NEVER FALL IN LOVE WITH A ROCKSTAR by RACHEL HIGGINSON

‘It had taken us a long time, a lifetime to fall in love. And nearly as long to fall out of it.’

If you love a slow burn, a second chance love story, a tortured hero, a story of love and redemption with a rock star theme, Never Fall in Love with a Rock star is the book for you. Rock star themes are our kryptonite and who doesn’t dream of falling in love with a rock star, though it does come with its pitfalls as Clover Calloway discovered the hard way.

“Because I can’t live without you. I just can’t. And more than that….I don’t want to.”

We really do love Rachel Higginson’s brand of storytelling. This author takes her time acquainting the reader with the characters, building the story at a slow and engaging pace, and Never Fall in Love with a Rockstar once again provides this author’s emotional and sincere trademark delivery.

‘It all just worked out. Even when we didn’t. The music always did.’

It’s been five years since the heady days of being part of the exceptionally famous rock band, Bright Tragedy and for Clover Calloway, formerly known as Clo Brannif, it’s been a quiet five years where she’s found some semblance of anonymity and normality after the chaotic and intoxicating touring days. It’s also five years since she’s seen the love of her life, Malachi (Kai) Porter. When Clover last saw Kai he was fighting and losing a battle with drug addiction. Watching him slowly destroy himself had taken its toll on her. Clover had to walk away, to save herself, Kai, the band and her sanity.

‘He was different. And so was I. But even believing that I also knew we were still two broken, flawed humans.’

Clover has been dating the quiet and unassuming Adam for six months, but the reappearance of Kai and the band in her life results in turmoil and re-emerging memories, both good and bad from her time with the band and especially her love for the now clean and sober, though still troubled, Kai. Kai wants Clover to help him complete a song they started years earlier, a song with deep meaning for both of them. Can Kai and Clover collaborate and become friends again and put their past pain and hurt behind them?  After all, they’ve both changed, matured and carried a plane-sized load of baggage for those five years, with Clover moving on with another man, Adam, though we didn’t really experience the love triangle aspect, because we always believed in our hearts Kai and Clover belonged together.

“We’re not a love story. He and I are a tragedy that already ended in the worst possible way.”

The tortured rock god, the young woman whose heart was destroyed by love, it’s a tragic love story delivered with love and sincerity, and as rock star romances go, it’s one we really did enjoy. Whilst it lacked the grittiness we normally associate and love about the tortured rock star addict, Kat and Clover’s tumultuous slow building complicated love story may not have delivered the punch we’d hoped for, it touched our hearts nonetheless.

‘There he was. My childhood best friend. My ex-boyfriend. The most beautiful boy I had ever know.
The man that broke my heart into a million unfixable pieces. ‘

From the outset, we felt Kai and Clover were soulmates and we knew in our hearts they had to be together, if only they could heal and forgive. Whilst we loved a slow burn, we would have loved more ‘afters‘, you know, as a reward for the way our hearts and our resolve were put through the wringer.