Rock the Beat

Black Falcon Series, Book 3

By: Michelle A. Valentine

Narrated by: Nelson Hobbs, Aletha George

Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

Twenty-year-old Holly Pearson never dreamed that while working at her father's motocross track she'd run into the walking, talking definition of trouble in a sexy, tattooed package - Trip Douglas, the man sent to evaluate the track for a possible investment opportunity. Holly makes no attempt to hide the fact she despises Trip, but she learns to be civil toward him when he offers to help her land the man of her dreams.

Trip needs a break from the crazy rock-and-roll lifestyle he's been living for the past few years. With his Black Falcon band mates settling down with marriage and babies, Trip peruses an investment opportunity in motocross, something he's always been passionate about. Hiding his celebrity status, Trip infiltrates the new business posing as a dirt bike rider training for the X-Games. The only obstacle is the owner's daughter, Holly. She's a real ball-bustin' ice queen, and she'll do whatever it takes to make the deal fall through. Trip soon discovers that winning over his new enemy is the key to gaining a partnership in Mountain Time Speed Track.

Knowing he's the expert on getting laid, Trip ropes Holly into becoming his ally by helping her score a date with the man she's crushing on. The problem is, the more time Trip and Holly spend together, the more they uncover the undeniable attraction between them. Soon they both realize that even the best-laid plans go to hell when you find you're falling in love with the enemy.

©2013 Michelle A. Valentine Books, LLC (P)2014 Tantor

GREAT..... BUT OVER TOO SOON

Easygoing bad mouthed Trip is gorgeous, sexy, tattooed and is the Drummer in B.F. but he's had his heart broken once so now he's strictly a love em and leave em happy type of guy but when he smooches up to Holly on the dance floor she leaves a long lasting impression on his drunken mind.

This isn't set around the band, the rock star hype or the gigs and it's a refreshing change - instead it's set in Arizona where unrecognised Trip is pretending to be just a Representative of a rich musician wanting to invest in Holly's Father's X Track Motor-cross business. However, he never planned on being hit with sizzling chemistry, jealousy, frustration, lust, passion, mind blowing sex, friendship..... and love. There's also other's secrets that he must keep and his own secrets he's not ready to share but, as we all know from these books, secrets will always find their way out. Holly brings with her a scumbag ex boyfriend that throws some punches, a loving, loyal and supportive gay best friend and separated parents who are holding more devastating secrets.

I didn't like the dual narration and Nelson Hobbs' narration from Trip's POV was sometimes hard to follow as I couldn't work out which characters were talking and was Trip just thinking or actually speaking.

Worth a credit? It was a very enjoyable refreshing addition to the series as we share in the love story of another band member who slowly, tenderly and touchingly meets and helplessly falls hard for his destined mate. So YES a very creditworthy addition to my library but with one small complaint about the series - I don't like the way that all these books are followed with costly .5 Novella's instead of either continuing the stories within the books or charge a much more acceptable price for a 2 or 3 hr listen.

Really good addition to the series :)

4-4.5 stars

This was a really good story. I liked both Holly and Trip very much and their story was enjoyable and rather sweet.

Holly was a college student but left school to help her father. Her father has a motocross track and it’s not doing great, soon to be foreclosed on by the bank. In an effort to stop this they're desperately looking for investors. Holly had been dating a motocross rider named Jackson (for 2 years) but he missed their 2 year anniversary and then broke up with her (very rudely). Then she found out he was cheating on her a lot while she was away at college which left Holly bewildered at what went wrong.

Trip is the drummer for a very popular band, Black Falcon. The band is currently on a break from touring as 2 of the members have gotten married and had kids recently. Trip’s at loose ends and looking for something to occupy his time when he hears about an investment opportunity and goes to check it out. He decides to not let the people know he’s the actual investor, acting like he works for the investor, hoping to get a clearer idea of the state of things that way (in addition to not wanting them to know about his celebrity status).

