Book picks similar to
21 by Rhonda James


music
romance
contemporary-romance
rock-star

By Degrees


Elle Casey - 2013
    I call it the create-your-own-reality disease. Most of them start out normal, like you and me, but somewhere along the way they lose sight of up and down, left and right, and then eventually right and wrong. It's my job to fix that.Who hires me, Scarlett Barnes, otherwise known as ‘The Normalizer’? Agents usually. Producers sometimes. They know they can trust me to be professional, discreet, and above all, not personally involved with my clients. I come in, I take over their lives, and I get them back on track. Help them remember what it's like to be an average Joe.My latest job acquisition? His friends call him Tear-It-Up Kilgour, but I just call him Tarin - lead singer and guitarist for the band By Degrees. I have thirty days to get his butt back on planet earth before he loses his record deal, his movie contract, and possibly even his life. I've never failed so far, and I don't plan on failing this time either, even if Tarin has other ideas.Content Warning: This is a New Adult Romance, perhaps not suitable for younger readers due to foul language, sexual situations, drug use, and obnoxious rock-n-roll musicians.A message from Elle about this book: Every time I read another story about a Hollywood star or famous musician going off the deep end, I wonder how they got there. How it was that all the people around them weren’t able to or willing to stop it from happening. It must be easy when a person has more money than he or she can ever spend and people hanging around are leeches, for a person’s view of reality to get really skewed; and that’s a real shame for these talented people who have so much to share with the world. For years I’ve imagined this great job I could have where I’d hang out with celebrities who’ve lost track of the real world (the place where my readers and I live) and get them re-oriented, re-focused on what matters … clean the garbage out of their heads and their lives. Then of course, I couldn’t get that thought out of my head until I wrote a book about it, so here it is! By Degrees. The title of the book is actually the slogan of the Scottish clan Kilgour, something I learned on a trip I made there in the year this book was written.

Rockstar Daddy


Taryn Quinn - 2017
     Wait, let me back up. I'm Kellan McGuire, and I'm a rockstar in hiding, at least for the weekend. Enter Maggie Kelly, the famed Kelly virgin - AKA my small hometown's favorite good girl. Did I mention she's really good? And I'm so...not. Except Maggie isn't a virgin any longer. She actually just went through a rough breakup due to her ex's penchant for strippers.  And I don't want to be a rockstar this weekend. Not with her. I just want to be Kellan, the wolf to her Little Red Riding Hood. The guy who shows her all the dark, dirty things she never dared to dream. In return, she gave me something I never dared to dream about either - a baby. A family. Our family, if I can convince her I'm worth the risk. Author's note: this book may be called Rockstar Daddy, but the emphasis is on lots of babymaking practice, laughter, a few tears, and a serious case of insta-love.

Strangers


Barbara Elsborg - 2009
    Charlie Storm has turned being a bad boy into an art form. Already a famous pop star, mega-success in the movie business beckons until his inner demons send him spiraling out of control and right out to sea. The last thing he expects to do before he dies is crash into a suicidal woman.When the worlds of these two strangers collide, their lives take an upward twist.In surviving the waves, they find they can’t stand to be apart, in or out of bed. Kate seizes a chance for happiness, seeing in Charlie a man she can finally trust to love her. Charlie can’t let go of Kate because she’s the only woman able to see the man he wants to be.But the price of fame is high and when the world wants to drive them apart, life only seems safe in Kate’s bed.

Wicked


Arabella Quinn - 2013
    Now 10 years later, Lena's dreams are haunted by x-rated fantasies starring the sexy hunk who has since become lead guitarist for the wildly popular band, Cold Fusion.Alex's world is turned upside down...When Lena reenters his life, she rocks his whole world. He'll do whatever it takes to hold onto her.Together...Their passions explode beyond their most wicked imaginings. But is that enough to overcome the many obstacles standing in their way?Warning: This book is for mature audiences only! It contains very explicit descriptions of sex and sexual acts.

Black Box


Cassia Leo - 2014
    Their first encounter changes Mikki's life forever, but their second meeting leaves them both buried beneath the emotional wreckage of a violent attack. Mikki is left with more questions and grief than she can handle, while Crush is forced to forget the girl who saved his life.Now nineteen years old, Mikki Gladstone has decided she's tired of the mind-numbing meds. She books a flight to Los Angeles to end her life far away from her loving, though often distant, family.Twenty-one-year-old Crush has always channeled his blackest thoughts into his music, but he's never had great aspirations. He decides to fly to Los Angeles to record a demo of the only song he's never performed in public; a song he wrote for a girl he doesn't even know: Black Box. He has no expectations of fame and he's never felt like his life had any purpose... until he meets Mikki in Terminal B.When Mikki and Crush cross paths for the third time in Terminal B, neither has any idea who the other person is; until they slowly piece together their history and realize that fate has more in store for them than just another love story.

