~~ Fall For Me, by Ann Lister
(The Rock Gods Book # 1)
Ryan Pierce meets rocker Dagger Drummond, when writes an article on him. While there he leans something spicy - but chooses not to be like a tabloid and keeps it to himself. Ryan and Dagger become friends due to the fact he can be trusted and now, they talk all the time on the phone.
Dagger does not have many that he can trust. He is a famous rock star, writer, and lead singer for his band. They become good friends and Dagger continues to flirt with Ryan. He is attracted to him and makes that very clear.
Ryan is afraid. He is remembering that his first kiss was his best friend, and also a guy. Now, he is attracted to Dagger and it completely frightens him. As an entertainment journalist, he meets lots of musicians and others ask him out as well. He does not know if he should be offended, he does not think of himself as gay.
Dagger fell for Ryan right from the start and wants to be in his life however he will let him. They are both vulnerable from the hurt from their pasts. Trying not to make new mistakes, Ryan pushed Dagger away.
The relationship that develops is so honest and real to read. I loved how they tried to respect one another and be honest in all they did. I found this book to be a keeper! I give it a 4/5 Kitty's Paws UP!
Opening Line: “I am torturing my father, Colin.”
I’ll be honest (based on the blurb) this wasn’t quite what I was expecting; yes there’s punk rock, heroin abuse and dysfunctional parents. But there’s also you Adam Sharp, and your life story is so much more than that.
Daddy Was a Punk Rocker is an inspiring, funny, horrific, surprisingly relatable and often sad memoir that at the core is a story about the child-parent relationship. This is little boy lost while he waits for his parents to get their shit together.
Adam takes us back to the very beginning with a mother who didn’t want him, refused to touch him or show him any form of kindness. His father Colin was a junkie, but more than that he was a disappointment, swearing that he wouldn’t abandon him yet continually doing just that. Subsequently raised by his grandfather and “Andrew” in Manchester England Adam grows up trying to be the bravest, smartest boy in the whole world so that his father will return and his mother Martine will visit more often and maybe not hit him as much. He tries not to cry, to lift the most weight in gym class, to never let a soccer ball into his net. Adam continually tries to prove himself while growing up. Eventually he comes to a sort of placidity about who his parents are and then it becomes all about escaping Manchester and who he is.
“His house smelled of cigarette smoke and violence.”
Throughout this Adam is always trying to escape; geographically from Manchester but mostly from himself. He relocates a lot; in Sydney, Melbourne, The Channel Islands, Spain, he recreates himself becoming funny and charming and successful and confident. It was kind of heartbreaking actually watching Adam try so hard to be someone else because he felt who he was wasn’t good enough.
I liked that this book followed Adam out of his childhood, I liked watching him attend college for a law degree he doesn’t want, meet girls, travel the world, be a stilt walker. I liked seeing him immigrate to Australia and live in a shed with spiders, be a “sexual experimenter” and then meet his wife Lee. I suffered with you while you bartended and served sandwiches in a casino. And attempted suicide. I watched you eventually find a relationship with your father and allow punk rock into your life. And the epilogue… the epilogue had me choking back tears. Oh No!
My only criticism would be that the beginning felt sort of repetitive, by putting us into the story in short form and then starting all over again with more detail. On the flip side there were certain sections of dialogue that were hilarious (like the nonsensical banter between Adam and his mates or when he first meets Lee at the wedding) I can only hope to read something along these lines in the future.
Thank you Adam Sharp for allowing me this intimate look into your life, what a brilliantly entertaining memoir you’ve put out there into the world.~4.5~
** A copy was generously provided by the author in exchange for a fair and honest review. 366jb45
Opening line: “Life is short. Break the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, laugh uncontrollably, and never regret anything that makes you smile.”
Steven Tyler's bio is no different, all the goods are 
here, and he doesn’t hold anything back (understatement) the only thing is in order to get to “the goods” you have to wade through utter randomness to find them. Yes Steve the noise is your head does bother me because most of the time I can’t keep up with what you’re talking about.
