Kind of Famous
Mary Ann Marlowe
Publication date: April 7th 2020
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Layla Beckett has a secret. For the past ten years, she’s run the most trafficked fan site on the Internet for her favorite band—under an alias, naturally. When she lands a job at the prestigious New York City music magazine The Rock Paper, she’s suddenly thrust into the world she’s only observed from the cheap seats. Now that she’s brushing elbows with sexy guitarists and hot frontmen, she wants to play it cool and keep her superfan status on the down low. Although she’s dying to gush on her forum, posting her insider adventures online could expose her real-life identity and blow her cover.

And that’s all before one of those sexy musicians becomes a fan of her.

From the minute he meets Layla, Shane Morgan’s heart beats a heavy metal rhythm, but his head is full of doubt. Since only the most hardcore fans could pick the drummer out of a lineup, he’s resigned to groupies using him to get closer to the more famous guitarists. But he doesn’t want to be Layla’s passthrough.

As Layla gets to know the real people behind the music, she’s drawn to the less-than-flashy drummer’s sweet charms, fascinating mind, and banging hot body, but she worries about his insecurities. She needs to convince Shane she’s moved beyond fandom before he discovers her online history and loses all faith in her intentions.

But the Internet is forever, and secrets have a way of getting out.

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EXCERPT:

The moon shone bright, but Shane’s eyes remained dark as the deepest ocean. He blinked twice and ran his thumb down my cheek to my chin. I confess that I’d had some illicit fantasies about the guys in the band, but I’d never felt the one-two punch to the gut that I got when his hand slid around the back of my neck and he pulled me forward to press his lips against mine.

He drew back, slowly enough that his lips continued to touch mine for a lingering moment, and I opened my eyes before he did. He looked like he’d tasted ice cream for the first time and wanted to savor it. My mind reeled with questions, and I had this crazy thought that I wished he were more famous so I’d have read something about him on the Internet before, so I’d know who he was and what I might be getting myself into.

If he were like Adam, I’d know to grab hold of him and never let go. If he were like Noah,

I wouldn’t want to give him the time of day.

But those lips.

A tiny smile lit his face. “Should I apologize again?”

With that, I threw caution to the wind and twisted both hands into his T-shirt. He laughed when I pulled him back into a less hesitant kiss, but his laughter stopped when my tongue brushed his, and he spun us around so he could press me up against the metal door behind us.

It had been a long time since I’d been physical with a man. Way too long.

Shane’s lips teased mine, and I felt like I’d lived in a desert my whole life, never knowing that water existed. Suddenly I’d fallen into a deep pool. It might turn out to be an oasis, or I might drown, and I didn’t care. My fingers traced his cheek, then brushed his neck, and his body responded in shivers. He lifted the edge of my shirt and explored my lower back, creeping up my spine until he reached my bra.

I’d lost track of where we were. Everything was him. His mouth on mine. His hands on me. His skin. His . . . I gasped. He pressed harder into me, and I ground back, need flaring inside me.

He took the first step away. “Layla.” The fact that his voice came out ragged and breathless only made me want to tear his shirt off and spend the next ten hours licking every inch of him while he said my name.

Kind of Famous by Mary Ann Marlowe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is book #3, in Flirting With Fame series. This book can be read as a standalone novel. For reader understanding, and to avoid spoilers, I recommend reading this series in order.

Layla is starting work at a new job in New York. She wants to do well but it worried if anyone finds out about her past with her blog, it will be all over. Secrets make it hard to move forward.

Shane goes after what he wants - and he wants Layla. Right from the beginning they share a spark and a sense of humor. Can they make a future with the past staying hidden? If it all comes out will they get past the deceit of a withheld story?

The music business is treacherous at best, but the characters in this series are HOT and they know it. This story was full of sizzle and sexy. I loved that there was room for bonds of friendship to form under high pressure conditions too. The characters were complicated and made for an interesting read.


***This early copy was given in exchange for an honest review by Netgalley and its publisher.

View all my reviews

Author Bio:

 

Some Kind of Magic is Mary Ann Marlowe's first novel. When not writing, she works by day as a computer programmer/DBA. She spent ten years as a university-level French professor, and her resume includes stints as an au pair in Calais, a hotel intern in Paris, a German tutor, a college radio disc jockey, and a webmaster for several online musician fandoms, plus she has a second-degree black belt. She has lived in twelve states and three countries and loves to travel. She now lives in central Virginia where she is hard at work on her second novel. She loves to hear from readers and can be reached through her website at www.maryannmarlowe.com, on Facebook, www.facebook.com/marlowemaryann/, and at twitter.com/maryannmarlowe.

