Author: Madelynne Ellis

Book: All Fired Up (#2)

Series: Black Halo

Other Books in Series:

All Night Long (#1)
All Right Now (#3) – no release information available right now

tl;dr recommendation: I sort of feel like if you’ve read the summary, you’ve read the book :/

Book Summary:

All Fired Up is the follow-up to New York Times & USA Today Bestselling Author Madelynne Ellis’ scorching rock star romance novel, All Night Long.

Ginny Walters always knew her weakness for bad boys would get her into trouble. Her one night stand with Black Halo’s lead guitarist, Ash Gore, was only supposed to be a fun, not the prelude to the sort of relationship that’d scorch holes in her heart as well as her bed sheets. She’d be the happiest woman in the world if Ash wasn’t so determined to keep their connection off radar.

Ash Gore knows girlfriends are bad news for bands, which is why he’s resolved to keep his attachment to Ginny a secret. He and the guys have enough on their stages as they try to piece themselves back together after the band’s split. But when new drummer, Iain Willows, starts taking an active interest in Ginny, tensions quickly mount. Soon, Ash is not only at risk of losing Ginny, but everything he holds dearest–including life itself.

Longer Review:

I LOVE a rockstar book. I do. There’s something about rockers & backstage & tours & groupies that makes my subconscious want to rip my clothes off to throw them onto the fictional stage. So I’m a bit crestfallen that All Fired Up didn’t get me all fired up.

I’m not singing this book’s praises and I’m not condemning it either. There were definitely parts of the story that I enjoyed, and those parts all happened when Ash and Ginny were on the same page or were actually interacting with one another. I felt that there was a lot of talk about the band, but I didn’t get a real connection to them. I actually really enjoyed when Ginny stood up for herself backstage when it came to her relationship with Ash. That was a total YES moment. And I even enjoyed reading about the breakdown between the two (no spoilers), but there were other situations that I felt lacked a lot of foundation and I couldn’t get into it.

I go into every book with an open mind, but I couldn’t get into this one. I was really trying to create a connection to the characters, but except for Ash & Ginny, I couldn’t get it up. There was a delay of non-material information, which may have been done in order to build the storyline, and it left me with missing pieces that caught me off guard and had me wondering why I wasn’t told earlier.

For example, I had no idea that Xane was bisexual until three quarters of the way into the book (which is probably because I didn’t read book 1; however, this book was touted that it could be read as a standalone, so I sort of felt that it should have been in his intro…right?). And I sure as fuck had no idea that Ash was interested in bi-play until about that time too. I actually found this information to be pretty hot and it totally could have been plugged in to the scene where Ash jacks himself off on the tour bus while having phone sex with his girlfriend…through his best friend, Spook, who refuses to give him the phone. Speaking of….that scene was a little odd to me….and sort of unnecessary, especially because it wasn’t sexual for Spook. But I digress. It was stuff like this that threw me for a loop.

I also didn’t feel that I knew enough about Ginny. I didn’t know she was in college until deep into the book, which then finally made sense as to why she could go on tour with the band without any other responsibilities. And then there’s the whole part about her “going home” and “taking care of things” – no follow up explanation, except that she didn’t want to explain whatever she did to Ash. We never did find out and that’s sort of bugging me. I knew more about her clit ring than I did about who she was as a person.

When shit hits the fan at the end of the book, I actually was pretty into the storyline. Finally we knew what was causing all of the weird disturbances & accidents – and we knew who was fucking with Ash & Ginny. It was just getting good and then BAM, major cliffhanger. I think my sadface is showing. Here’s to hoping book 3 solves my problems & keeps the momentum going….

Overall, Three solid three stars.

[I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review]