{"id":49021,"date":"2020-01-20T08:30:24","date_gmt":"2020-01-20T13:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=49021"},"modified":"2020-01-19T06:36:15","modified_gmt":"2020-01-19T11:36:15","slug":"arc-review-face-the-music-love-hate-rock-n-roll-3-by-j-b-salsbury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=49021","title":{"rendered":"ARC Review: Face the Music (Love, Hate, Rock-n-Roll, #3) by J.B. Salsbury"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Amazon US\u00a0<\/a> |\u00a0 Amazon UK<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0 Amazon CA<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0 Amazon AU<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n

Kobo<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0 B&N<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n

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Blurb<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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Pastor Ben Langley is irresistible<\/i>.<\/p>\n

His wife died giving birth to their daughter five years ago. His tragic past doesn\u2019t keep me from wanting to unravel him, strip away his buttoned-up goodness, and discover what kind of man lies beneath. If that makes me evil, so be it. I\u2019m far beyond redemption anyway.<\/p>\n

Ashleigh Kendrick is freedom personified, an unpredictable wind I want to grasp hold of.<\/i><\/p>\n

Every Sunday she watches me preach from the front row, wearing her halter tops and tiny skirts, a dangerous temptation. Her favorite words are the four-letter variety, and her smile lights up the darkness inside me. I vowed to love one woman forever. I never realized that vow would be impossible to keep when confronted with a chance to love again.<\/p>\n

Face the Music is an opposites attract romance with emotional ties to the past that run so thick they feel impossible to overcome.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Review<\/strong><\/h4>\n

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

Oh, Pastor Ben. You have my heart!<\/p>\n

An opposites attract romance that is both fun and emotional, and so damn sweet! This is such a beautiful story, and I loved it!<\/p>\n

This is the third book in the Love, Hate, Rock-n-Roll<\/i> series. It\u2019s the story of Ben and Ashleigh, both introduced in book #1, [book:Playing by Heart|42296521] (Ben is the brother of rock star, Jesse Lee, and Ashleigh is the best friend of Jesse\u2019s now wife, Bethany), but this book can be read as a standalone.<\/p>\n

Ben is the pastor of a church and a widowed single father to an adorable five-year-old daughter. His beloved wife died giving birth to Elliot and he has never been able to move on, holding tight to her memory and to the vows he made to her. But temptation comes in the form of wickedly crude and sassy Ashleigh. His ex-babysitter\u2019s best friend is a sexually liberated wild girl with a filthy mouth and a flair for flashing skin. Sitting in the front row of his church week after week and flirting shamelessly with him whenever she has the opportunity, Ben is unable to resist Ashleigh\u2019s light and liveliness, and he begins to feel something for her.<\/p>\n

Ashleigh has crushed on Ben from the moment she first saw him. She knows that she is far from the woman that a man like him would typically go for, and she also knows that he is committed to the memory of his wife, so she doesn\u2019t ever expect anything to happen between them. But when she begins to spend more time with him and Elliot, things begin to shift.<\/p>\n

This is such a fantastic relationship. Ben and Ashleigh are so<\/i> different, but they just don\u2019t care. Their feelings for each other are strong, and though they are from completely different backgrounds, living extremely different lives, it doesn\u2019t matter when it comes to their attraction. Instead, their hurdles come from their own personal issues. They have both had trauma in their pasts, and they are both still struggling to deal with it, and they are also figuring out who they are and where they want to be. There are big decisions to be made, and it\u2019s a bit of a journey for them, and I loved watching them work through it all.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want her to see me as a married man. I don\u2019t want her to see me as a pastor. I want her to know I\u2019m a warm-blooded male who has his eyes set on her and I\u2019m capable of being the kid of man she needs. <\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The story is written in dual POV so we get to see all that they are feeling up close and personal, and my heart ached for them and all they were going through. The emotion is beautifully written, and the drama brings so much depth to the story, bringing feels, angst, and a wonderful intensity that had my heart pounding.<\/p>\n

\u201cI opened my fucking soul to you. I held my heart in my hands and offered it to you, broken and battered and so demolished, but I gave it all to you. And you\u2026\u201d he shakes his head. \u201cYou give me nothing. Your walls are firmly in place while I\u2019m bleeding out at your feet.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s a heartwrenching read at times, but it\u2019s balanced by sweet and funny moments with Elliot, hilarious and outrageous outbursts by Ben\u2019s brother, Jesse, and by the sweet and flirty relationship that develops between Ben and Ashleigh. It\u2019s a slow burn, with plenty of chemistry and steam, and it\u2019s beautifully heartfelt as they figure it all out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is nothing you could tell me that I won\u2019t love you through.\u201d \u2026 I continue to hold her eyes. \u201cThere is nothing you could say or do that I won\u2019t love you through.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Swoon!<\/p>\n

Ben and Ashleigh\u2019s story isn\u2019t an easy one, but I loved their journey, and it\u2019s worth it for the happy ending that left me grinning and swooning yet again. There is one member of the band left to have his story told, and with that little hint dropped at the end, I\u2019m really looking forward to Ethan’s book to round out the series.<\/p>\n

Loved this one \u2013 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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Love, Hate, Rock-n-Roll<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"\"\u00a0\u00a0\"\" \u00a0\"\" \u00a0\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Playing by Heart (#1)
\n<\/strong>Review<\/a>
\nBuy:\u00a0 Kindle Ebook<\/a><\/p>\n

Skipped a Beat (#2)<\/strong>
\nReview<\/a>
\nBuy:\u00a0 Kindle Ebook<\/a><\/p>\n

Face the Music (#3)<\/strong>
\nReview<\/a>
\nBuy:\u00a0 Kindle Ebook<\/a><\/p>\n

Strike a Chord (#4)
\n<\/strong>Review<\/a>
\nBuy: \u00a0Kindle Ebook<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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

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  Amazon US\u00a0 |\u00a0 Amazon UK\u00a0 |\u00a0 Amazon CA\u00a0 |\u00a0 Amazon AU Kobo\u00a0 |\u00a0 B&N   Blurb Pastor Ben Langley is irresistible. His wife died giving birth to their daughter five years ago. His tragic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48850,"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":[52,25,9,1036,29],"tags":[59,1091,648,129,48,1092],"class_list":["post-49021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drama","category-friends-to-lovers","category-romance","category-single-parent","category-steamy","tag-arc","tag-hate","tag-j-b-salsbury","tag-love","tag-review","tag-rock-n-roll"],"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\/2019\/12\/Face-the-Music.jpg?fit=200%2C300&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gaNL-cKF","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49021","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=49021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/48850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}