Holly is out at a bar on her 20th birthday (thanks to a fake ID) with her best friend, Max (who’s gay). They're on the dance floor when she gets pulled into a dance with a very sexy man. A man she is seriously considering going home with as he’s turning her on big time. This is unusual for Holly as she’s only had one lover before, her ex Jackson, so her wanting to take a strange man home isn't normal at all for her. Max sees where things are heading and pulls her away. Trip (being the man dancing with her) doesn't want her to go but when another woman throws herself in his arms he deals with it, figuring Max was Holly’s boyfriend and it was best not to go looking for trouble. The next day, Holly is working in the office of the track when Trip comes in. He doesn’t recognize her right off but she recognizes him and isn't too happy with his moving on to a new chick immediately the night before and thus isn't thrilled to see him, thinking he’s nothing but a man-whore. Trip pisses her off even more by blatantly flirting with her even when she trying to show him her disdain for men like him. She’s just about to completely tell him off when her dad walks in and introduces Trip as the person evaluating the business for a rich investor. Holly has no choice but to act nice to Trip but doesn't like it. Trip knows he can't sleep with Holly because of her association with the business and figures it would be easier to get through this if they're friends. He’s trying to make friends with her when he sees the discomfort she has when confronted with her ex, Jackson. The story soon comes out and Trip offers to help Holly get Jackson back and make him pay for cheating on her.

Trip and Holly start to become friends as they spend a couple weeks going over the business stuff and getting Trip the info he needs to learn about the business and decide on the investment. During this time, Trip and Holly make Jackson think they're together and Jackson shows that he’s not too happy about this, trying to stake his claim on Holly again. Holly thinks she wants Jackson back at first but after a while she finds that she prefers spending time with Trip and hasn’t been thinking about Jackson as much. She continues with things though because she thinks she should want to be with Jackson because of their past. Jackson soon begins to show his true colors to Holly when he doesn't get his way. In an effort to get in good with her, Jackson offers to take her to dinner to talk about possible ways to help the track. Holly doesn’t really want to because at this point things between her and Trip aren't feeling so fake any more but she feels like she should do what she can to help out the business. Jackson shows his full colors at dinner and Holly is done with him completely. Unfortunately, his mistreatment of Holly makes Max confront Jackson and Max comes to worse for the encounter which makes the situation worse. On the good side, this helps Holly realize that Jackson is a jerk and Trip is a good guy as he’s been there and helping them through the issues they're having. The problem becomes that Trip doesn't tell Holly who he is right away and he worries about how to tell her as she doesn't have the best opinions of musicians or famous people. More issues come up as Holly is confronted with her dad having health issues and a drug-addict mother who’s never been there for her. There are difficulties to deal with but once Trip falls for someone he’s all in so he’s there to help Holly as much as possible. They get through the drama and even the revelation of his true identity and then Trip and Holly end the story with a really good HEA.

This was a very enjoyable story. I really liked Trip and Holly. Trip was kind of a jerk at first but as soon as he started being nice to Holly I liked him and once he gave himself over to being in love with Holy I REALLY liked him. Holly was a pretty good heroine outside of the fact that I don’t see why she’d want a lying, cheating jerk like Jackson back (I know they had history but still!!!). I was thankful when she saw the light and told Jackson where to get off. Overall, I really liked this story, it was a good addition to the series. I’d recommend this story. Thumbs up! :D

* note - The book was from both Holly and Trip's PoVs and there were 2 narrators, a female for Holly's PoV and a male for Trip's PoV. Both narrators did a good job in the narration

Too much unnecessary swearing detracts

I let it run to the end and have listened to samples of some of her other stories and not for me.
if you need swearing it will be ok, otherwise don't bother.

Nice to catch up with Black Falcon

I began reading this series way back in 2013 and in an effort to catch up on my TBR I'm enjoying listening to books I purchased a long time with my romance package with audible.

This was a fairly low angst read for me. Trip is in the band Black Falcon and while the rest of the band have decided they need a break to focus on their families, Trip has decided to use the time to find some new investments.

He ends up at a family owned motor cross track where he meets Holly. There is an instant attraction between them from the first moment they cross paths but she is getting over a recent long term relationship.

Despite what the summary of this book says, the story isn't really that much about Trip helping Holly land the guy of her dreams, it centres more on the situation her and her father have found themselves in and how instrumental Trip is in helping them.

There is also a lovely romance playing out, throughout this story.