This is the third book in the Stage Dive series, and while the books can be read as stand-alones and independently of each other, the series is best read in order. Start with Lick and if you like it, move on to Play.If you don’t like the first two, then book three is probably not going to be your thing either.
James “Jimmy” Ferris is the lead singer of the hugely popular, world famous rock band Stage Dive and he’s had a rough few months. Having hit rock bottom after years of drinking, doing drugs and generally enjoying being a bit of a d*ck, he’s gone through rehab and is now trying to clean up his act. His band mates hire Lena Morrissey to be his personal assistant, and well, babysitter. She lives with him, makes sure he stays sober and generally tries to keep him from acting like an out of control asshole. She has a long history of falling for the wrong guy, most recently, her boyfriend dumped her for her own sister, and she now has to decide whether she’s going to cause her family a huge amount of upset by refusing to show up at their wedding.
Preparing for the funeral of the Ferris brothers’ surrogate mother of sorts, Jimmy is sorely tempted to give in and drink. The Ferris brothers’ own mother is a horrible woman, who is still drunk, constantly trying to cash in on the fame of her two sons (David is the songwriter and guitarist in the band). Lena manages to stop him, but has trouble staying impersonal and detached after Jimmy basically breaks down and cries all over her. Despite their sizzling chemistry, Lena knows that it would be a monumentally bad idea to fall for her damaged and messed up boss, and tries to stay professional at all times. She even agrees to go out on a number of dates arranged for her by Jimmy and the other members of the band, when all she really wants is to jump Jimmy.
Full review.
Glad to know this came out! I liked Play a lot.
My friend Erica (who got me hooked on the series in the first place) liked Lead a lot more than I did (she rated it 4.5 stars), because she had no problems with Jimmy as a character and felt his redemption was worth-while. She said that the whole time she was reading it, she kept thinking “Malin isn’t going to like this”, and she was right. I loved Lena, I love the rest of the band, but kept waiting for the book to wow me like the other two did. Even with my reservations about Jimmy, it’s not a bad book, I just didn’t love it.
Just read this and posted my review — I’m with you on Jimmy. You went into a lot more depth than I did, but he definitely wasn’t worthy of Lena.