Review Tour: The Drummer's Heart: Penelope Ward
The Drummer's Heart
Penelope Ward
Goodreads
Goodreads
Don’t say her name.
That was the one rule my bandmates followed, because they knew how much it messed me up to think about her, especially on tour.
My ex, Nicole.
The one who got away and the woman who still owned every piece of my heart.
After our divorce, I threw myself into the rock scene, trying to forget my heartbreak.
Three years after we split, a phone call from Nicole changed everything.
She told me her grandmother wasn’t doing well.
Mimi was still family to me, and she apparently had one wish before dying: to spend time with us—Nicole and me.
With Mimi’s caretaker away on vacation, it would be the ideal time for us to move in with her for a couple of weeks.
Of course, I couldn’t refuse.
But there was a catch.
Nicole apparently never told her that we’d gotten a divorce.
She hadn’t believed Mimi could handle it, because her grandmother loved me so much.
So, not only would I have to see Nicole again, but I’d be pretending to still be her husband.
Two weeks in a tiny house in a small town with the woman who broke my heart. Or was it me who broke hers?
It was complicated.
And it was about to be a heck of a lot more complicated sharing one bed in the guest room with a woman who wasn’t mine anymore.
Atticus Marchetti is the drummer for the now hugely popular band Delirious Jones. But all the success in the world does not truly make him happy since he lost the only woman he ever loved. For the the three years since his divorce he has been going through the motions, putting on a front, and acting like he is living the rockstar lifestyle to hide his pain.
When his ex wife Nicole calls that he is needed for a family emergency, he does not hesitate. Even if it means spending a couple of weeks in her presence. She is trying to keep her guards up because she knows they are no match for Atticus' charms.
These two are soulmates with unresolved feelings, regret, guilt, and past pain that tore them apart. They both helped cause the demise of their marriage, and it would take them both to be willing to be vulnerable enough and fight hard enough to even make an attempt to fix it. Neither of them was perfect, but their chemistry and love for each other was evident. But the fears, trust issues, and repercussions of past choices have to be dealt with in order to have a chance to move on.
This is a story of love lost, broken hearts, second chances, trust, priorities, and sacrifice. It is told in flashbacks to their young beginnings and some past letters, along with the current timeline. But there are also some secrets and their bigger issues are gradually revealed throughout the story making the reader guess what really happened.
It brings back his bandmates Tristan (and his new love Emily) and Ronan. And since this is now a duet instead of a trilogy, there is a bonus of Ronan finding his person. I liked seeing the bandmates support each other not only in business but in life. And Mimi is a standout character who also likes to meddle. I loved her.
Atticus hasn’t forgotten the love he had for his ex-wife, and to this day struggles to hear anything about her. That’s a challenge because she is his bandmates’ cousin. Three years after their divorce he is still pretending to be over her, pretending to be ok. But when she needs help in an emergency, he can’t help but jump in to help out, even if it means being around her 24/7 and pretending he isn’t hurting.
Nicole has a huge favor to ask, but she wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t for Mimi. Her grandmother needs help and is requesting the two of them together. Because they never told her their marriage was over. She knows Atticus will jump to help Mimi, so it’s just a matter of keeping her own distance and not falling into old habits.
There were so many unresolved feelings between these two. This second chance needed a lot of conversations, whispered arguments, and facing old hurts to work through. At times it felt like there was too much in the way for them. But these two are destined to be together. I loved the way their forced proximity required them to face the past and the things that drew them together and pushed them apart in the past. But there are also things in the present that they will have to work through if they are going to give it a go again -- because they have both been living in the meantime.
This was a hugely emotional second chance story with twists and turns throughout. I had the chance to listen to the audio and loved the voices of Sebastian York and Angelina Rocca. They were perfect for Atticus and Nicole and the journey they were on.
I wish Ronan had his own book, because while his own romance plays out on these pages, I would have loved to see it in more detail, especially with as much as the other guys gave him a hard time for being a player. It felt like not even the guys noticed he had a love interest until it was revealed towards the end of the book and became a plot point for Atticus and Nicole’s story.
The Rocker’s Muse
Genre: Standalone Contemporary Romance
Tropes: Rockstar/15-Year Age Gap/Small Town
Found Family/Slow Burn/Forbidden
From New York Times bestselling author Penelope Ward comes a new, STANDALONE novel…
No one but me knew why I was actually in the California desert that day.
Nestled deep within the desolate, rocky area was a recording studio.
When a door suddenly opened, a man mistook me for someone he was supposed to be interviewing for a job.
The next thing I knew, I was whisked inside.
The position? An assistant on the upcoming tour for one of America’s most famous rock bands.
Pretty exciting opportunity for a twenty-two-year-old, just out of college.
Not surprisingly, I bombed the interview.
When I ended up mistakenly walking into the men’s room on my way out, I struck up a conversation with a stranger—not realizing it was the lead singer, Tristan Daltrey.
He seemed to like the fact that I had no idea who he was, that I saw him as a normal person.
That night, I got a call offering me the job.
So began my complicated story with Tristan.
Millions of women loved him.
Yet for some reason, after the shows, he only wanted to hang out with me.
Late-night talks. Casual dinners in his hotel room.
I wasn’t supposed to be fraternizing with the band’s frontman.
Despite our fifteen-year age difference, Tristan and I had a connection.
But I had a secret.
One that would eventually lead to my leaving the tour.
And one that would lead Tristan and the band straight to the small town where I came from.
PENELOPE WARD
Penelope Ward is a New York Times, USA Today and #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author of contemporary romance.
She grew up in Boston with five older brothers and spent most of her twenties as a television news anchor. Penelope resides in Rhode Island with her husband, son, and beautiful daughter with autism.
With millions of books sold, she is a 21-time New York Times bestseller and the author of over forty books. Her novels have been translated into over a dozen languages and can be found in bookstores around the world.
1 comments
I just loved this book! Such emotion!
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