Review: Rock Legend

Rock Legend by Tara Leigh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Tara Leigh won me over from the moment I entered Deal Breaker. The story grabbed me tight and I was desperate for more of the author’s work. When the Nothing but Trouble series was brought to my attention, I was instantly excited. Mixing an author I’ve come to love and one of my favourite things – rock star romances – together was a recipe to have my mind blown. What I did not expect was for my mind to be blown to quite the degree it was.

With Rock King, I found myself truly addicted. It was an even stronger book than Deal Breaker, coming extremely close to being a five-star rating. By the time I was done I had one thing on my mind – grabbing book two. I had intended to dive into book two the moment it appeared on my Kindle, unfortunately moving house meant I was unable to read it for quite some time. It was a painful wait, I would have happily not moved house so that I could dive into this, but it was certainly worth it. More than worth it, in fact.

I’ll be completely honest with you, I came even closer to handing Rock Legend a five-star rating than I did Rock King. What happened is what I commonly refer to as The Lies of Locke Lamora Effect. For those who have not read my other reviews where I have mentioned the aforementioned effect, I shall explain it to you. Scott Lynch’s The Lies of Locke Lamora is one of my all-time favourite fantasy reads. I recommend it to every fantasy lover, and those who are not fantasy lovers, because I love it so much. However, it is extremely rare for me to hand out five-star ratings. The fact I have read over two-thousand books and have handed out less than one-hundred five-star ratings demonstrates how rarely these ratings are handed out. Even some of my favourite books have not been given a five-star rating due to something small. My prime example is The Lies of Locke Lamora. It was little things that stopped that elusive five-star rating from being handed, and so The Lies of Locke Lamora Effect was born. It has happened quite a few times, in many genres – The Lies of Locke Lamora, Dark Matter, Rock King, to name a few, and now Rock Legend. If I were anyone else, if I were willing to hand over five-star ratings like the rest of the population, this one would had easily received the five-star rating. Unfortunately, I’m a truly horrible person and held off on handing the five-star rating – even when my finger was hovering over the five-star rating.

However, the fact both of the books in the Nothing but Trouble series have come so close to a five-star rating has left me with the belief one of the future books will manage to do so. There is no doubt in my mind, after just two books, that the Nothing but Trouble series is going to be one of my all-time favourite series. I cannot recommend them enough, and I do not doubt the books will continue to grow ever stronger.

So, what was it I enjoyed so much about this one?

Throughout Rock King, I was intrigued by the side characters. It was never enough to distract from the story, but when I found out we were to receive their book next, I knew I was going to be blown away. They were such great characters, and I could not wait to dig deeper into their world. Know you do not need to have read Rock King to enjoy Rock Legend, but I would recommend giving it a read – it’s a fabulous book, and it does help with some of the references given in this one.

Now, as excited as I was for the characters, I did not expect to fall as in love with them as I did. I did not expect to connect with them on such a deep level. You see, this is a story that touches me on a personal level. So many books out there deal with perfect and how you do not need to be perfect to find the one. Few have hit so close to home, though. Often, I will finish these books and think ‘nice message, shame it will never happen to me’. However, Rock Legend made me believe it is possible. It is one of the few books out there that touched upon something I experience daily and actually made me think there could be more for me out there. I’m not saying this is a book that preaches, far from it, I’m merely saying this book hits all the right buttons. The message it is sending is certainly received, and I couldn’t help but connect deeply with our characters.

Of course, there is more to the story than that. In fact, this book is an onion book. By this point, I’m sure we’re all aware of the onion analogy from Shrek. It applied to the first book, but this book takes it to a whole new level. Each time we think we have uncovered everything, another layer is revealed. We keep digging ever deeper, and the number of topics that are dealt with throughout this book is amazing. Each one is dealt with wonderfully, with care and feeling. I could sit and list all the elements I enjoyed, but to do so would be to start giving spoilers. Just know, there are so many wonderful elements dealt with throughout this book, and I loved them all.

I could fan girl forever about this one – it could easily become one of those reviews where I write a couple of thousand words and still say nothing due to all the gushing I am doing. Just know, this book hit hard, and I loved it so much.

I’m sure by this point you’re asking what that little thing was that prevented the five-star rating. After all, I am gushing all over the place. For me, the little thing that stopped me from giving a five-star rating was the fact I wanted more from the past between the characters. We get told about it, but I would have liked to experience more than just the little glimpses we were given. I’m very much someone who likes to experience the then and the now with second chance romances, and I would have just liked that little bit more so that I could have appreciated the then and now of the relationship more deeply. Like I said, it’s not a big thing, but I tend to find reasons not to give five-star ratings rather than reasons to give them. This is a reflection of me being a bad person rather than this being a bad book, because I honestly believe this is my favourite book of the year so far. The fact it was nearly my first five-star rating in over a year shows that.

Before I gush any more, I think it is time for me to bring this review to an end. To sum up my thousand-plus-words ramble, this book was truly amazing. Fabulous, wonderful, and all the other synonyms you can think of to say it blew my mind. Rock King hit me hard, Rock Legend hit me harder, and I’m almost scared to see how hard the next book in the Nothing but Trouble series hits me. I’m ready, though. I’m more than ready for book three, and I’m holding out hope of it being the book to break my over a year long dry spell of five-star ratings.

If you’ve yet to dive into the Nothing but Trouble series, you need to go and fix that problem right now.

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