

Molly Webster has always followed the rules. After an ugly scandal tore apart her childhood and made her the focus of the media’s harsh spotlight, she vowed to live an ordinary life. No fame. No impropriety. No pain. Then she meets Zachary Fox, a tattooed bad boy rocker with a voice like whiskey and sin, and a touch that could become an addiction.

A one-night stand with the hottest rock star on the planet, that’s all it was meant to be…

Fox promises scorching heat and dangerous pleasure, coaxing Molly to extend their one-night stand into a one-month fling. After that, he’ll be gone forever, his life never again intersecting with her own. Sex and sin and sensual indulgence, all with an expiration date. No ties, no regrets. Too late, Molly realizes it isn’t only her body that’s become addicted to Fox, but her heart.

Goodreads

Source: e-arc provided via Netgalley for my honest review

Review:
I went back and forth on whether I even wanted to review this book. I didn’t like it. AT ALL. As in this was the worst book I’ve read in 2014. I didn’t want my review to be the long epic rant that was running through my head. But I also don’t like to shy away from reviewing something just because I don’t like it.

Despite whatever I feel about a book, I know there is another reader who will love it and I truly believe that even negative reviews sell books. It’s just about guiding the right reader to the right book.

So I’ll try to explain what worked and what didn’t without going off the rails or being (too much) of a bitch.

Rock Addiction is pure cliché, hitting every rock star trope and I think, in general, that’s fine. There are set expectations when you put together an innocent everyday girl with a man whoring rock star and Singh delivers. This could have been fun for me but I should have known I was in trouble when it took the first hookup cliché/trope too far.

Molly is a librarian and a virgin – Fox sees her across a crowded room at a party and wants to make her his. He (knowingly) takes her virginity against a wall. Classy. And of course it’s perfect, without pain and she orgasms right out of the gate and four more times that night. I know….I know…it’s a fun fantasy but sorry – I just can’t with that. 

Their relationship of course blossoms into more than the one month of hot sex agreement - with the obvious inherent problems. Women are always hitting on Fox, Molly wants to adamantly avoid the spotlight because of her past. Something that just isn’t going to happen if this becomes more than sex. But they go ahead and take a chance anyway.

She just ups and moves from New Zealand to the US to be with her “Rock God”, changes careers, finds a new job lickity split with her new copy editing certificate and has hot sex every day with her “Rock God”. I repeat the phrase Rock God – because Molly does too – ad nauseam.

Ok – so here’s what works with Rock Addiction.

Molly and Fox are actually great people that balance each other out. They are two halves that make a whole. They’re good together. Despite all of Fox’s past hookups and bad boy persona, he’s a talented musician, a loyal friend and treats Molly great. Molly sees past the fame and glitter. She isn’t after his money, she doesn't want to be in the spotlight. In fact she takes steps to be independent from him. They communicate well even when rumors that swirl around them would break another couple in their position.

I also loved the band members and  how they had BOTH Molly and Fox’s back when the shit hit the fan on more than one occasion.

Why did I hate it then? Because the dialogue was just too cheesy and over the top for me.

There’s a whole lot of primal thrusting, whiskey voices, scents that bond to every molecule, bodies imprinting on cells, slutty women thrusting their turgid nipples on Fox’s naked chest, some squicky sex talk. On and on…

Then there is just plain weirdness – like Molly and one of Fox’s friends calling his coffee maker a “science fiction machine. O_o

This is going to be a series and there are glimpses of the other band members and the tease of forthcoming relationships but it appears that some of their story arc happened in this book but off page and I guess we’'ll get back to it in their book?? Honestly, this book just baffles me.

But…..

So many people liked this and took it for the fun it’s supposed to be so if you can let that kind of thing go and just read for the librarian/rock star fantasy then I say go for it. I tried…I really did because I’ve always enjoyed Nalini Singh’s writing and I love when authors are able to mix up genres. I probably could have handled the cliches and tropes but ultimately it was the writing that just felt too amateurish for me.

For a more positive spin check out my friend Mary's review over at The Book Swarm