ALL NIGHT LONG (BLACK HALO, BOOK 1)
BY MADELYNNE ELLIS
***This ARC was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
All Night Long is the first book in Madelynne Ellis's new Black Halo Series. Ash Gore guitarist for the metal band, Black Halo, makes a hastes departure from stage after their frontman, Xane storms off announcing that the band is no more.
As he's making his way to the dressing room, a million thoughts pass through his mind; searching for a way to fix the many issues Black Halo now faces. For one, his lead vocalist and frontman disappeared with an attractive groupie right after his startling announcement. He's frustrated with Xane's impulsivity, poor decision making skills and surprisingly- his ability to always be the center of every woman's attention. For years Ash has been the leader, the one responsible for increasing the band's fan base yet, he never seems to get the credit or the appreciation. Though his annoyance is clearly directed at Xane, he centers a lot of his aggression on Elspeth, Black Halo's keyboardist and Xane's ex-girlfriend. Ash sees her as the root of all problems considering she left Xane for his best friend. Yikes.
This obviously can only end badly in Ash's mind. You know what all the people in the love triangles above have in common? THEY ALL DIED! Okay, not really but they had a lot of angsty moments and that's just no bueno.
Anyways, I may have veered off a little there but back to our current programming...Ash is walking towards the dressing room and once he gets there, he opens the door and what does he find???
A dark haired beauty in a skimpy outfit and his weakness...fishnets! Ginny is a young, dark haired and morally-loose woman looking for an unforgettable sex-filled night with a rockstar. And once she and Ash lock eyes, it's over.
The pair pretty much get right to the point and start going at it hot and heavy when they are interrupted mid-thrust by an irked-looking Elspeth. The keyboardist is none too happy about the shenanigans she just walked in on. She's quickly followed by two other bandmates, Rock Giant and Spook, who are quite pleased at what's going on in their dressing room. Oddly enough, Ash continues what he's doing or in this case, who he's doing while his two bandmates look on, with Spook even taking pictures and Elspeth leaving in a huff.
THIS ALL HAPPENS IN THE FIRST TWO CHAPTERS!!! Call me old-fashioned but I expect to be given a frosty beverage, perhaps even just a glass of mountain spring water before allowing a random tattooed man to stick his wee-wee in my who-ha. But to each is own, who am I to judge. But seriously, even a simple handshake would have sufficed.
Meanwhile, outside the venue. There's a lot of this going on...
and worried that this will happen if they go out front...
They decide to sneak out and leave on their own. The three bandmates and a pleasantly surprised to-be-included Elspeth exit the venue in one of the vans. They notice that a large crowd is gathered around one of their vehicles and surmise that Elspeth and their drummer/Elspeth's new man/Xane's ex-bff are inside. While Ash is ecstatic and hurls vengeful words out the window, Rock Giant/Paul is visibly upset and argues with Ash. We see a much more complicated divide at this point as Ash, though annoyed at Xane's behavior, understands his frustration and blames Elspeth. On the opposite end, Rock Giant is furious with Xane's ego and doesn't understand Ash's vehemence towards Elspeth who is apparently a close friend. It's eluded that Ash may be the only one who knows the details of what has transpired between their 3 fellow band members which may explain why Rock Giant is so quick to jump to Elspeth's defense and vilify Xane. As their argument ensues, a bra lands on the windshield and all of them notice a group of fans making their way towards their van. With the streets packed and the path to their hotel blocked, Ginny pipes in and mentions that she has a hotel room outside the city. Rock Giant quickly turns and heads towards her hotel where Ash and Ginny can continue their sexual exploits "all night long."
The rest of the story progresses pretty fast and a lot is discovered about what makes Ash tick. He's a commitment-phobe who relegates himself to a series of one night stands, sometimes several in one night and refuses to feel any attachments to a woman.Ginny seems to be on the same track as she is sexually adventurous and claims she too, refuses to be in a relationship.
As the night goes on, while stuck in Ginny and her roommate's tiny hotel room, there's a lot of hot and naked hijinks involving all four of them. Slowly though, Ash realizes that Ginny stirs a lot of uncomfortable emotions in him and see saws between wanting to leave her and never wanting to be apart. Ginny as well finds herself in unchartered territory as she too feels a connection she did not expect. Over hours and hours of physical contact, the pair get into some heated discussions regarding what is happening between them and the result is a "will he or won't he" moment for Ash at the end.
Peppered throughout the book are small hints at some of the other characters in future books as well as a where in the world is Xane theme. Ginny is also in search of her missing roommate Dani and can't figure out what happened to her straight-laced, Black Halo loving friend. All this connects to Madelynne Ellis's Rock Hard Series, which explain where and what Xane has been up to.
All in all, I found the book somewhat entertaining. Though, I'm usually a "read all the way through" type of girl, I did have to step away a few times. There were parts of the book which were slow and often repetitive. Ash's odd encounters with women seemed to be a constant subject in dialogue between the characters and I found myself annoyed with the nagging topic. Part of the reason he feels so drawn to Ginny is because she succeeded where so many women could not. And as much as I always manage to suspend reality while reading, Ash's physical reaction to Ginny being the cornerstone of his budding love for her was too much to handle. And his constant whining and inner monologue regarding his numerous contributions to the success of the band while being tossed aside by everyone for the hot bad boy, Xane or the quiet and handsome Spook irritated me to no end. We get it, you're fantastic but Xane and Spook get all the lovin'.
Still, I will add the next book in my TBR but with my queue of serials rising rapidly, there's a good chance it will get lost in the shuffle.
No comments:
Post a Comment