Rock Chick Renegade by Kristen Ashley (Rock Chick #4)

Gah!  I finally freaking finished this book.  I know that for a lot of the KA addicts out there that Jules and Vance are their favorite Rock Chick couple.  It has been too long to give a good summary so I will just give a short one:

Jules is a social worker at a center for kids without homes, runaways, etc.  She has a few boys that she has taken under her wing.  One of them gets into trouble on the streets and Jules decides she wants vengeance.  That is how she ends up on the Hot Bunch radar with Vance confronting her.  The usual Hot Bunch tactics ensue with Vance pursuing and Jules resisting.  The Rock Chicks try to bring her into the fold and Jules resists.  More drama ensues…that is all I have because I stopped reading it for so long that I can’t give good details until the last 20% but that would give all the spoilers away, so that is all you get. :)

I got annoyed with her emotional Rottweiler turned pug.  I’m pretty sure that people don’t do that and it got old fast.  Jules yes/no feelings for Vance got old too, but in true Hot Bunch fashion Vance didn’t take no for an answer.

I stopped reading this book and actually finished the rest of the series then went on to read about 1,000 other KA books before convincing myself that I can’t leave a wounded soldier behind and picked it back up.  I enjoyed the first 30% and the last 20%, but the middle had a lot of BS filler that I could have done without.

One of my favorite characters was surprising Boo, the kitty.  I loved Jules narrative for what her cat was thinking.  Here is an example and you will see why Boo is the greatest!  (Don’t be confused with the reference to Luke, it’s from the right book):

“Luke was making himself at home and opening a bottle of Fat Tire beer when I arrived.  Boo was asking him who the hell he thought he was and also could he spare a few kitty treats for a poor, abused house cat?”

Favorite Quote:
“You told me I was home to you and I get it.  You’re home to me.  I’ve never had a home.  I like the one I found and I’m not losin’ it.  No matter what.”  -Vance to Jules (and that pretty much sums up the book, Jules keeps trying to pull it away and Vance keeps saying “no”).

Rock Chick by Kristen Ashley (Rock Chick #1)

I am officially on the Kristen Ashley bandwagon and its amazing. Love it! I read Mystery Man first which is the first book in another series but it was clearly written after this series as a couple of the characters made cameos and to appreciate the cameos I decided to go back to the beginning. And in the words of Inigo Montoya: "I am waiting for you, Vizzini. You told me to go back to the beginning. So I have. This is where I am, and this is where I'll stay. I will not be moved." Of course, I will be moved, right on to Rock Chick Rescue...

India Savage, goes by Indy, has been avoiding Liam Nightingale for the past 10 years. She has been in love with him since she was five years old. She threw herself at him numerous times and every time he turned her down. Ten years ago he made his point by saying that Indy was like a sister to him. And since Indy was his sister's best friend, Indy believed him, she was humiliated and hurt and she believed him.

Now Indy is thirty and she owns a used bookstore/coffee shop and her famous coffee guy is in big trouble. The coffee guy's name is Rosie (this is short for Ambrose) and he and Indy need a place to stay after getting shot at by bad guys after Rosie. Ally (Liam's sister and Indy's best friend) thinks the safest place for them is in Liam's condo (Liam isn't home). Of course, we know, Liam comes home. He comes home in the middle of the night and sneaky as a cat he ties up Rosie in the living room like he is a hog at a hog roast. He yanks Indy out of his bed by her foot...the rest is all the twists and turns through getting Rosie and Indy out of trouble with the bad guys (there are repeated kidnappings, numerous car bombs, and creepy bad guys that look like Grandpa Muenster) and also the tumultuous relationship that builds between Liam and Indy. Liam decides he wants Indy, Indy decided ten years ago she was done with Liam. Hmmm...interesting!

The secondary characters were great! I loved, loved, loved Tex (words can't even describe this guy but he is great). I loved Eddie (Eddie's story? Rock Chick Rescue? Don't mind if I do.), Kitty Sue, The Kevster.

The only thing I don't like is that there are too many cowboy boots. Everyone seems to be wearing them and they aren't my favorite so it ruins my mental image. Whenever I read that, I have to change their shoes in my head.