 

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This is book #3, in Flirting With Fame series.  This book can be read as a standalone novel.  For reader understanding, and to avoid spoilers, I recommend reading this series in order.

Layla is starting work at a new job in New York.  She wants to do well but it worried if anyone finds out about her past with her blog, it will be all over.  Secrets make it hard to move forward.

Shane goes after what he wants - and he wants Layla.  Right from the beginning they share a spark and a sense of humor.  Can they make a future with the past staying hidden?  If it all comes out will they get past the deceit of a withheld story?

The music business is treacherous at best, but the characters in this series are HOT and they know it.  This story was full of sizzle and sexy.  I loved that there was room for bonds of friendship to form under high pressure conditions too.  The characters were complicated and made for an interesting read.  I give this read a 4/5 Kitty's Paws UP!

***This early copy was given in exchange for an honest review by Netgalley and its publisher.

Book: The Black-Eyed Blonde

Author: Benjamin Black

Genre: Hard-Boiled Detective/Gangster/Noir/Police Novel

Summary: "It was one of those Tuesday afternoons in summer when you wonder if the earth has stopped revolving. The telephone on my desk had the air of something that knows it's being watched. Cars trickled past in the street below the dusty window of my office, and a few of the good folks of our fair city ambled along the sidewalk, men in hats, mostly, going nowhere." So begins The Black-Eyed Blonde, a new novel featuring Philip Marlowe - yes, that Philip Marlowe. Channeling Raymond Chandler, Benjamin Black has brought Marlowe back to life for a new adventure on the mean streets of Bay City, California. It is the early 1950s, Marlowe is as restless and lonely as ever, and business is a little slow. Then a new client is shown in: young, beautiful, and expensively dressed, she wants Marlowe to find her former lover, a man named Nico Peterson. Marlowe sets off on his search, but almost immediately discovers that Peterson's disappearance is merely the first in a series of bewildering events. Soon he is tangling with one of Bay City's richest families and developing a singular appreciation for how far they will go to protect their fortune. Only Benjamin Black, a modern master of the genre, could write a new Philip Marlowe novel that has all of the panache and charm of the originals while delivering a story that is as sharp and fresh as today's best crime fiction. -Henry Holt, 2014.

JD Robb/Nora Roberts 

Lynn Cahoon

Susan Elia MacNeal

Shelly Laurenston

Edgar Allen Poe

Victor LaValle

Reviewed for Wit and Sin

Lord Bredon and the Bachelor’s Bible is a charming second chance romance with likeable characters and a satisfying happily ever after. In the wake of his father’s death, Edward Lovell, Earl of Chatham, is in need of funds in order to save his estates. Edward is an honorable man who feels the weight of responsibility toward those who depend on him, which is why it’s easy to swallow his decision to marry for money. When he discovers a guide to the wealthiest debutantes of the season, it seems a sign. All Edward has to do is marry Martha Finch and his problems will be solved. It’s a practical decision and given his title and looks it shouldn’t be too difficult to secure the lady’s hand. There is just one problem: Martha’s sponsor is Lady Anne Howard, the woman Edward once loved and lost. Like Edward, Anne is a sympathetic protagonist. She has suffered heartbreaking loss and an unhappy marriage; widowhood is freedom and she isn’t looking to give that up.

The connection between Anne and Edward is positively electric and it’s clear they’re made for each other, which made it easy enough to root for their happily ever after. But Edward’s duty to his title and the financial strain that goes with it isn’t a simple obstacle to overcome. I enjoyed seeing the push-pull both feel between duty and desire. With Anne and Edward so often finding themselves at an impasse, the story did sometimes slow down, but I wasn’t overly bothered by this and read the book in one sitting. There was an interesting mystery thrown in near the end of the story and the bulk of the action in the book takes place in the last quarter. I do wish the intensity had been turned up on the suspense plotline and woven more through the book, but I did like the way multiple plotlines converged at the book’s climax. There was also an interesting reveal in the story (one I can’t reveal without spoiling the book), but nothing came of it, which was a pity because it would have been interesting to see Edward’s reaction.

Lord Bredon and the Bachelor’s Bible is the second book in Mia Marlowe’s House of Lovell series. You don’t have to have read The Singular Mr. Sinclair in order to follow along, so long as you don’t mind some minor spoilers. As a fan of the first book, I was delighted to revisit Caroline and Lawrence and I’m sure readers new to the Lovell family will enjoy their scenes as well. Overall I liked Lord Bredon and the Bachelor’s Bible quite a bit, but I will admit that two days after finishing the book neither the story nor the characters stand out in my mind. Still, it’s an enjoyable story to pass the hours with and I do hope Ms. Marlowe continues the House of Lovell series because I’d love to read Ben Lovell’s book.


FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.