Liberty “Libby” Bell (yes, her parents named her Liberty when their surname was Bell, I don’t know why you’d do that to a child either!) has been living as a veritable recluse in her grandparents’ old farmhouse on an island in the Carolinas (I think, there’s an author’s note about how the place obviously doesn’t really exist blah blah) since her parents died in a car accident the year before. She apparently makes her living as a book cover designer (cool job – not one I’ve come across in romance before, not that we EVER see her doing any work). She comes home to find a man passed out on her lawn, his large, expensive motorcycle having destroyed part of her front yard before it got wrapped around her fence. Since he is clearly dead drunk, Libby wakes “Lawn Bum”, as she mentally christens him by spraying him with her garden hose. He wakes up, swears a lot, proceeds to get completely undressed and vomits all over her.
Killian James is the guitarist and one of the lead singers of Kill John, the biggest rock band on the planet (they’re never just moderately famous people, nope, super celebrity, obvs). On the anniversary of his bandmate Jax’ suicide attempt, he got himself hammered into oblivion and went joyriding on his bike, ending up in Libby’s front yard. He hasn’t wanted to touch his guitars or make any music for a year, but after spending some time with the grouchy, snarky hermit woman who cleaned him off and fed him, despite her misgivings, he feels his inspiration returning. Normally surrounded by clamoring fans or press people, he enjoys that Libby clearly has no idea who he is. He understands why she retreated to the island when her parents died, and could quite happily stay hidden away in the house right next door to her forever. But his manager won’t stop calling, and it’s time to get the band together again.
Killian doesn’t want to go back on tour without Libby. Having discovered that she can sing, play guitar and makes her own songs (her parents were a session guitarist and a backing singer, respectively), Killian wants her to play some songs with the band. Libby doesn’t want to leave the safety of her farmhouse, and she certainly doesn’t want to go on stage with a hugely successful rock band in front of tens of thousands of people. Nor does she want people to think Killian is only giving her a chance to sing because he wants to get in her pants. But if he leaves and goes on tour, is she ever going to see him again? What would a world-class rock star really see in a shy little homebody like Libby Bell?
If your business tycoon/billionaires are the dukes of contemporary romance, the athletes and various sportsball players the viscounts, then surely the rock stars have to be the earls. The rest of my review can be read here.