Synopsis
Sometimes love conquers time…
From the first moment he saw her, Lex recognizes Jessie. He knows they were lovers in a past life and their souls are destined for a reunion. Can he convince her they belong together?
Jessica Kelly has reached the pinnacle of success with her hot new rock band. She and her friends have rented a house in Malibu. Living next door is the notorious rock legend. When Lex takes a personal and passionate interest in Jessie, can she afford to lose her heart to The Rock Star Next Door?
Lex learns someone is stalking Jessie. She refuses to let him help her and hides the identity of her tormentor. Will their tragic past be repeated, separating them for another lifetime? Can Lex prevent Jessie from being taken from him again by a malicious and violent force reaching across time to destroy them?
My rating: 2.5/3 out of 5
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My Review
“Lex recognized her. He knew Jessica Kelly was his soul mate and their spirits were destined for a reunion.”
From the moment he saw her, Lex knew she was the one. The one he had been looking for. The one who got away. The lover of his past life. His soul mate. He had finally found her and she was living next door. He just had to try and convince her somehow that they were meant to be together.
Jessica Kelly had reached new heights with the success of their band Heartless. She and her band mates/friends rented a house in Malibu to finish up their third album and finding out that rock legend Lex is living next door and has taken an interest in Jessie? Well shes stunned. She’s followed and fancied him since forever but can she really take a chance on him and give him her heart?
When Jessie starts to be tormented by someone from her past, Lex will do whatever it takes to stop the stalker. But Jessie refuses his help and hides the true identity of the tormenter not wanting Lex to know the secrets of her past.
But down the line, it seems that history is coming closer to repeating itself and Lex can’t lose Jessie again, he can’t be separated for another lifetime. Can Lex prevent history repeating itself when they are both confronted by a malicious and violent force willing to destroy them again?
I have to start by saying, The Rock star Next Door started off a little slow and then the main characters, Jessie and Lex, started to annoy the heck out of me until the end, where I finally applauded them for getting this shizz together. Took them long enough after all the drama that occurred throughout the book. Seriously, every page something was happening. As much as I wanted to put the book down, I wanted to find out if they really were past life lovers and what happened to them both.
It really is a book about mental illness and how it affects those around that person. It’s about finding your soul mate after years of searching. It’s also about the struggles to overcome being manipulated for so long and the journey to finally freeing yourself.
Jack and Jessie have had a bad childhood. Their mother, a sufferer of mental illness, would emotionally and sometimes physically abuse them and their father was hardly ever there, working as a truck driver five out of seven days a week. It came to a point where they just couldn’t cope anymore so when they were sixteen where they ran away from home and never looked back.
During the years they ran away, they did and tried everything to make some money and eventually their hard work paid off, as they were signed to a record label. Now their band Heartless are getting bigger day by day, they are happy with where their success is taking them, but there’s still a big matter in their life…their mother, who still haunts them even when she is 2000 miles away.
I could see why Jessie was so scared and petrified of life, why she was so uptight to make sure the band did everything correct, that her motherly instinct kicked in with the band and her brother because they had worked hard for the success they had and she was frightened it would be taken away. Also deep down she was also still harbouring her childhood fears of her mother’s manipulation, and although she didn’t want it remember that period of her life, it still affected not just her, but her brother, Jack, too. She panicked over her relationship with Lex, how fast they were moving, how much, in a way, he reminds her of mother, even though she knew he didn’t mean to come across that way.
You see throughout the book just how much her mother has destroyed her, made me fear. There were times when I wanted to shake her and tell her to listen to her brother, that he was right in what he was saying, but she just discarded it and went with what she wanted to do, which in turn, was making her stressed and ill and even more scared.
Jack was also scared from his childhood, and although he took drugs when it got him upset/angry/stressed, he seemed to know exactly what to do to deal with his mother’s phone calls and manipulation, even when they hadn’t spoken/seen her for eight years, she still affected them.
From the moment he saw Jessie, Lex knew she was the one who was cruelly taken from him in their past life. He believed in reincarnation and knew Jessie was his one many years ago. Now he had found her, he couldn’t let her go, but because of this, and his persistence in wanting to marry her asap, he was slowly pushing her away, scaring her due to everything in her life and past. I did feel for Lex, because he loved her but yes, he was too full on with everything surrounding Jessie so when he had pushed her too far, I didn’t scowled her, because I knew she couldn’t handle it anymore.
I knew he just wanted her forever now he had found her, but even when they weren’t together and he was giving her space, he was still there for her, even when he didn’t truly know what was causing her to freak out all the time. I really did love his love for her and his caring side. I just wished Jessie would see it too, but then I suppose she had other things on her mind, such as her brother and her mother.
Now, their past life stuff. Lex knew the moment he laid eyes on Jessie that they were past life lovers and that he had finally find the one he had been searching for, for over 900 years. I think that is why he was so happy to have found her that he wanted to marry her right there and then. That it took two dates for him to confess that she would be the women he would marry to the paps. I could kind of understand the need to the rush, he had found his past love in this lifetime and he didn’t want to waste any time without her. But the thing was, Jessie didn’t know or remember anything about a past life.
But at 57% things seemed to look up and become interesting. Jessie had this dream where she was a maid and Lex was a singer and they were to run away and get married in Paris. Was this her past life as Lex mentioned?
I think this was what kept me going…I wanted to know more about this past life and what happened to her, as Lex mentioned, something bad did. Throughout the second half, we were shown snippets of Jessie’s dreams, about the past life and what went on 900 years ago and how it all connected to her present life.
I did gasp at the part near the end where Lex was stunned and frightened as one scene was happening word for word and he knew what was going to happen next – hence history repeating. For thank the lord it did not repeat and everything ended up okay…as okay as it could be.
I did like the reincarnation concept of the book. Lovers in a past life who didn’t have a chance to be together, finding each other in their ‘new’ life and now having the chance to live the life they didn’t get to have. It was a nice touch. But I didn’t like all the drama that surrounded this book. There was too much and I don’t know how I managed to get through it because it wasn’t holding my attention. I was more interested in knowing more about the dreams and their past life.
Would I recommend this book? I’m not sure. Perhaps for the ‘reincarnation’ aspect, but not the drama.
Would I read it again? No, probably not.
Z. Elizabeth 