Manic
(Rook and Ronin, #2)
By: J.A. Huss
Publisher: Science Future Press
Published: July 23, 2013
Genre: New Adult Romance
Rating:
TRAGIC is over and Rook is ready for the future—Spencer Shrike and the STURGIS contract!
It’s three months of body art modeling! That means three months of Spencer Shrike’s paintbrush all over her body, three months in front of Antoine’s camera, and three months of twenty-four hour filming for Spencer’s Biker Channel reality show.
Wait a minute…what reality show? Maybe she should’ve read that STURGIS contract a little closer? 😉
Sure, Rook’s bank account is almost overflowing, but Ronin is angry, Clare is trying to escape rehab, Antoine is a worried mess, and Elise is just trying to hold everyone together. Her new family is about to fall apart before she even gets the chance to enjoy them.
Add in a mysterious man from her past, a road trip to the famous Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, and a final show in front of the entire world where all her goods are on display, and you’ve got Manic—a new adult contemporary romance that will definitely make your summer sizzle!
In the last book we got to meet Rook and live vicariously through her as she went from a broken down, beaten homeless teen, to an erotic model over night. In the end of the Tragic she signs a contract where she will post nude (but spray painted to look like she’s wearing clothing), while posing with motorcycles. Manic is the story of her time during that contract and the obstacles she faces while not only dealing with the present but the past and future as well.
I really enjoyed Tragic and was really excited to dive into this story. I like that even though life has dealt her a shitty hand in life, she’s a scrapper and she continues to get up and survive. So even though this contract was supposed to be a harmless shoot of her wearing body art while posing with a bike, she’s now being filmed for a reality show for the biker channel and she’s also doing multiple shoots with other models and will have a big live show at the end of the contracts time for the “season finale”.
I liked that even though this story it primarily about Rook and her modeling career, we also get glimpses of Ronin’s past. I also enjoyed the added bonus of Spencer and Ford. Spencer is the artist and owner behind the bike shop and Ford is the man behind the tv series. However, they are no strangers to Ronin and have a past together, which slowly leaks it’s way out throughout the story.
This book has quite a bit of sex/sexual scenes to it, so this may not be for everyone. However, one look at the cover and it practically lets you know that there are some steamy scenes in here. I really wish that the cover had more to do with the storyline. I would’ve like the model to be at least posing with a bike or something since that’s what the entire contract and scenes are about.
“I’m the modern-day version of the girl sitting by the phone. I snort a little at that, because pining women have come a long way if you think about it. We can go out and have fun and impatiently wait for our boyfriends to call all at the same time.” -Rook