Rock Chick Rescue by Kristen Ashley (Rock Chick #2)

I ripped right through this book in two days. I believe it is something like 500 pages! Needless to say there wasn't a whole lot of laundry washing itself. Of course, at this time I am already 20% through Rock Chick Redemption. The entirety of July's book allowance is being spent on this series. I don't want to think about where I'll be when the allowance is gone, August will still be weeks away and more Rock Chick's to read!

Rock Chick Rescue is the story of Jet and Eddie. We met Eddie in Rock Chick and I definitely wanted to hear his story. Jet is a super cool name but I believe her real name is Henrietta or something. Jet is used to taking care of everything all by herself. She was working two jobs and trying to take care of her mom who had a stroke eight months ago. This was going ok, until her dad shows up in town (and while it is clear he loves her, he is still a bum) and he brings a heap of trouble on Jet.

Jet has a hard time with Eddie because she thinks he is out of her league and just looking for someone to rescue (hence the name). She tries to push Eddie away, and Eddie just keeps coming. I loved the beginning when they are dancing around each other. I loved Jet and that she didn't know how pretty she was. It was sweet seeing her realize that she had a bunch of friends who wanted to help her.

I still loved Tex in this, but I also loved Tod and Stevie, Ada was hilarious, I loved Eddie's mother, Blanca, and (surprisingly) I loved Daisy. I loved Mace and Vance and I looked ahead and I see I get to read their stories so I am pumped about that.

The ending was a little weak to me. Jet decides to end things and for no apparent reason, I needed a bigger reason than the same old stuff she had been saying, but then Jet says, "I love you" and Eddie just thinks this is cute. However, since I have started #3 then I can see that Jet and Eddie are still sorting their stuff out in this one, so I will forgive Kristen and trust that she has a master plan in place here.

The only thing I found annoying with Jet (it seemed that others found many things annoying with her, but I liked her a lot) was her tendency to say:
"No."
"No, No, No." and often.

Rock Chick Redemption by Kristen Ashley (Rock Chick #3)

Where to begin...I absolutely loved this book. I will admit, that at the beginning, I thought Hank's book was just something to get through to get to the rest of the books. He had parts in the first two books and while I liked him, I didn't think he had what it takes to be the hero of his own book...I was wrong. I was very, very, wrong. Hank was amazing and I really loved Roxie. I didn't like how high maintenance she was, but I appreciate that the author is giving her characters differences that make their personality. The book made me laugh. There were parts were Roxie by herself made me laugh, and Roxie with Hank made me laugh, or Roxie with Uncle Tex (I still love Uncle Tex although he has quite the potty mouth on him).

The entirety of their relationship can be summed up with this quote:
"I'm not your woman," I said, drowsy.
"You are," he returned.

I really loved the story line with Roxie. She was in a bad relationship with a boyfriend and she was trying to leave. She tried to break up with him and "it didn't take." He kept coming after her and Denver was part of the plan. Meet her Uncle Tex, Billy finds her and she will come back to Denver and hopefully he won't look for her in the place he just found her (that is her plan). When he does find her she is with Hank and Billy flips out. I actually liked the part of the story line were Roxie gets beaten and taken (not that I in any way find this acceptable behavior for real life or would ever think it is ok, but it works so well for this book). Because of this the entire Hot Bunch wants to protect Roxie, but she thinks she is dirty now.

This is my new favorite!

Rock Chick Revenge by Kristen Ashley (Rock Chick #5)

Ava and Luke

This was one of my favorite Rock Chick books! I loved Luke AND I loved Ava. I haven't loved both the characters equally since Liam and India. And Lee was super sweet in this one when he found Ava in the basement. I am actually ~70% through Vance and Jules story when I started this one (just intending to read the first few chapters that are available online because I didn't have access to my kindle) and I couldn't put it down. I had to go home and purchase this one and kept trying to convince myself to play by the rules and go back and finish Vance and Jules...but I couldn't!

