Reviewer: Tracy Mended by Kim Karr
Series: Connections series #3
Also in this series: Frayed
Publisher: Penguin
Publication Date: June 3rd 2014
Genres: New Adult
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Music has the power to heal, but not all broken hearts can be mended.
Always in control, Xander Wilde considered life on the road to be a perfect fit for him. But when disaster strikes on the band’s latest tour, fate intervenes…and a newly single Ivy Taylor, the only girl he has ever loved, steps back into his life.
After moving past her painful breakup with Xander years ago, Ivy was poised to become the next big name in music…when suddenly she withdrew from the limelight—the same day she announced her engagement to her controlling agent, Damon Wolf.
Xander knows he should keep his distance. But once they’re on the road, he can’t resist pursuing her for a second chance. Yet a jealous Damon can’t let her go—and he’s keeping dangerous secrets that could destroy them all.
When the three of them come together, everything falls apart. But if Xander and Ivy can hold tight to the bond that connects them, they just might have a chance to reclaim the powerful love they thought they had lost forever....
Xander and Ivy were once in a relationship that had all the elements of a life long commitment. They were inseparable and had made plans for the future. Unfortunately, in their senior year, Xander’s father committed suicide and it changed Xander’s life. Instead of going to Chicago to go to college with Ivy he would be staying home with his family. He didn’t know how to tell Ivy but she made that easy when she made some assumptions about him, dumped him and it tore them apart.
Now it’s 12 years later and Xander is the manager of his brother’s band, The Wild Ones, who are on tour. The lead singer they got to replace Xander’s brother, River, suddenly can’t perform and the band is stuck and may have to cancel the tour. Ivy, who has become somewhat of a star, steps in when they need her the most and the tour continues.
Xander hadnt seen Ivy for 12 years and when he did he was struck by how much he still loved her. She was engaged to her agent, Damon Wolfe, however, so he knew she was off limits. When Ivy steps up to take the lead singer’s place the band is excited – so is Xander. Unfortunately, Ivy is still living under that assumption she made about Xander all those years ago and it makes things tense for everyone. Xander finally comes clean and all is well. The couple looks like they’re going to live happily ever after and glide off into the sunset…except, they don’t. When Xander heads home for a few days to be with his brother and Dahlia, things with Ivy hit the skids and neither Xander nor Ivy can figure a way out of it.
Though I wasn’t a huge fan of Xander’s during books 1 and two in the Connections series I was really interested to read his story. I always like reunited lovers stories as well so the fact that his book contained that trope made me want to read it even more.
The book starts out when Xander and Ivy are just 17 years old and getting ready to graduate. The prologue shows us how strong and wonderful the relationship between the two are and it’s incredibly sweet. They are a great couple and it makes us believe that nothing can tear them apart.
We cut to 12 years later and apparently something COULD tear them apart. They are not together nor have they been since the summer after they graduated high school. We don’t figure out the exact details of what happened between the two until later, but it obviously has something to do with the fact that Ivy believes that Xander cheated on her. Right off the bat, knowing how much Xander is so torn up about Ivy being engaged to another man, makes me think that the cheating never happened. She starts to sing and tour with the band, the couple works out their issues and all is good. Xander and Ivy are pretty great together and I loved seeing them reunite and hope for the future. That is until Xander has to leave New York due to a family emergency. When he returns things are FUBAR like he never believed they could be.
It is at this point in the story that the author started to lose me. What Ivy does because of Damon Wolfe, her ex-fiancé and agent, is so unbelievably stupid I almost put the book down permanently. Ivy was much smarter than that and I couldn’t believe that her character would fall for Damon’s lies. I was happy that Xander didn’t give up on Ivy but then again did I want him to be with a woman who could betray him like that? IDK. Supposedly it was for Xander that she did what she did but it didn’t gel with me.
As the story moved on there were several events in the book that I didn’t care for. The band, after the tour is finished, just kind of gives up on the band. They move into other jobs and there’s not really a discussion about ending the band but it happens. That was just odd. There was also a portion about Xander and his family parentage that was interesting but I couldn’t really see how it worked into the story other than to cause sensationalism. A character in the book had previously give Xander leverage against Damon but yet…there was more to the whole story of Damon and Xander and Xander’s father. Again, it was interesting but didn’t really move the story along. The last part of the book seemed like a big love fest and I found that it just filled pages and didn’t really move me one way or the other.
So…in the end I found this book to have it’s ups and downs. While I was plowing through the first part of the book and found it quite compelling the second part of it left me wanting, I’m sorry to say.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
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