Title: The Inside Track (License to Love #2)

Author: Tamsen Parker

Genre/Themes: Rockstar romance, Mental illness

Release date: 26 Feb 2019

Author’s links: Website / Facebook / Reader Group / Twitter

My rating: 3.5 Stars

Blurb

Love might mean coming as you are, but staying is a different matter.

Nick Fischer is a screw-up; everyone knows it and they’re not afraid to tell him so. The only thing he’s got going for him is that he plays a reliable rhythm guitar for License to Game, and his big fat bulldog, Princess Fiona, is so ugly she’s cute.

Dempsey Lawrence is a former child star turned financial advisor, and while she’s curious about the hot mess of a man who’s her co-panelist for a presentation on financial literacy, she has no intention of pursuing anything with him. Too loud, too crass, too wild, Nick is altogether too much. Plus, he’s famous, and she is so over stardom and everything that comes with it.

Except that when Dempsey gives Nick an inch, he takes a mile, and she finds that she doesn’t mind so much. Until Nick brings the pitfalls of stardom to Dempsey’s doorstep, then all the attraction in the world might not be enough to promise a happily ever after.

Review

This was an engaging romance between a rockstar hero with ADHD and a former child star now financial consultant with agoraphobia.

I mostly enjoyed this romance and found both characters interesting. I liked the hero and the way his ADHD was presented, especially at the beginning. His POV become more challenging to read as the story progressed though I mostly enjoyed it. I wanted some more depth, a bit more seriousness/angst if you like. He was too accepting, too easygoing, to the point that it seem he didn’t care enough. 

The romance had a well done consent, a bit of femdom and was very sex positive (there is a male sex worker as a side character who was an awesome friend in addition).

The heroine had developed agoraphobia after traumatic sexual experiences as a teen. She was in a bad family situation no real support network apart from people who worked for her in one way or another. They have become her family over time and her only close relationships. Building a life that she can manage and feeling more or less happy. He brought new light into her world, stirred things up. But also cause her a lot of stress. His star status, the attention he attracted was really bad for her mental health. I found this aspect of the story the least convincing. She didn’t leave her house but had a celebrity boyfriend who brought his bandmates and friends over (with her consent but it caused her a panic attack), put her live on stage via chat, had a stalker attack him in her house. I feel it was all too much for her to deal with. 

We see them discussing it and trying hard to balance things out but I am not convinced how they would make it work in the long term. It was a matter of compromise and they both seemed committed to it and put a lot of effort and thought into it, but in the end I feel it was all much for her to be able to deal with it.

The second half was a bit messy, too many things going on, some over the top plot elements detracted from my overall enjoyment of the story. I loved how he worked out his grand gestured with the help of his friends and how fitting it was.

Overall it was a nice romance with interesting characters where I wanted some more depth and conflict and a little less drama. I'm not fully sold on their HEA but the HFN was solid in my mind.

CW: panic attacks, stalker, breaking and entering, knife attack

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