Shattered left me just that; this book was a roller coaster of emotions from start to finish, there were highs and lows and to be honest I’m a bit scared at what might happen next. ~ Slick, Guilty Pleasures
Description:
He’s shattered…and she’s the only woman who can help him pick up the pieces.
Nick Crandall has everything he ever thought he wanted. Tons of money, a glamorous lifestyle, professional admiration for making music. But all his success doesn’t erase the memories of who and what he’s lost on the road to fame and fortune. Nor does it stop his dream from shattering, right before his eyes.
Until the person he least expects pulls him back from the brink.
Lila Shawcross is obsessed with her work, which includes managing the drama-prone members of Oblivion. She’s definitely not about to let a hot-headed, hard-bodied lead guitarist wreck her orderly existence or dilute her focus. So what if she’s never craved a man quite this much? There are just too many complications, including the gold band on her left hand.
Except Nick is determined to possess her…and what Nick wants, Nick gets. Because this time, he’s not walking away.
Review copy provided for an honest review
To say I’ve been waiting for the heat between Oblivion’s guitarist Nick Crandall and the band’s 
manager/label liaison Lila Shawcross to finally come to a head is putting it mildly, I wanted this story and it was so worth the wait, but all is not well in Oblivion’s world and their relationship can spell disaster in more ways than one. Shattered left me just that; this book was a roller coaster of emotions from start to finish, there were highs and lows and to be honest I’m a bit scared at what might happen next not only to the relationship between Lila and Nick but to the band.
Married at 18 to a man who saved her parent’s farm left Lila in a loveless marriage to a man who verbally abused her and whom she’s lived apart from for the last 6 years of their 8 year marriage. Determined to finally get the happiness she deserves Lila has filed for divorced but her husband is making things difficult and has threatened her with financial ruin for her and her parents if she proceeds. Being married keeps him from having to thwart off being tied down by the numerous mistresses he’s kept over the years, but she’s done and wants out. I’ll be honest, at the start of this series I didn’t like Lila very much but as the series has gone on it has been pretty obvious that she wasn’t happy in her life, that there was more to her story than meets the eye and that despite everything she would give her life for the band’s she has helped as part of Ripper Record’s team. In this book we see a very different side of Lila; she’s stripped of her business persona and we see the woman who gave so much to help her parents, a woman who has fallen head over heels for a man who doesn’t think he’s good enough for her and a woman who is sacred to death of losing it all because of her vindictive soon to be ex-husband. We saw her sad, lonely and vulnerable but we also saw her full of life, love and the possibility of a future she’s only dreamed about.
Nick has never been a favorite character of mine and most of the time his a$$hole behavior ticks me off beyond belief. I knew there had to be more to him, I knew there were secrets lurking that made him behave the way he did and we get to see up close and personal just what drives him not only to be the best guitarist he can be, but in the way he helps those struggling with substance abuse to get help. What I loved was seeing Nick shed that hard outer shell and expose his soft underbelly to Lila. He really let her see all there was to him and he wasn’t afraid to show and tell her exactly how much she means to him. Nick crazy in love with a woman is a sight to see and it was a breath of fresh air, even though he still had plenty of a$$hole moments in this story.
While there was a lot of band business happening in this story with Oblivion’s return to the stage and plans that had to be made and altered, this book never lost focus on the growing relationship between Nick and Lila. While it killed Nick that Lila is technically still married, he refuses to let his feelings for her go unnoticed anymore. Lila struggles with them being together not because she’s still married because in her mind it has been over for 6 years but because of the threats her husband has made. This made being together somewhat difficult, but the time they did carve out together was magical, beautiful and wonderfully sexy. There is no doubt the feelings these two have for one another run deep, but between Lila’s not so single status and the band needing at least one single member to draw in the female fans they are forced to keep things behind closed doors. There’s also the fact that Lila could lose her job if their relationship was made public. Life is far from perfect for these two and only time will tell if they can make it work.
Once again authors Cari Quinn and Taryn Elliott have offered up spectacular story filled with so many emotions that I am on overload, but I wouldn’t have missed Shattered for anything and am anxiously awaiting Fused to see what happens next.
Sounds good…thanks Slick
Like you, I’m not a Nick fan but knew Cari & Taryn would probably change that. Can’t wait to read this.