Katherine (Kat) Reid is a Hollywood makeup artist. She gets hired to work on the set of a famous rock band’s music video. When she arrives, she finds Avery Kane, the model girlfriend of Bad Habit’s lead singer, Nico Nyx passed out cold. Avery was to have starred in the video. When Kat meets Nico for the first time and stands up to him in defense of Avery, sparks fly. Nico decides he wants Kat to take Avery’s place. Thirty thousand dollars is a lot of money, and Kat agrees to do it. When world famous, gorgeous Nico outrageously pursues her afterwards, Kat doesn’t quite know what to do.

And I don’t quite know how to review this one. I really enjoy J.T. Geissinger’s writing. I loved Midnight Valentine, and I had high hopes for this book. I love rock star themed books. Frankly, this book was a bit of a mess for me, though. It was more of a melodrama than a quirky romance. I thought it was going in one direction, and then it veered off into another with tons of drama, shocking reveals about characters’ histories, and a bunch of angst. It was over the top and at times too much.

Nico had some deep, dark secrets in his past. He offered to tell her fairly quickly which was weird to me considering he didn’t know her well. She didn’t want to hear his story and instead got mad at him and walked away. That was silly and could’ve been avoided had she just let him talk. When she does hear what he’s hiding, she’s suddenly all in and part of his inner circle. It was all very cloak and dagger. That was silly, too. I would’ve preferred less drama and more time getting to know the characters better.

I had a hard time accepting the instant love he felt for her. Yes, she stood up to him. She also had a lot of baggage. Everyone in this book had buckets of baggage. Why did she fall for him? He could be sweet and romantic, but he also had this ugly, over the top, aggressive side that I hated. He was at times abusive. She never won any of their disagreements because he would overpower and physically subdue her. It felt wrong to me many times. That wasn’t love; it was aggressive domination.

There was also way too much ugliness in everyone’s pasts. Her friend Chloe appeared to be the only normal one. And what was up with her friend Grace? I couldn’t stand her bitter and nasty personality. When I finally reached the climactic scene with the villain, I skimmed it and couldn’t read it word for word. I’d reached saturation point with the drama. I don’t think it was necessary to have this much happening in one book.

Would I recommend it? Yes and no. I liked parts of it (the mariachi scene, the necklace, Kenji). I wish there had been less going on in it, though. It felt jumbled and too full.