TBR Challenge: ‘RISE’, by Karina Bliss

The topic of this month is Contemporary

Published: Jan-2015

Genre: Contemporary Romance

My Rating: four stars

Part of a Series: A Rock Solid Romance #1

I had several contemporary novels in my kindle. I could choose any one so I said, a little rock’n’roll would be ok.

A hero whose job description is ‘sex, drugs and rock’n’roll’ does not look like a good bet for a relationship. However, Romancelandia has a great thing that makes you suspend your disbelief.

In Zander Freedman, you have you rock star who has burned the candle both ends. Drugs, sex, a great arrogance, charismatic and egotistical. He even was awful towards his brother. Therefore, his band broke apart and he ended alone. Nevertheless, the brand is his, so he recreates his group with younger musicians and now he is doing his Resurrection Tour.

He has a contract to write his autobiography. Two writers has already been fired when he contacts Elizabeth Winston, a New Zealander academic who has already written about you know, serious things, historical biographies of great people from the past. So, this is a joke, isn't it? It must be a joke. Nope. So, in the end, she accepts this job.

They are attracted to each other. She is a preacher’s daughter with a wild strike, but mainly she tries to be supportive and good for everybody. She is just a normal person, like you and me, but in a crazy environment, the Rock world, so when you see it through her eyes, it is as you or I would see it. It has that fish-out-of-water sense vibe that makes it quite interesting.

He is nearly forty and she thirty-five, so they have more or less the same age. She is kind of a moral compass for him. He tries to be better, but the most important thing, for him, is singing, the tour, the concerts…

He has a secret. His voice is in danger because of a polyp in his cords. He has to go to surgery, but to do that would endanger the future not only of his career but it would affect the rest of the people he works with. He keeps his secret. Nobody knows it, but in the end, it exacts a toll him.

This has been a very enjoyable novel. The idea of watching a band behind the scenes is quite attractive. Both Elizabeth and Zander are very interesting characters, with the head well over their shoulders. You see the natural and fluid way in which they meet, connect with each other, have sex and fall in love.

I adore everything from Down Under, it gives the novel a certain touch of reality. I don’t know why, but people from those countries (Australia or New Zealand) sounded more real to me that for instance your average American contemporary. It must be something cultural, I guess.

Karina Bliss used to write category novels. It looks like this is a spin-off of a ‘What the Librarian Did’ (Harlequin Super Romance – 1622), where Zander was the apparently irredeemable villain.

Well, in this book it looks like he is redeemed.

I enjoy this book. I am not sure if I will keep on reading more books written by this author. In a sense I liked this rock’n’roll contemporaries, but I have a this feeling that –I've already read this story before even before I opened the novel. Rock Kiss series, by Nalini Singh, was on my mind now and then, while reading this book. Therefore, although I enjoyed reading this book –a lot– I am not sure I am interested in more of the same.