Tuesday 14 June 2016

✪ Ellie Brixton ✪ #Kissing ✪ #RockAndRomance1 ✪

© Bianca Janeane




#KiSSiNG
Ellie Brixton
Rock and Romance #1
• release date: 14 June 2016
#2 will be Niko's story ☺

★★★★

4 Stars


I was always the good girl.

Then when the pressure became too much, I took off and found me a bad boy.

Niko. The hot, British rock star and frontman of the Halos.

He took my angel wings and gave me a lot of things, well, everything but the Big O.

And fidelity.

So with my #fail in hand, I did the worst thing imaginable.

I went home. The insta-nagging, criticism, and impossible expectations reminded me why my life #sucked
the reason I left in the first place.

Well, everything was the same except for JQ, my high school crush. With a snug T-shirt and jeans that fit in all of the right places, it looks like he became man and maybe it was time for me to become a woman.

#Kissing is a sexy, rock star romance for new adult, college, and contemporary romance readers who enjoy love stories with an HEA.

Author's note: #KISSING is a full-length, standalone novel. Due to strong language and content, this book is not intended for readers under the age of 18.



Josie used to have the perfect life. She was the pretty, slightly nerdy, mega-smart, rich girl living in a great Rhode Island town, being best friends and then in love with her male counterpart in said town.
But some things happened and she left.
And she didn't just leave to go to college. Nope, she left to become the groupie of a rock band. The Halos. She's the lead singer, Niko's girlfriend now.
But all his drugs and infidelities are getting harder and harder to take. Also, she never had an orgasm that she hasn't given herself!
Time to go and find herself some O's and a real life again.
She wasn't really expecting to find her real life in her hometown though.
And JQ is still the same hot guy he always was.
But he kinda hates her now....

What will happen to Josie & JQ?
Will there be a Happily Ever After?
Or will there be a huge Cliffy?



I'm not spoiling anything!!! ☺

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Uhm...this book.
I was kind of lost in the beginning of it. Or maybe during the whole thing. ☺
I think I didn't really love the first 30%.
I'm such a HUGE Rockstar-Romance-Fangirl, and I thought that this could be just my kind of book.
But.... First of all, the rockstar, Niko, is not the hero of the story. That's why this is not a rockstar-romance in my opinion. Niko will be the second book's hero. So I'm looking forward to reading that. Even though he wasn't all that likeable in this book.
Josie is a musical genius too, but she's not making music. She hasn't in years.
She's just a groupie now.
And this whole groupie and band thing in the first 30% of the book was soo like an ALMOST FAMOUS 2016 moment. I loved that movie, but I didn't really like the book up until that point.
The band is weird. Niko is on drugs and weird. Josie does weird and stupid stuff and it's all so very druggy and alcoholy and totally irresponsible and so very 70s or 80s, even though we're in 2016.
I think the first part of the book should've been way shorter. Niko is not the main guy of the book, therefore I don't need him to be in it that much.

During the beginning of the book I also sometimes had the feeling or rather hope, that Josie was an undercover student, writing her thesis in psychology: Confessions of a Rockstar-Groupie. But instead of writing the paper she got totally lost in being a groupie.☺

Also - talking about being the main guy of the book. Which in my opinion and in the blurb's opinion should've been JQ. But we don't meet JQ. We see him twice, very briefly. And we hear about him a little bit. But to be the hero of the story, I would've liked to see him in the book in the first half at least a few times! HE DOES NOT MEET US IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE BOOK AT ALL. So, that doesn't make him romance-book-hero-material in my book, because I can't like him, when I never met him. But that's only one problem in many about the book for me ☺

BUT, jeez, now I did it again. Totally dragged a book into the mud before I come to the good stuff. Because this book does have some of that too ☺

Once Josie leaves the band it gets a bit better. Though I have to say I didn't really love the writing style either :/ All those Hashtags here and there - sooo highschool-girlish. Ugh, I'm so sorry that I'm only saying bad things about the book.

PLEASE don't let me stop you from enjoying this book. Other readers - ones who are not as weird about things as I am - will totally fall in love with our poor Josie and her story!!!

Josie is a very complicated and interesting and weird person. She just hasn't found herself yet.
But maybe, now that she's back home with her horribly strict mom, she can work on herself some more. Get a job, get a plan for life. Get her health in order, because the way she's treating her diabetes is horribly dangerous!

I just wish this would've been more of a romance. I wish that JQ would've been there for her more, and sooner.

I have to admit I'm writing this review while I'm only 49% into the book. And already I'm so disappointed with it. I really hope it gets better. I will definitely come back to this review to add some spoiler-free things later. ☺

By the way - JQ utters his first words at the 58% mark. I hope that's not too spoilerish - but I guess you will notice him missing anyway when you read the book.☺

Once she's with JQ, I like Josie a lot more - but the way they got together was weird again. Kind of insta-happening. ☺
Ugh this book is just weird.
BUT - don't let all my weird ramblings fool you. I really liked reading it. You just have to keep going as a reader, even if there are things that bother you. You need to know how Josie's life will turn out in the end.
And Niko. That poor, lost little rockstar. I hope he'll get a great next book!!


#KISSING was a surprisingly #interesting and #moving tale about a lost girl who is finally understanding that you have to work hard at life, but that it'll be all worth it once you're starting to find yourself again ☺

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Copy received for an honest review

If you have read any of my reviews, you will know I am  a sucker for a rock star book.

But to me, although there is a rock band  and rocker involved, to me he is the secondary character in this book and it doesn't really make it a rock star book (but that's probably just me)

I am not going to lie, for the first 35% of the book, I really struggled to like anyone.  I hated the rock star Niko (well, I hated him right through the book actually) and even though at times our main girl Josie could be a great character, she would again capitulate to Niko's wants and I was left rolling my eyes thinking "stupid girl".

And at times I did think about putting this to my DNF pile

But after this far in I don't like to give up.  And when Josie left the band, I felt that for me the story took a turn for the better and I did enjoy it.

Josie is a complicated girl.  Straight A student headed off to college, she rebels and runs away from it all and becomes the life of the party.

And then there is the "hero" of the book, JQ.  We don't even really see him in the book until well after half way through the book, except for vague thoughts from Josie.  I would really liked to have had more of him in the book.

Uhg, I am making this sound like I didn't like this book at all, but that is not the case.  Yes, I did have a few issues with it, but these could just be my problems, so don't let them stop you from reading it.
#Kissing was an interesting tale of a little girl lost finding her way back to her true self.  It is not always an easy read, and there were some things and characters I didn't like, but overall I did like the story.

I wonder if Ms Brixton will bring us more of these characters in the future?




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Ellie Brixton is a unicorn by day and an author by night. She's a firm believer in eating dessert first and fancies herself a cookie connoisseur. Although she runs every day, she wishes for a 1959 Cadillac convertible, in pink of course. This is her first novel.