I enjoyed Exposed quite a lot; the hero was a good guy hero, the type I adore and I liked the heroine quite a bit, but I honestly felt like I was reading a diary, a day in the life of…because there wasn’t much of a plot. ~ Slick – Simply Love Book Reviews
Synopsis:
Brenna
There are some people in life who know exactly how to push your buttons. For me, it’s Rye Peterson. We can’t spend more than ten minutes together before we’re at each other’s throats, which makes working together that much harder. Rye is the bassist for Kill John, the biggest rock band in the world, and I am his publicist. It doesn’t help that the man is gorgeous, funny, talented, and…never takes anything seriously. Avoidance is key.
But everything changes when he overhears something he shouldn’t: a confession made in a moment of weakness. Now the man I’ve tried so hard to ignore is offering me the greatest temptation of all—him.
Rye
Brenna James is the one. The one I can’t have. The one I can’t get out of my mind. Believe me, I’ve tried; the woman loathes me. I managed well enough—until I heard her say she’s as lonely as I am. That she needed to be touched, held, satisfied. And I could no longer deny the truth: I wanted to be the one to give her what she craved.
I convinced her that it would just be physical, mutual satisfaction with nothing deeper. But the moment I have her, she becomes my world. I’ve never given her a good reason to trust me before. Now, I’ve got to show Brenna that we’re so much better together than we ever were apart.
Things are going to get messy. But getting messy with Brenna is what I do best.
I re-read the entire VIP series before I started Exposed and maybe that was a mistake. The first three books were exceptional with great plots and a build up to epic romances (especially Managed which remains my favorite), and Exposed fell a bit short of those earlier books. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed Exposed quite a lot; the hero was a good guy hero, the type I adore,and I liked the heroine quite a bit, but I honestly felt like I was reading a diary, a day in the life of…because there wasn’t much of a plot. I felt like there were all these threads running through this book each trying to be the main plot point but instead there was none and thusly the book wasn’t cohesive.
Through the first three books in this series we’ve watch Ryland (Rye) Peterson and Brenna James’s antagonistic relationship knowing something went down between them. It’s always been obvious that Rye was interested in Brenna but she rolled her eyes, gave him a smart comment, and walked away. As this book unfolds there were actually two incidents that kept them friendly but not friends. One happened just as the band Kill John was forming and the other happened on Rye’s 21st birthday and that particular event hurt Brenna to her core and she’s had a hard time getting past it. Thing is Rye doesn’t know anything about the second incident and the first one, while he regrets it; it was something that was needed at the time for the good of the band. Basically their entire friendship issues for the past 10 years have been because of a lack of communication. What bugs me most about that is, Brenna is known for speaking her mind, telling it like it is and this THING that has kept them apart despite the fact the attraction and want has been there is because she couldn’t/wouldn’t confront Rye? I had a very, very hard time buying that.
When Rye overhears Brenna talking to a friend in the bar that she wants great sex, companionship without a relationship, someone to touch and hold her, he confronts her and tell her he’s willing to be that guy. While they both agree it could be bad because of their working relationship and their mutual friends, Brenna can’t deny that she wants Rye as much as he wants her. What made this book for me was Rye; he showed over and over that he knew Brenna, her wants, her needs, her moods, the way she likes her coffee and where to get the best cup, what perfume she wears to fit her mood, her love of shoes, literally everything. It would almost be stalkerish if it wasn’t for the fact that because they spend so much time together because of the band and he was so damn cute about it all. The fact that he does know every little thing (even down to what she was wearing at certain memorable parts of their past) helps her see that he pays attention to her and knows more about her than anyone else in her life. Brenna was a bit slower to come around as her layers were peeled back it’s easy to see she’s not quite as confident as she lets on. I loved the way that she insisted on honesty between them and wouldn’t let it go when Rye was hiding something and honestly what he was hiding could have been a really great plot line but it was glossed over and that was disappointing.
As always I loved the time spent with all the band members and their significant others, the family they’ve made together. While Brenna and Rye keep their relationship from them, most figure it out over time and there’s lots of advice some of it quite comical. Their romance has quite a few ups and downs again because it kept going off on multiple tangents with none of them really sticking, but despite that I loved being back with these characters.
While I loved being back in the VIP world and I rooted for Rye and Brenna to be together, I felt they spent way too much time hiding their relationship and we didn’t even really see it building. I enjoyed Exposed, the characters were engaging and I loved them together, unfortunately it lacked a solid plot.
3.5 stars
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