Rockoholic

by C.J. Skuse

[Raven]

Read this and other reviews at my blog.

Thank you Netgalley for providing my advance copy.

Jody is horribly addicted to her favorite band Regulators, especially it's frontman Jackson Gatlin. She eat, sleeps, and breathes Jackson. So when she gets the chance to see Regulators in concert, she is super happy, waiting all day in the bitter cold for a front row perch. But things don't go as she plans, as she goes home with a concussion and Jackson himself, who she somehow managed to kidnap with a candy bar. Now she has the rock star holed up in her garage, and he doesn't really want to leave.

This book was nothing like I expected. It actually started out really boring. The chapters with the concert and the lining up outside the concert hall especially were turn offs for me. It was all inner monologue with lots of description. It gets better quickly after, but even then the book itself was rather slow paced.

The characters were good. I loved Mac so hard. He is just such a great guy. Jackson was a jerk and a half for a good portion of things. You kind of grow to understand him. He has no people skills, being a celebrity has killed any he might have had prior. Jody begins very unlikable. She is such a "hardcore" (see: "obsessed") fan that she is annoying. She gets better. Jackson quickly highlights her delusions and crushes her dreams. She spends a good part of the book being either really dense or really blind.

The story is actually really fabulous. The interactions between the characters all lead up to a very touching end. The tie ins with Jody's grandfather are perfect. He seems like he would've been such a fun old man, a "legend" as Jackson describes him. But the realization at the end is just brilliant. The ending makes up for what seems like a lame story. Everything builds and weaves rather slowly and when it all comes together at the end you are just left with fuzzy feelings. Not all of them are good fuzzies either. You are left feeling sorry for celebrities, feeling happy for Jackson's fate, feeling enthralled by the items that improve Mac and Jody's lives.

This was really a great book. It was hard to rate because of how slow it is for most of it. The ending really saved it. It was a great read, so I do recommend it. It will feel slow for a really long time, don't give up on it! It is worth finishing.