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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Thrown Off Track by Tamsen Parker - a longish novella, boy band m/m romance with an interesting demi rep which I liked though it was completely different from my personal experience. This is a low-heat friend-to-lovers story where two best friends and band mates become a couple. I loved the romance arc which had some virgin feel because it was the first time for Teague to feel sexual attraction and desire. I loved how they were comfortable with each other and freely discussed their feelings, their sex lives, including a lot of explicitly stated consent. I appreciate  how considered of his giant statue Teague was, but having this said again and again every couple of pages became repetitive. He did act immature at times, jumping to conclusions but given the general turmoil of his life at the moment, I guess this was understandable.

The romance between Teague and Christian blossomed at the time when the band had to move on and each member had to start thinking about/working on a solo career. This highlighted some interesting perspectives on the life after the boy band bringing forth discussions of  popularity and making money vs making the music you love. All the characters read like real people, unique, with their own characters and quirks, no generic stereotypes of the bad boy rock star.

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*** *** ***

I loved both hero and heroine and their romance arc was fabulous. He was caring but restrained, trying to keep things between them professional, never losing sight of the business and at the same helping her/protecting her. She was totally infatuated with him while also trying to stand on her own, to prove to herself (and in a way the world that has rejected her one too many times) that she is not a failure, a quitter who gives up at first obstacle. 

I feel I got to know him and his motivations a bit better and he was definitely my favourite. Despite the lies and deliberate omissions. I loved how she came back to him on her own, after making her mind, fully aware of who he was and he was trying to do. 

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*** *** ***

Bad Reputation by Stephanie London (out on Aug 4) is the second book in the series and while I loved the first, I found this one a bit messy. The story is still very much focused on the abuse and potential harm of online tools but some other conflict was thrown in the mix - employer/employee (director - ballerina) relationship, her dramatic past, a jealous co-worker. 

I liked the characters on their own and both had interesting back stories - she is an Aussie  who tried to make it in the ballet world of NY after leaving Sidney due to a professional/personal scandal. She was having a fun, uncomplicated life but never quite gave up on her dreams. He was trying to prove his worth outside his family who were a superstar power couple in the ballet world. 

I enjoyed the story and found the MCs likable but felt there were too many things going on, too many small obstacles and conflicts happening, too many subplots, all this left the main conflict underdeveloped. 3 stars

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*** *** ***

Currently reading - To Have and to Harley by Regina Cole (out on Aug 7) - a m/f biker romance where the bad boy bikers find themselves running a wedding planning business. There were nice touches but way too much stereotyping and cardboard secondary characters, plus the heroine is getting progressively more naive and helpless, so I'm putting it on hold at 65%. 

1. Favourite place

I’m a New Englander at heart, I can’t really imagine living anyplace else for any length of time. That being said, I love to travel. New Orleans and Montreal are two of my favorite cities to visit. When I want to pretend reality’s not a thing, a long weekend in Las Vegas is nice—I don’t even gamble, I just like all the food, shows, spas…the whole place is a giant spectacle. Kauai is lovely, and I like going to Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania at any time of year. Probably my favorite small place is a little church courtyard in Stockholm. There’s a tiny little statue called Järnpojke and I loved going to visit him, especially when I was having a bad day. He’s so tiny, and yet he brings people so much joy—reminds me that even when we feel small and helpless sometimes we can actually have a bigger impact than we think.    

2. Favourite food and drink

My favorite drinks are sweet Rieslings, gin cocktails, and pretty much anything with elderflower liquor in it. Food is so much harder! My favorite junk foods are Kit Kats (they disappear RAPIDLY from my desk, Idek where because I swear I didn’t eat that many) and Bugles (which I only get at airports to limit my consumption). I also really enjoy a good steak—which, if one more wait-person tries to give Mr. Parker my steak and pass his fish off on me? I’m going to start flipping tables. And after a childhood of loathing Brussel sprouts, they’re now one of my favorites. Also Kane’s doughnuts, pot roast, empanadas from this little place in Chicago that I get when I go see Amy Jo Cousins. Um, it’s possible I should’ve waited until after lunch to answer this question…

3. Favourite music/genre/artist/song

I tend to listen to my book playlists while I’m writing, so what I’m listening to shifts based on what I’m writing. But right now, I’m listening to a lot of stuff by The Head and The Heart, Lord Huron, Michael Kiwanuka, Alpha Rev, Leon Bridges, and Anderson East.

4. Favourite movie/TV series

Right now I’m watching mostly things I’ve seen before because I’m multitasking, and I watch a lot of kids movies because I have a six year old. Moana, The Avengers movies (especially Captain America), Star Wars, Wonder Woman are all on regular rotation. I love Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, BBC adaptations of Jane Austen novels, and I just watched Alias Grace which was really good but also profoundly disturbing. We’re also devotees of John Oliver, so Last Week Tonight is one of the few current shows I watch.

