Sweet Ache (Driven Trilogy)

by K. Bromberg

[EBookObsessed]

DNF -

I am sure that I am not being fair to this story since a search of Goodreads show me in the minority, but I couldn’t get passed the beginning of this story. It wasn’t the womanizing rock star that was the problem, it was the hypocritical heroine.

I am probably not giving this book the shot it deserves, but I truly couldn’t stomach the heroine of this story. This is book 6 in a series so I am guessing everyone but me knows all the characters, including the heroine’s brother who is a famous race car driver and former player, who has now found the love of his life. Again, I am presuming that he was the focus of a prior book.

Our heroine, Quinlan Weston, starts out with many fine points. One of her brother’s racing rivals is very flirty with her, but she keeps him at arms length since he is a player and she isn’t interested. We are given the idea that between her brother and her father, she has seen the players at work and keeps away from them.

When we get our first glimpse of rock star, Hawkin Play, he is at his attorney’s office planning on taking the fall for his twin brother. There was a raid at a party and an enormous amount of drugs were found in the pocket. This would be the third strike for Hawk’s brother so Hawk pretends it was his jacket, even though he risks serious jail time. To soften up the Judge, Hawk agrees to teach a music class at USC where the Judge is a well-known alumni. He hopes that in making he judge look good at the college, he will go lighter on a sentence for Hawk.

So we know that Hawk is a thoughtful guy to his friends and to his undeserving brother, and we also know that he takes full advantage of the free sex from groupies. Hawk is a big time player.

Quin is a student teacher at the college and is asked to do an emergency fill-in as the teaching assistant for a music class, not knowing it was Hawkin Play teaching. She doesn’t get any paperwork and there is actually a bouncer at the class who is trying to block her entrance and Hawk stops the class to point out a seat for Quin. He is snarky at her during the class and she is snarky back, setting up some friction between them. So far, so good.

Hawk and his band mate make a bet that Hawk can’t get Quin into bed before the end of the class, but puts a caveat that he has to be a sex partner too or else they have no proof it occurred. Threesomes are apparently something the band members commonly do, but Hawk is unhappy at the idea of sharing Quin already in our story. If Hawk loses the bet, he has to get a heart tattoo on his wrist which is a common loss which all the band members have suffered but Hawk. My question at this point is will this Hawk eventually have sex with Quin, not sharing with is band mate, and then take the tattoo punishment and use it as a reminder of her?? Again, all is going good.

Hawk and band member leave the campus with half-naked student-groupies and Quin is watching from her car being quite disgusted.

Then we spend a little more time with Quin. She makes plans with her friend who is depressed over a breakup to go out to a bar and Quin is trying to talk her into hooking up for one night stands to take the edge off. This is where she starts to lose me. We find out Quin’s last THREE boyfriends were all players who played her and cheated. Ummm, what happened to the well trained player radar that she started the book out with??

I could understand if Quin had fallen in love for the first time and was cheated on and is now afraid to trust a player. I could understand the background of the brother, the father, and her brother’s friends all being players and watching the fallout all these years and knowing to stay away from men like her brother and Hawk. But she’s all about avoiding the players, yet she was played THREE TIMES!!! So can she recognize players and she set herself up for failure or is she a naive girl who is used over and over?

Then we need to address the fact that Quin has declared herself off of relationships while she focuses on finishing college and she is just hooking up with guys for sex. Umm, doesn’t that make her a player or do I misunderstand? Are only men players?

Why is Quin on a high horse about the race car player and the rock star player, when she is all about the one night stand too? Instead of judging these guys, why isn’t she scheduling them in: Hawk you come over at 8:30 and sexy race car stud, you come at 11:00.

Why are one night stands okay for Quin, but not the guys? Quin cannot judge the guys for their sexual activity if she is doing the same thing; and she can’t be experienced in avoiding the players and yet have been played. It’s one or the other.

THOUGHTS:
I was offered a review copy of this story and since I don’t know author K. Bromberg, I decided to check out her ratings over at Goodreads to see if her books are generally enjoyed. I found that this book was part of a series and that there was many, many people losing their minds with excitement over this upcoming release so I wanted to see what all the excitement was about.

After realizing we were getting a duplicitous heroine who can’t make up her mind if she was too experienced to be taken advantage of or two stupid to realize she was being set up again, as well as feeling casual sex is okay for her, but not for Hawk or the other players who all wanted to get in her pants, I realized I have a long list of much more interesting books to read.

If you are a K. Bromberg fan and think I gave this book a raw deal, let me know, or else, I am going the pull this one off my Nook and never think of it again.