STAGED is the third book in Olivia Cunning's Exodus End World Tour series about the trials and tribulations of rock stars and their fascinating love lives. I recommend reading this series in order because of the complicated relationships involved and the events that happened to get the characters where they are when this book takes place. These Exodus End World Tour stories are all extremely character-driven and STAGED is no exception. The characters make this story come to life. Drummer Steve Aimes has been knocked around in his personal life and so he's attracted, yet skeptical, when he lays eyes on keyboardist Roux "Katie" Williams. Steve and Roux have had very different backgrounds but they form a powerful emotional connection that grows as this story progresses.
Every good story benefits from having a villain and there are several in STAGED. Chief among them being Exodus End's manager Sam Baily. Despite all his wicked machinations, it's actually Sam that unintentionally brings Steve and Roux together by signing her bad up to tour with Exodus End. When Roux's band knocks Steve's BFF's band off the tour, it makes for a prickly and inauspicious beginning between these two characters but the friction soon turns to sexual chemistry. STAGED has what I love most about Olivia Cunning's music-themed romances - the rock stars have a somewhat decadent lifestyle but they are multifaceted and Exodus End functions as a tight family unit. When their manager plays hell with their lives, or the media tries to interfere, the bandmates stick up for each other and have their backs.
True to an Olivia Cunning novel, there are many spicy scenes between this hero and heroine, but they also do an intense crash course in getting to know each other as well. As they get to know each other better, the readers get to know them better too. Even though Steve has a tumultuous romantic history and lived the typical rock star lifestyle, his upbringing was very traditional and full of love growing up on a farm. Roux has a stable personal life now thanks to her bandmates and extended foster family, but her childhood was filled with fear. Steve and Roux share their pasts with each other and bond emotionally.
STAGED has a love story that is both tender and torrid with superb storytelling. Olivia Cunning has a way of drawing you into her stories with characters you can't help but find compelling and the emotional resonance that blows you away. These books are highly satisfying and yet addictive, so I eagerly await Olivia Cunning's next Exodus End World Tour book.
The world is his stageโฆ
Exodus Endโs legendary drummer, Steve Aimes, plays the
role of a rock star better than anyone in the business.
Since his divorce, heโs embraced every rock โnโ roll
stereotype and uses those vices to keep women at a safe
emotional distance, while keeping their physical distance
recklessly close. He vowed years ago to never give any
woman the power to break his heart again. He just has to
keep playing the part, and never drop his guard, and stop
obsessing over the keyboardist in their new opening act.
He didnโt want Rouxโs band on this tour in the first
place, but somehow she shattered his barriers without
even trying. The only way he knows to save his heart from
breaking is to make her his forever, so why does she keep
pushing him away?
The stage is her worldโฆ
Roux Williams knows an opportunity like this only comes
around once in a lifetime. Her band, Baroquen, has
finally gotten their big break and are opening for Exodus
End and Sinnersโtwo powerhouses of rockโon the European
leg of their world tour. She refuses to screw up this
opportunity by getting involved with Steve Aimes no
matter how gorgeous, sexy and surprisingly attentive he
is. She canโt deny her attraction to himโthe man has the
body of a god and the face of a modelโbut heโs absolutely
off limits. Maybe a lust-crazed weekend on a private
island will get him out of her system. Or maybe sheโll
fall even harder. Once the tour is over they can date,
but until then she must keep her distance, because mixing
business with pleasure is not only tabloid fodder, itโs
professional suicide. But damn, why does he have to be so
stubbornly irresistible?
When their worlds are rattled by a ploy staged to destroy
them, Exodus Endโs infamous bad boy and Baroquenโs not-
yet-famous good girl must figure out a way to have it all
and each other.
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