True Love - Melissa Pearl (Songbird #5)

I hadn't followed the Songbird series before this one, but I enjoyed Melissa Pearl's writing and I noticed there's another new one coming out pretty quickly so...I went ahead and bought the whole series! I'll post my reviews on Goodreads, but wanted to feature this one while I had it.

Rating: 3.5 Stars
Published: November 2015
Many thanks to Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Amazon Goodreads

Nessa and Jimmy have been friends forever and their band is finally making it big, but one night of acting on their insane chemistry changes everything. Nessa is finally giving into her feelings for Jimmy, but Jimmy treats her like every other women he's ever slept with, trash. She escapes on her bike, needing the time to figure out her plan, but one wrong turn changes everything in her life and now she may not only lose the man she has feelings for, but also her only outlet in life, the drums. She has no one to turn to, not since her grandma's death, so the band takes her back in. Jimmy will do anything to convince Nessa that he's different and that he can be there for her, but Nessa isn't so quick to accept it after having her entire life crumble around her.

The characters are not the kind of characters you fall in love with, plain and simple. Nessa is so stubborn to the point of being rude, but you have so much sympathy for her and find yourself wanting her life to finally turn around. She's got so much just piled onto her, everything is so negative in her past, which would normally be too much for me, but I really wanted her success in the end. Jimmy is bad boy all the way, I couldn't see anything in him for the longest time, but in the end he was my favorite character POV to read from. He's got a past that, while not bad, has shaped his outlook of the future. He doesn't treat women well, he's totally into himself, and when the going gets tough he absolutely gets going. I liked his character growth and the changes he made to become the person he finds he truly wants to be. Add in some really awesome secondary characters and I was won over by this band of messy rockers.

It is really hard to write about an accident that leaves you unable to live life as you used to, unfortunately this left me with a hard time at imagining Nessa's life after the accident. Everything seemed to move on too easily, however I am still impressed with Melissa Pearl's way of writing it all. I liked watching the struggle of Nessa and how others try to help, the depression and grief is written perfectly, and in the end I could understand Nessa a bit better. Plus, it made for a really interesting story line when it comes to music and overcoming the grief that is holding you back. I liked how each character dealt with Nessa as a friend in a different way and pushed her to overcome her past and face the new future.

This book is totally one of those cases of you love it or you hate it. I was prepared to hate it, I am completely against the over dramatization of characters in terrible situation, but this one just worked for me. It is well written, there are great plot twists, some smut, and a true beginning, middle, and end. While this is book 5 in the Songbird series, it can be read as a standalone.