A review by bea_reader
Rock Chick Reckoning by Kristen Ashley

4.0

This is my least favorite of the Rock Chick series. I powered through, because Kristen Ashley books are like pizza, even when they're bad, they're still pretty good.

Ashley's strength is her ability to develop characters. They speak to directly to my soul. Sadly, I didn't connect to Stella and Mace on that level. They left me hanging, and yearning for more. Why did Mace feel the need to 'test' Stella? Why didn't Stella ever fight for him when she so clearly loved him? Moreover, Stella's story fell completely flat for me. For someone so haunted, she seemed to be able to let her demons go without explanation, and without any difficulty. She also didn't seem to connect with any of the other members of the 'hot bunch'. Though there was an attempt, I didn't feel the connection like I did with Jules and Luke, Vance and Roxie, and Ava and Lee. Not to mention, the whole Eric thing was just weird and either should have been developed more or completely omitted from the book.

On top of all of this, I didn't quite get the bad guy/security trouble of this story. Why did Sid seem target Stella and Mace? If he truly wanted revenge and to take down the Nightingale group, why not go after Lee, the leader? Stella wasn't really a Rock Chick at the time the stuff began.

The book had redeeming qualities though. Stella's connection to the music was so real and so beautiful. Mace's story broke my heart. And I enjoyed the stories from some of my favorite Rock Chicks of books past. It was awesome to reconnect with Indy, Jet, Roxie, Jules and Ava.