Review: Lead by Kylie Scott

Lead
(Stage Dive #3)
by Kylie Scott
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publication date: Nov. 25, 2014
Genre: Romance
Rating:

As the lead singer of Stage Dive, Jimmy is used to getting whatever he wants, whenever he wants it, whether it’s booze, drugs, or women. However, when a PR disaster serves as a wake-up call about his life and lands him in rehab, he finds himself with Lena, a new assistant to keep him out of trouble.

Lena’s not willing to take any crap from the sexy rocker and is determined to keep their relationship completely professional, despite their sizzling chemistry. But when Jimmy pushes her too far and Lena leaves, he realizes that he may just have lost the best thing that ever happened to him.

It’s been a while since I read the previous Stage Dive books but you grasp rather quickly that Jimmy is not a likable character. He’s battled addiction, has a chip on his shoulder, and has emotionally clocked out. He tends to keep to himself instead of being over the top like some of the other members of the bad. However, when he does speak, it’s usually unfiltered, borderline rude, and just lacks the social niceties. So, when Lena comes in the picture, not taking any of his crap, the band members know that they’ve found the perfect person to keep Jimmy in line and on the straight and narrow. He’s managed to scare off all his other sobriety companions but Lena is not one to be scared of a challenge. Which is how these two end up living together, butting heads, and creating all sorts of delicious drama.

When I say that Jimmy is very stand-offish. I don’t mean that he’s your typical brooding “bad-boy”. Maybe that’s how the author tried to write him, but I kind of viewed him in a different light. Yes, he had your typical “rough childhood” which would make him the brooding jerk that he is. However, I kind of felt like maybe he also had something else going on as well. He doesn’t like to be touched. Lena has to slowly introduce him to being touched. He doesn’t have a filter or even understand how his actions and words could hurt other people. When Lena tells him that he hurt her feelings by saying something, he honestly can’t fathom why she’s upset because to him he only spoke the truth. He doesn’t pick up on social cues. He doesn’t fully understand emotions and is unaware of his own feelings and what the mean. He gets upset really easily and gets pretty scary when he gets angry about something. There was just a lot of things that didn’t add up with Jimmy, and I wasn’t buying the whole “rough childhood” line the author threw at us.

Lena was no pushover and I loved her for that. She didn’t take Jimmy’s crap, she got in his face and called him out on stuff, but she was also there for him emotionally. When something would knock him down, she would be there to help him get back up. She’s make sure he knew how amazing he was, how much support he had around him with his band mates, and supported him when he tried something new. She was patient with him when most would have thrown in the towel. Her strength and her drive to be there for him was really something to see.

Lead was a really great story. Jimmy was definitely rough around the edges and needed Lena to help smooth him out. Heck, it took the majority of the book for him to start letting her in. However, the journey these two went through kept me glued to the pages. I can’t wait to read Ben’s story next.

Favorite quote…

“People judge you whatever,”…”People fucking love their own opinions and are all too happy to throw ’em at you, whether you ask or not. You have to be happy with yourself.”

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