I am not sure this one needs a summary (there is not so much stuff that goes down). In short, Ava has known Luke since she was eight, she gets into some trouble, goes to Luke, changes her mind, he decides he is taking care of her troubles and the rest is the story of those troubles and Luke and Ava's story.

I still love Tex. He usually makes me laugh (although I will reiterate that his foul mouth sometimes makes me cringe with his use of GD). I love Shirleen and (unexpectedly) I loved Ren. He was such a wonderful combination of macho man/sweet guy that (if I didn't love Luke as much as I do) I might have rooted for him. I like Riley as well (not as much as Ren) but he was a good character as well.

Ava's troubles were at once less scary and more scary than the other Rock Chick's, but I loved, loved, loved it.

Now, I just have to convince myself to finish Vance and Jules before going on to Mace and Stella. I have many colleagues who rely on me for book recommendations and I have having a hard time not getting giddy when I talk about Rock Chicks (that would mean I am a bigger dork than I already am, so I gotta keep a lid on that.)

Rock Chick Reckoning by Kristen Ashley (Rock Chick #6)

4.5 stars

Where to begin...

Obviously (as stated in the book summary) this is Mace and Stella's story. It was really good (which is why it gets five big beautiful stars), but if I could I would give it 4.5 stars. It wasn't my favorite of the Rock Chick series, but it wasn't my least favorite either.

This book had alternating first person POV, which is different than the rest of the Rock Chick's (which is always first person POV but always for one person). Because of this we got a look at the Hot Bunch sans Rock Chicks at times (not as much as I would have liked though), and also small glimpses into Roxie/Hank, Indy/Lee, and Jules/Vance. Whenever it switched to a different Rock Chick I always got annoyed and wanted to get back to Stella, but by the end of each mini episode I was digging it.

There was an epilogue which was a little different. It did a look into the future about five years and gave an update on all the Hot Bunch/Rock Chick couples. I liked it, but at the same time I was saddened.

There wasn't as much action in this book, which is my biggest complaint. I loved the story between Mace and Stella and maybe because of Mace's past the author didn't want to put him through any typical Rock Chick stuff and have to save her, but I missed it.

Rock Chick Regret by Kristen Ashley (Rock Chick #7)

This is Hector and Sadie's story. This is my favorite since Hank and Roxie. My favorites of the Rock Chick Series have been Liam and India, Hank and Roxie, and now Hector and Sadie.

Like usual, Sadie has found herself some trouble. Her father is some bad dude drug dealer and is put away for his misdeeds (by Hector!). Now, without the protection of her father, Sadie is the center-piece for a power struggle with the Balducci brothers. Sadie goes to Nightingale Investigations to ask for protection. While in his offices (which took guts to go to by the way as the last encounter Hector had with Sadie did not end well), the Rock Chicks tried to freeze her out and Lee refused her protection, while Hector sits next to Lee not saying anything.

It turns out Sadie does need the Hot Bunch protection (of course she does, this is a Rock Chick book), and now Hector will be her protector. The problem is that Sadie hasn't had any friends before, let alone a protector and she bumbles her way through this making a debacle out of it most of the time and assuming the worst of people (as she is wont to do based on how she was raised).

Sadie's life and loneliness was so tragic. I could feel her pain and humiliation as she worked through all her insecurities. This felt like the highest drama Rock Chick yet and I LOVED it!

I feel I should add...Sadie uses the term "aces" frequently. Now, it must be said that there is a very real possibility that it is me who is uncool by not using this term. However, it is weird for someone who is supposed to be as refined as Sadie using a term that should be left in the 70's.

My only complaint is that I could have done without the whole Natalie, half the women from the roadhouse drama. Hector was supposed to have been hung up on Sadie for a while and though that doesn't mean that he necessarily pined for her, I didn't like it that he was a love-them-and-leave-them guy the very moment that Sadie was having her drama! Yuck Hector Chavez...shame on you!

Favorite Quote:

"No really," I whispered, letting the sweet peaceful feeling steal over me.

"It only matters if there's someone to care if you don't wake up.  It's okay if I don't wake up because there's no one to care."

--Sadie Townsend