Monday, April 15, 2013

Lush by Lauren Dane

Mary Whaley has her hands full running a successful catering company and overseeing her supper club. She’s got everything she ever wanted—or so she thought. When she meets ridiculously hot and very dirty rock star Damien Hurley at her friend’s engagement party, the attraction she feels is overpowering—and she isn’t about to deny herself.

Damien is used to a hard and fast life. He and two of his brothers started a band when they were all in high school—then they hit the big time and stayed there. He’s also a legendary madman on the stage and in the bedroom. But when he meets Mary, something clicks, and the bad boy starts thinking he may have finally found something good.

What begins as a series of fleeting trysts soon get much more complicated. Damien can’t figure out why Mary doesn’t want more from him. And before long it’s Damien who wants more of Mary. But it turns out Mary is no stranger to the celebrity news and he’s got a very big job ahead of him—proving that he’s worth more than a one-night stand…
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I try to prevent too much fangirling here but woohoo so good! Please, if you haven't, stop and buy this book because the joy of reading a romance where the leads navigate the social minefield of trust & their different lives as actual ADULTS is just off the charts.Yes, you know going in that as a romance there's going to be a HEA but instead of a fade to black, you assume the rest, Dane creates two people who feel like people. Real men and women with friends and family and within all of these bonds is a very complicated picture of life.

If I was going to nitpick I didn't think Mary and Damien's 'big fight' was all that necessary to the story but I'm sure someone else could just as easily say that some sort of conflict was required or it'd all be considered too easy. Eh I don't mind easy when I feel like throughout the book the two of them have had to negotiate due to their lives, family, and what they see for themselves in the future. 

Ultimately Dane has done it again with a great book, a great series, and (from what I'm hearing) a freaking fantastic introduction to a new family we'll get books for in the future!

Overall Feeling - A+

Series - 1) "Sway" 2) Tart 3) Lush