5. Favourite hobby besides writing, if you consider writing a hobby

I’m a planner addict! Which means I have truly excessive amounts of washi tape and stickers in my office. I also collect Funko Pops, but only badass women figures. I like watching movies, and we have season tickets to the Boston Pride which is a women’s pro hockey team. When my friends and I aren’t just going out for dinner, we like to do artsy things like clay classes, paint nights, hand-lettering workshops, and our next adventure is a crash course in glass-blowing. And of course, I love to read.

6. Favourite books (feel free to list as many as you want; all-time favourites or newly released ones; grouped by sub/genre or other criteria)

Oh, this is a terrible/wonderful question to ask an author!

My auto-buy authors are KJ Charles, Rose Lerner, and Alyssa Cole, so pretty much everything by them makes the list.

The Subs Club series by JA Rock

Old School Discipline and Working Out the Kinks by Misha Horne

Off Campus (and pretty much everything else) by Amy Jo Cousins

Comfort Object by Annabel Joseph

The Comte by Edie Harris

The Fly Me to the Moon series by Emma Barry and Genevieve Turner (with bonus points to Earth Bound, which just killed me)

Reawakening by Charlotte Stein

Wanderlust by Skye Warren

A Lady Awakened by Cecilia Grant

A Gentleman in the Street by Alisha Rai

This is in no way exhaustive! I could keep going all day, but I should probably go take care of edits on the fifth SIG book…

7. Please introduce your latest/upcoming release (what inspired you to write, what can the readers expect from it, etc.)

Love on the Tracks is Book 1 in my new Snow and Ice Games series. I got the idea for the series when I was speaking to my editor at SMP Swerve, and she mentioned that she and her team had been talking about Michael Phelps (it was right after the summer Olympics). He’s been the dominant men’s swimmer in the world for a while now, but he got beat—and beat by Joseph Schooling, who’d met Michael Phelps when he was just a kid. Which, HI, does that not scream m/m romance? I thought it did. So I came up with a five book series and here we are.

Love on the Tracks is inspired by the super cute relationship between Simone Biles and Zac Efron. Theirs was platonic, but Love on the Tracks is basically about what might happen if it didn’t stay that way, and with a luger heroine and a boy band singer hero.

The Snow and Ice Games books are all coming out around the Winter Olympics so you won’t have to wait long for them (Love on the Tracks: 12/5, Seduction on the Slopes: 1/16, On the Edge of Scandal AND Fire on the Ice: 2/6, On the Brink of Passion: 3/6). They are category-length (~55k words) so they’re fast reads with the pulse pounding excitement people love about sports romance but with sports that don’t tend to get a lot of play—luge, slalom skiing, women’s hockey, figure skating, speed skating, and pairs figure skating. Also, you should know that Fire on the Ice is so dirty my editor had to stop reading it on the subway because it made her blush so hard.

I’m so excited to welcome everyone to the SIG snowglobe, thanks so much for reading! xoxo

Blurb

Welcome to the Snow and Ice Games where the competition is fierce and the romance is HOT.

Rowan Andrews is the unexpected darling of the Denver Snow and Ice Games. Luge has never captured the American public’s imagination as much as figure skating or even hockey, but her outsized personality and dare-devil ways have got everyone’s eyes glued to the track. Including a certain chart-topping heartthrob.

Zane Rivera is the lead singer of License to Game, the hottest band in the country. When Zane finds out Rowan Andrews has had some complimentary things to say about him, he arranges to meet her while he’s in Denver enjoying the games. And when a photo of him kissing Rowan on the cheek goes viral, they both see the advantages of faking a relationship for the publicity.

After Rowan’s injured in her final race, their relationship starts to feel all too real to Zane. But is this rock star ready to fall in love?

Purchase links: Amazon / B&N / Google Play / iBooks / Kobo

Author Bio and Links

Tamsen Parker is a stay-at-home mom by day, USA Today bestselling erotic romance writer by naptime. Her novella CRAVING FLIGHT was named to the Best of 2015 lists of Heroes and Heartbreakers, Smexy Books, Romance Novel News, and Dear Author. Heroes and Heartbreakers called her Compass series “bewitching, humorous, erotically intense and emotional.”

She lives with her family outside of Boston, where she tweets too much, sleeps too little and is always in the middle of a book. Aside from good food, sweet rieslings and gin cocktails, she has a fondness for monograms and subway maps. She should really start drinking coffee.

Social Media Links: Facebook / Reader Group / Twitter