ARC: Bullet – Jade C. Jamison

Synopsis

An Epic Rock Star Novel

What if you discover the man you want is toxic?

She tasted a little bit of heaven with him, and now they’ve gone through hell and back, but can their relationship take anymore?

Valerie Quinn is a naïve college freshman when she meets on-the-rise rock star Ethan Richards. He’s an idealistic, handsome, reckless young man, but he’s captured her heart. She doesn’t give up on him and eventually his walls crumble down. By the time Valerie has given herself to him completely, she discovers he’s damaged and may be beyond help. Can she save Ethan and their relationship before he implodes, or will he self-destruct and take her with him?

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My Review

Valerie Quinn is a college freshman. Shes had little experience with guys so when she meets on-the-rise rock star and fellow student Ethan Richards, he’s instantly captured her heart.

But there is something about Ethan. Something damaged him from his childhood that he’s held onto all these years and Valerie tries to help him, eventually breaking down his walls. But when Valerie gives herself completely to him, that’s when she discovers he may be beyond help.

She’s determined to try and help Ethan and rebuild their relationship but Ethan is toxic and is leading towards a road of self-destruct. Down a road where it may be hard for Valerie to save him and save herself in the long haul.

Bullet begins in the present. I’m not going to tell you who Valerie is with, but it sets you up with the beginning of Val’s story and how she got to this point in the first place. The chapters are divided into past and present –more past than present but no less important as the present makes you think back over the past ‘past’ chapters to really see how she became to person she is now, in the present.

We meet Valerie in the ‘present’ as I’ve mentioned and shes got some huge news to share. She seems grown-up, mature and in love. When Jade introduces us to Valerie in the ‘past’, shes a virgin, she’s naive to all things sexual, but that’s only because of her up-bringing but she’s far from shy. She finds it easy to make friends.

The first real friend we see her make is Ethan. He’s in one of her classes and she decides that next class shes going to talk to him. I loved how they both had a passion for metal music, thus starting the beginning of their friendship. Although she only really hung out during class and their walk back to their dorms, they became friends fast and I found it refreshing that Val had someone with a common interest, unlike her bitchy roommate Charlotte, who I instantly took a dislike to.

Throughout her journey in the first year of college, she becomes closer to Ethan and his roommate/band member Zane and also becomes friends with the other two members of his band, who live back at home, Brad and Nick. They all welcomed her to their ’group’ with open arms. They cared about her.

The more time they all spent together, the more Val knew she wanted to be in their group and not return to college. She didn’t know what she wanted to major in, so she really thought there would be no point staying. Their group dynamic changed and I loved that having a girl in the band who also wrote the lyrics to their songs made them become even more popular than they were. It worked because she put so much effort and passion into making them work.

I thoroughly enjoyed the journey we had with Val and the band members. You see Valerie as an inexperienced, naive young woman who is hung up on her best friend – Ethan, bypassing any other guy who looks her way. Although she kind of knows they look at her, all she wants is Ethan. Over the course of the book, she grows up a lot, she grows into her sexuality, knowing how to flaunt it and use it and she seems to enjoy the fact that she’s matured and can hold her own around guys and on stage too, with engaging the audience. I loved reading her grow, albeit going back to Ethan all the time annoyed the heck out of me, but in between with the romances with Clay/Jet who was in another band that they toured with let her experience even more with her sexuality.

Clay/Jet was a few years older than Val and the boys. What I loved about him was that he had two different personas. Clay was the sweet, caring guy, who would cuddle you and Jet was his persona on stage and in bed. He’d make sure you had a great time in bed. After everything he and Val went through, I think the outcome for both of them was the right path to choose. Even if she did go back to Ethan once again.

I really liked Ethan at the start when we first meet him. He seems like a cool kid, someone who really cares for Val but won’t admit it, in turn staying true to his womanizing ways, which seems to hurt Val. He seemed jealous when guys gave her attention but he never did anything to prove his feelings to her. It was like he didn’t know how to, or he didn’t want to destroy her ‘purity’. She was his muse and he didn’t want to change that.

Throughout the years they spend together, either together or just as a band, I despised him bit by bit over his hurtful and painful actions towards Val. He didn’t know a good thing if it hit him in the face and it was like he was bi-polar. I had no idea what he was going to do. Drugs and alcohol seemed to be his void over his past but he just always took it too far, causing pain not only to Val but to Brad as well. All the things he did to Val over the course of the book, well I just wanted to punch him. Val loved him with everything and he put her through so much that she just didn’t know if she could handle that pain again.

There were parts when I thought he would change, but he never did. He’d change for a while then retreat back to his asshole state. I thought Valerie was so stupid for taking him back all the time, it got me so frustrated that I was shouting at her through my Kindle. I wanted her to say ‘Fuck you’ and stand up for herself when he acted like a douchebag. Although there are times she did say ‘fuck you’ to him, I suppose she kept going back because she thought he truly would change and she was so deeply in love with him that she just brushed over everything he did when he showed her some affection. He really was toxic.

Now Brad. I LOVE HIM!! I’d love to have him for myself please. He was such a sweetheart. The first time we meet him it’s obvious he and Val share this connection. She knows it and so does he but she’s hung up on Ethan and she tries to forget about it. He tells her that he knows she likes Ethan so nothing will happen while that card is on the table. I loved him for that because he was respecting her.

He was a worrier and really cared about the band when no one else seemed to give a rats arse about it. He was literally their band manager, tour manager; driver and he wrote music/lyrics, had a job so they could afford to live and drove to their concerts. I loved his dedication for the band, wanting to make them noticed so they could get signed. Music was his life and all he wanted to do and I really admired him that he was so passionate about following his dreams.

He and Val had a close friendship, even though there was some sort of sexual chemistry between them but he swore that he wouldn’t go there (again). He worried about her relationship with Ethan because of the toxicity that is Ethan, who was damaging her poor heart over his actions. Brad was the guy that Val should be with not Ethan!

Ohhh the ending! It was just perfect and Valerie really did end up with the right guy. I was rooting for them throughout the book and I was so glad it was the person who I REALLY wanted her to be with. They were just so right for each other and albeit, their journey was a long one, but it just proves that in the end, those who are meant to be together, will find their way to one another and this was the perfect way to end such an amazing book as Bullet.

Jade has done it once again and drawn me into the story of Valerie, much like she has with her other books and she makes it so hard to put her books down and actually get some sleep! It is longer than her other books, but it’s no less important or drawn out for the sake of it, no! it’s captivating and you really become engrossed in the plot and with the characters.

I’d like to thank Jade for sending me an ARC copy of Bullet. She’s such a brilliant person and author, so if you haven’t read any of her books – boo at you! Please download them or read my reviews under Jade C. Jamison in the category box, because her books will leave you wanting more.

NOW, if you’re looking for smoking hot Rockstars, smoking hot sex, love triangles and a metal rock band then Bullet will be and is the book for you. It’s about growing up, finding love, dealing with damaged souls, succeeding and finding true happiness. PLEASE buy this e-book when it comes out because you will be obsessed with the characters and story right from the beginning.