This is written exactly how Tyler talks (and sings) with a what-will-he-say next, conversationally feel to it. And while its fun it’s also bizarre, crazy and at times difficult to follow. Jumping all over the place without a logical timeline and obscure song lyrics and poems thrown in whenever he feels like it. He wants to sniff J.Lo, he’s doing lines on tour, he’s driving around in a yellow convertible with some hot babe, suddenly he’s back in school, he’s married, he’s in rehab, it’s all Joe Perry’s fault, this is what black tastes like, I like to walk naked in my garden and talk to the fairies.
Page 90-“I sat down at the drums and wrote the drum line for Walk This Way. You want the story now or when we get to Toys in the Attic? Hey, I never said this was gonna be a completely linear read. How could it be? (Ha!) But we’re on DRUMS so… what the f---”
Anyways maybe if I were a true Aerosmith fan I would have appreciated this more, I don’t know? As it was though once I was able to turn the noise down there was a lot of interesting stuff here because at 63 and with 40 years in the business Steve has seen and done it all with everyone.
As expected theres a ton of drug use here which actually gets kind of boring after a while I will admit though at being surprised when after 12 years of sobriety, a slew of health problems (Hepatitis C, false brain tumour diagnosis, torn ACL, broken blood vessel in throat and all the problems with his twisted feet) sent him spinning out of control with an addiction to post surgery pain meds and back for an 8th stint in rehab in 2009.
He goes into great detail about his wardrobe and scarves which I’m sure will interest some and although his “brother” Joe Perry’s name is mentioned throughout we learn little about their ongoing love/hate relationship. We also hear about his wives (3 and counting), his children (4 and counting) and how Aerosmith always came before his family. I personally found the sections on song writing super interesting; the process, what the lyrics mean or in his case don’t because sometimes he just likes how the words feel on his tongue.
With 32 pages of great photos fans will lick this up however I could only give it 3 stars because it took me ages to finish and at times drove me mad.
Opening line: My desert -island, all time, top five most memorable split-ups, in chronological order:”
This is one of those modern classics on everyone’s “to read” list and while it wasn’t my first Nick Hornby book it is the one that everyone talks about so of course I went in expecting to be awed. I guess I should mention that I haven’t seen the movie (what! I know) so I knew nothing about the storyline, not that that would have influenced me I just went into this blind.
And, well I wish I could say I loved this (since that would make me one of the cool kids) but honestly the best I can come up with is under whelmed. Of course the writing is wonderful and it really is laugh-out-loud funny in places but I also found myself alternating between skim reading because the story wasn’t going anywhere and all the 80’s pop music references and top 5 lists got to be a bit much and being in absolute awe. Rereading and marking numerous passages because they were just genius, describing exactly how I felt/feel. I should also mention that the music references are somewhat dated now and anyone under the age of 40 will be scratching their heads especially if you live in America as this involves British Indie bands and pop music.
I think one of the main problems for me is that our protagonist Rob isn’t a very likable character. It was hard to have any sort of compassion for him or for that matter to even want to read about him and I actually found myself preferring any of the sections that placed him with other people because when we were alone in his head being all introspective I got bored. Rob is immature, selfish, self-absorbed and depressed, stuck in a job, apartment and relationship that have all gone stale. He has zero self confidence yet at the same time is so full of himself that he expects everything to revolve around him, which of course it doesn’t and this in turn makes him lash out at his friends, parents and girlfriend to feel better about the state of his life.
Rob is a bit of a loser; a thirty-something music junkie he spends his days running a near failing record shop and reminiscing about the 80’s when he was semi successful DJ. Rob’s life has stalled and he can’t see a way out so he compiles top 5 lists of his favourite bands, songs, episodes of Cheers etc, insults his equally lost friends and plots ways to kill the guy who lives in the flat upstairs and stole his girlfriend. Along the way Rob manages to grow up, (some) and realizes change might not be so horrible. Cheers
Log in with Facebook 
