Michelle A. Valentine - Rock the Heart

So now for a new series and author altogether and a different story entirely for me which made it interesting for me because it was so unusual in context to other books.

Rock the Heart is the first book in Michelle A. Valentine's romance series, Black Falcon, which revolves around the band of the same name and their developing romantic relationships.  Each book, four full length books in total, focuses on one member in particular so that more time can be spent on each man and everything isn't told so rapidly.  This series appears to be self-published as which is impressive from my point of view as it is mostly well written.

Rating: 8

Recommended To: Adult audience

Favourite Characters: Riff - intriguing

Favourite Part: A tear rolls down my cheek, and I turn my head away from him.  "Please stop hurting me"  The words only come out as a whisper, but I know he hears them. - Page 268

Good Points: The way it was written; the concept; Noel; the ending

Bad Points: Typing errors; past could have been reflected on more

Rock the Heart focuses on Lanie Vance, an intern at a marketing firm, and Noel Falcon, the lead singer of Black Falcon who used to date Lanie when they were in high school together and lost their virginity with one another.  Rock the Heart follows this pair as they begin to work together through the marketing company Lanie interns for after four years apart.  Once Noel finds out Lanie works for this company, he uses his rock star power to get Lanie's boss to send her on tour with him under the guise that he is setting up.  Because of their passionate past, Lanie regrets breaking up with Noel and her feelings for him come back and cause an issue for her in her job as she tries to suppress them and Noel tries to use them for his advantage.

What was great about this book for me was the way it was written, both the story and the characters.  The way the characters were written showed me that that they were comfortable and relaxed with one another to a point and despite only knowing Lanie for days, the boys act the same way with her which is great; this is illustrated well for me when Lanie and Noel have just finished their romantic rendezvous on the bus and when Lanie leaves the bedroom for a snack, she is met by her best friend and her new lover, Riff.  When they start to tease her, there is this sense of awkwardness in the prose as well as the good humour meant behind the words, and for me, emotion needs to be conveyed well in the prose so I can become engaged with the situation or I just get bored and skip lines I feel are unimportant and fortunately, Valentine engaged my attention, leaving me wanting to read more of the series.

I love the concept of following each band member in a separate book as they enter their own relationships.  If this had just been one big book with the four members being focussed on at different times, it wouldn't have worked quite so well, so, brava Valentine.  I also loved the idea behind the concept, the band being the focus, like Gena Showalter focussing on the warriors in Lords of the Underworld, as it appears well researched and structured as if Valentine has first-hand experience behind the scenes of the rock star lifestyle as well as inside a marketing company.

Valentine really wrote Noel well, making him a good thing about this book, but not a favourite character of mine.  Every girl has dreamt of what it would be like to date a rock star with the bad boy image (sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll) even if it's for a moment and Noel embodies all of these, fulfilling this fantasy is these pages for the briefest time.  He sleeps around, he drinks to the point of not being able to function enough, and can dazzle anyone just by smiling at them.  It is clear that Lanie wants him but knows that she shouldn't for professional reasons; however, the allure of the ex-boyfriend rock star fantasy for the reader vicariously.

I don't normally talking about this in my reviews but I really thought the ending was extremely sweet after everything that happened between Lanie and Noel.  This was because it wasn't an over-exaggerated moment of passion where the two characters made the beast with two backs for the final time but it was endearing and quite heart-warming.  As the prose is written in the first person, I could imagine myself in Lanie's place, as if Noel was serenading me which I found extremely romantic and this made a nice change from the intense love scenes in most romance novels as there is more than one way into a woman's heart.

My absolute favourite character in this book was Riff because there was quite a lot of depth to him even though he wasn't a protagonist while the other band members (the twins who play drums and bass) weren't that integral to the story.  He was extremely flirty and sexy when he first met Lanie, assuming she was just a groupie, living up to the stereotype of the oversexed rock star who beds a new woman every night, much like the other band members but there is more to him than that.  He's also quite angry for a lot of the book for an unknown reason towards Noel and despite knowing Lanie's history with Noel, knowing she broke his heart as she had no faith in him, warns her to stay away which tells me that the anger is wells placed and isn't irrelevant.  Behind his anger, I read hurt as he lashed out at Noel, as if he's upset he's lost his best friend but the reader doesn't know why until everything comes out; his hurt adds another dimension to his character and therefore makes him interesting for me which in turn makes me want to read the next book in the series that revolves around Riff.

Unfortunately, there were a couple of point that brought this book down in my rating; the major one was that there were a number of typing errors which disrupted the flow in the prose.  These mistakes were really clear and seemed like they should have been picked up on during the editing process; from what I understand, this was self-published and probably self-edited but this could have been easily noticed.  As this disrupted my reading, it just confused me for a moment and I had to ensure I hadn't missed something, like it was a song or something.

Another thing that could have been better in this book is that the past between Lanie and Noel, and even Noel and his band mates, could have been explored more.  If the past had been such an issue for Lanie and Noel then why not explain what happened and why clearly to the reader rather than giving small points, such as Lanie broke up with him because she didn't believe in him, every so often.  Valentine could have reflected on the good parts of their past as well as the bad.  She could have also told the reader how the band met and such; this would add an extra layer to the story because the reader becomes further involved with the characters and can get a better understanding of them.  This would have raised this book to a 9 for me if this had happened.

A tear rolls down my cheek, and I turn my head away from him.  "Please stop hurting me"  The words only come out as a whisper, but I know he hears them. - Page 268

The way Valentine wrote this truly tugged on my heartstrings as I could read the emotions behind them and felt my own heart breaking as Lanie's did.  It was effective and moving and though there were obvious errors, the way the story was told connected with me.

Though I'm not going to rush to buy the next one of these books because of the sheer amount of books I still have to read, I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I'd recommend it as a book to take on holiday with you and sit by the pool and read as it was just good to read and wasn't overly complicated.

Predictions

1. Lanie and Noel marry and have kids

2. Aubrey comes back and gets back with Riff
3. Riff has trouble committing fully to Aubrey