LynneC’s review of Rock It (Rulebreakers, Book 1) by Jennifer Chance
New Adult published by Loveswept 4 Mar 14
This is the first book by Jennifer Chance that I’ve read. I’m afraid it didn’t work for me.
When I first picked up the book, I liked the hot guy on the cover and I was aware it was a rock star book. I like rock star books, read them, write them, listen to the music. But as a big rock fan, I know the difference between metal and industrial, as will a lot of people who read this book. The author doen’t appear to, or perhaps she’s deliberately homogenising the music.
This book isn’t about a rock star. It’s a pop star who dabbles in rock, but is more about the deals and the promo than the music. I’m wondering if the guy would be willing to have a sponsored tattoo, since everything else he uses is branded.
In fact, that’s part of the story.
Lacey was a huge fan of Dante Falcone (yes, his name is really Dante Falcone!) back in the day, and now she’s all grown up and working for a promotions company. Except she’s not. She spends the entire book fangirling over him. Her feelings for him get in the way of her work and the way she deals with other people about him. In a real promotions agency, unless she was related to the owners, she’d have been out on her ear before the day was out. Because she’s assigned to him, (he asks for her, natch), she has to travel on the tour bus with him. I would so like to travel on that tour bus instead of some that I’ve seen. A bunch of crushed beer cans, the smell of stale tobacco, even though nobody in the band smokes, hot-bunking and a drummer spent slumped snoring over one of the tables, because when he’s not on stage he’s drinking or carousing, and he doesn’t have the energy to get as far as the bunks at the back. Oh, and a manager giving orders which nobody is listening to but everybody pretends to. Dante’s tour bus probably smells of fresh flowers and I bet the sheets on the bunks are changed every day.
Lacey should really have been called Mary Sue. She’s gorgeous, clever, people warm to her fast, and she makes a few clumsy moves and then he makes it all right. But she isn’t really anything but a placekeeper for the reader.
If Justin Beiber was drug-free and didn’t make a habit of sucking strippers’ breasts, he could be Dante Falcone. Dante is pretty much perfect. He won’t have the members of his band taking drugs or even being drunk. I bet his concerts are teetotal ones. He is supposed to be this rock god, but nothing about him says rock. He even thinks in feminine terms, such as:
“With her hair wild around the shoulders of her conservative outfit, her porcelain skin flush with excitement, her lips swollen from his kiss, Lacey could be any of a dozen star-struck girls he’d encountered just this evening, working his way to his hotel room through a crowd of dedicated fans. But her eyes—her eyes were strangely compelling, with a mix of intense, raw emotions that went beyond what he’d grown comfortable seeing from the women he encountered. Lacey didn’t look at him with lust, not exactly. Instead, she gazed into his eyes with an unsettling empathy that plucked at something deep within him, something uncertain.“
I have to be honest. That is dreadful, IMO. If you think purple prose is dead, it isn’t. Here it is. I read it aloud to someone who is right in the target group for New Adult. She didn’t stop laughing for five minutes, and I promise, hand on heart, I didn’t ham it up or tell her what to think. I read it straight and said I’d really appreciate her opinion. She said it was “lame.” But she does like her heroes problematic, and Dante just doesn’t have any problems. Oh, and she loved the name. That merited another five.
He is so perfect, I want to slap him. Oh, and notice that he spots Lacey in a slew of girls and immediately hones in on her. There is no reason why he should want her or be drawn to her. Nothing about her is standout. But he does. Mary Sue rears her head again, when she suggests to him that they sleep together to “get it out of their systems,” at which point, I snorted. Because that’s what Mary Sues do, apparently, according to my young expert friend. Don’t get this book for the sex, that’s all I’m saying.
Not an auspicious beginning.
The fangirl thing turns into a stalker book. Dante can’t go anywhere without Lacey. She initiates the affair, and she won’t let him go. The excuse that it’s her job doesn’t work. They don’t have to sleep with their clients. No, really, they don’t.
Gritting my teeth, I made it. If I hadn’t it would have been a DNF, but I didn’t want to taint the other DNF’s I’ve had recently. Most of them have been because I wasn’t in the mood, not because the book was bad.
The book doesn’t have an original bone in its body, so to speak. Every situation, everything, even much of the vocabulary, I’ve read in other books. Lacey’s boss is Meryl Streep’s character in The Devil Wears Prada, for instance. Now to make it clear, I’m not accusing the author of plagiarism. No, just that the book has nothing new to say about rock stars or pop stars or their fans. If it was a retread well done, I’d probably wallow in the goodness, but it is, frankly, mostly boring.
I wrote Icefire years ago, and that was my rock star and promo girl book. But he was a shape-shifter, and he had been a drug addict. She was also a bit older. Surely people have more things to say these days?
I know promotion is a big part of the business. In fact, Radiohead is one of the few bands to refuse sponsored equipment as part of their live shows. They prefer to shop around and get the best for the purpose. (And it shows in the sheer quality of their concerts, IMO). But Dante Falcone is no Thom Yorke.
I always feel sad when I get an F read, and I always look for something good to say. It’s in the third person and past tense, which I vastly prefer over first person and present tense. Just a preference, but I do. There are a fair few grammar and typos (did you notice the one in the passage above?) and the cover is nice, but it doesn’t bear much resemblance to the man inside. The dishing out of sponsorship deals is fairly typical of the pop star world, too.
It’s problematic where to put it, because it doesn’t have that rawness that a good New Adult has, and it has sex scenes, sparse and sweetly described, or rather, purple in style, so not suitable for the very young teen, who would probably gobble it up.
I’m really sorry, but I dislike this book more than somewhat, and despite the cover I am so not the intended audience. And I hate to put an F in this early. The author probably worked really hard at this one, but I for one won’t be going back for more. If you want to find some good rock star books, look for Lex Couper or Tonya Romagos or even mine, but not this.
Grade: F
Summary:
Lacey Dawes is a total pro at the talent agency where she works, and it doesn’t hurt that IMO Worldwide Media represents Dante Falcone. The rock god has starred in her fantasies since she was sixteen—and remains her secret crush to this day. So when Dante picks her to be the interim manager on his Dream It tour, Lacey can’t believe her luck. Handling Dante is sure to be the most exquisite, spine-tingling, nerve-wracking mix of business and pleasure ever.
Although Dante is grateful for the adoring fans who scream for one more of his full-throttle, soul-searing songs, being surrounded by a cadre of corporate types backstage is wearing thin. Then Lacey shows up. Yeah, she’s organized, smart, quick to get him what he wants before he knows he wants it—but Dante senses there’s something else going on with sweet, sexy Lacey. One kiss tells him what that “something” might be . . . and makes him hungry for more.
No excerpt available.
