{"id":38588,"date":"2018-11-27T08:00:09","date_gmt":"2018-11-27T13:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=38588"},"modified":"2019-04-14T11:23:20","modified_gmt":"2019-04-14T15:23:20","slug":"arc-review-playing-by-heart-by-j-b-salsbury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=38588","title":{"rendered":"ARC Review: Playing by Heart (Love Hate Rock-n-Roll, #1) by J.B. Salsbury"},"content":{"rendered":"

Playing By Heart is now live!<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Amazon US <\/a>|\u00a0 Amazon UK<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0 Amazon CA<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0 <\/strong>Kobo<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0 B&N<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0 iBooks<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n

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Blurb<\/b><\/h4>\n

Jesse Lee is the worst!<\/u><\/u><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

He\u2019s a multi-millionaire, triple-platinum-selling, Grammy-Award-winning man-slut\u2014a worldly, self-indulgent heathen. I wouldn\u2019t sleep with him if he were our last chance to ensure survival of the human race. The only reason I put up with him is because he\u2019s my boss\u2019s brother. <\/u> <\/u><\/p>\n

Whatsherface is one of those holier-than-thou types.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

She\u2019s bossy, has a horrific singing voice, and she\u2019s so ordinary, she practically blends in with the eggshell-colored walls\u2014the complete opposite of anyone I\u2019d bang. The only reason I put up with her is because my career is on the line.<\/p>\n

Playing by Heart<\/i> is an enemies-to-lovers romance where opposites not only attract, they ignite.<\/p>\n

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Review<\/b><\/h4>\n

4.5 stars!<\/b><\/p>\n

I love this book! An enemies-to-lovers rock star romance with great banter and chemistry, and a gorgeous love story that is sweet, sexy, and beautifully heartfelt. J.B. Salsbury has delivered another fantastic read that is lots of fun, with imperfect characters that you cannot help but love, and all the feels!<\/p>\n

Jesse Lee is the quintessential bad boy rock star \u2013 tattooed, foul-mouthed, spoiled, entitled and drowning in drugs, alcohol and women. His latest bender is the last straw for his band and his label, and he is shipped off to Arizona to stay with his estranged brother in order to straighten himself out and get writing again in a last-ditch effort to save his career.<\/p>\n

Bethany is a good girl who has recently had her heart broken and is struggling to move on. She works for her church\u2019s pastor as a nanny for his adorable four year old, and the last thing she was expecting, or wanting, was to have to deal with an angry, broody, broken rock star staying in her boss\u2019s house.<\/p>\n

The circumstances of their first meeting are awkward, and it all goes downhill from there. Jesse, resenting everything about his stay in Arizona, dismisses Bethany as plain, boring and no fun, and Bethany has no time for such a rude, crude and angry man, no matter how gorgeous he is or how many records he has sold. The snark and banter is highly entertaining as they bicker and antagonise each other, but there\u2019s also a reluctant attraction there, creating a fantastic dynamic that is so much fun to watch.<\/p>\n

I never allow people to get under my skin, and it\u2019s been pretty fucking easy since adolescence. The less I care, the easier it is.
\nSo how the fuck does this no-name girl manage to irritate the shit out of me?<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jesse obviously has issues, though he is reluctant to deal with them, wanting nothing more than to get back to his life of excess back in LA. But sobriety and his new circumstances change him, and Bethany is a big part of that, not taking his crap, and treating him like a real person instead of bowing down to his every whim like everybody else in his life. She truly sees him, and he begins to soften towards her, truly seeing her as well, and that\u2019s when everything begins to change.<\/p>\n

I love this love story! It\u2019s a slow burn as these two opposites find their common ground, and they are surprisingly and beautifully natural with each other. And watching foul-mouthed Jesse tease and poke at prudish Bethany is so funny! I laughed out loud at his lack of filter, and watching them together is so much fun. The sexy time is passionate and intense, and the emotion between them is gorgeous, and I was easily swept up into their romance.<\/p>\n

\u201cSay you\u2019re mine.
\nPlease, just tell me you\u2019ll be mine.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But Jesse is still figuring himself out, Bethany is dealing with things from her past, and their everyday lives couldn\u2019t be more different from each other. They have a lot to sort through and it\u2019s a rollercoaster of emotion as they do it, but I loved watching them deal with it all and find their way forward, with more than one epic moment along the way.<\/p>\n

This is a fantastically fun read that kept me glued to my kindle. I read it in a day, unable to put it down, and I fell in love with these characters and their story.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have me now. You’ve owned me from the start. There’s no playbook on how to love you, so I’ll keep playing by heart.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It is a standalone, but Salsbury fans will love the loose tie-in to the Fighting<\/i> series, and I\u2019m keeping my fingers crossed for a follow up book for Bethany\u2019s best friend, who is an absolute riot!<\/p>\n

Such a great read, I loved it! 4.5 stars.<\/p>\n

An Advanced Review Copy was generously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.<\/i><\/p>\n

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See our J.B. Salsbury Author Spotlight<\/a> for more great reads!<\/strong><\/h4>\n

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Playing By Heart is now live! Amazon US |\u00a0 Amazon UK\u00a0 |\u00a0 Amazon CA\u00a0 |\u00a0 Kobo\u00a0 |\u00a0 B&N\u00a0 |\u00a0 iBooks   Blurb Jesse Lee is the worst! He\u2019s a multi-millionaire, triple-platinum-selling, Grammy-Award-winning man-slut\u2014a worldly, self-indulgent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","yasr_overall_rating":4.5,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"Product","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[86,94,9,29],"tags":[59,928,991,48],"class_list":["post-38588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-enemies-to-lovers","category-rockers","category-romance","category-steamy","tag-arc","tag-j-b-salbsury","tag-love-hate-rock-n-roll","tag-review"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Playing-by-Heart.jpg?fit=150%2C225&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gaNL-a2o","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}