My Misery Muse


Brei Betzold - 2012
    Devi Porter, an up-and-coming tattoo artist in Dallas, is trying to live her life as best as possible, but never able to forget the love she had with Seth. Seth, a bassist for the popular band My Misery Muse, is struggling with his fellow band members with the lifestyle that he now lives. The band decides to go home to Dallas to work on their latest album as well as to work out their problems out from under the glare of the media. Seth and Devi meet up again and both realize they have a lot to work out between themselves as well. As they get reacquainted, life and obstacles are thrown at them at every turn. Are they able to overcome them to become the family neither really had?

Summer Sky


Lisa Swallow - 2014
     Sky Davis is fed up of boyfriend Grant taking her for granted, and when she comes home to find him wearing a girl, Sky suspects the relationship is over. She takes an unscheduled vacation and leaves the life (and guy) she hates behind. Rock star Dylan Morgan is struggling with fame and infamy, sick of his life being controlled by other people. Dylan cuts his hair and walks away from his role as lead singer of Blue Phoenix, leaving behind chaos and speculation. Outside the English seaside town of Broadbeach, their cars and worlds collide. Sky decides Dylan is an arrogant guy with too many tattoos, and Dylan is amused by the smart-mouthed girl with no idea who he is. Dylan and Sky soon discover they’ve travelled to Broadbeach for the same reason - to escape from reality and head back to a place with happy childhood memories. Losing themselves in a world where they know nothing about each other, Sky and Dylan begin a holiday romance that soon heats up their rainy English summer. Fantasies can’t last forever, and when reality crashes the party, Sky isn’t sure she wants to be more than his ‘summer Sky’ but Dylan doesn’t want to let her go. Returning to the real world, public scrutiny isn’t their only problem. Blue Phoenix lead guitarist, Jem Jones, has a reason for wanting Sky out of Dylan’s life, and is determined to come between them. Some things won’t stay hidden, even when they’re paid to ‘go away’. 
 Summer Sky is a contemporary romance with a rock star flavour where occasionally more than the bacon sizzles. It is the first in the Blue Phoenix series. The Blue Phoenix books are a series of contemporary romance novels and novellas centred on the fictional rock band Blue Phoenix. **This book is not a standalone and has a cliffhanger. Book Two: Falling Sky will be released June 10th 2014** Please note: This is written in UK English and includes English idiom and spelling.

Love's Rhythm


Lexxie Couper - 2012
    Lured by the promise of fame, Nick Blackthorne turned his back on the possibility of a regular life and love to focus on his career. But years down the line, still unable to erase Lauren from his heart, Nick realizes he needs to find her, even if all she’ll accept from him is an apology for walking out all those years ago.No one would ever guess kindergarten teacher Lauren Robbins was once involved with the lead singer of a rock band. Their romance was the stuff of love songs, and it took her fifteen years to get over him.When Nick turns up at her door, the heartbreak and years fall away, but not everything can be erased with apologies and soul-shattering passion.Each book in the The Heart of Fame series is a standalone story that can be enjoyed out of order.Series Order:Book #1 Love’s RhythmBook #2 Muscle for HireBook #3 Guarded DesiresBook #4 Steady BeatBook #5 Lead Me OnBook #6 Blame it on the BassBook #7 BlackthorneBook #8 Getting Played

Complicate Me


M. Robinson - 2015
    That one moment where you could have chosen a path that would lead you down a certain road. A different life. It was easier to pretend that we were still best friends, and that she was my girl and I was her boy. Pretending was better than knowing the truth...I. Ruined. Us.I had her. I lost her. I love her.All I did was complicate us.STANDALONE series. New Adult Contemporary Romance: Strong language and sexual content, not intended for readers under 18.

Random Acts of Crazy


Julia Kent - 2013
    A guitar. Really. I don't collect guys like that (don't ask what kind of guys I do collect), but when you spot a blonde, tanned, sculpted man with a gorgeous smile and his thumb poking up and practically begging you to stop – you stop.And I definitely never thought I'd be staring into the bright blue eyes of Trevor Connor, the lead singer for Random Acts of Crazy, an indie rock star I followed like the slobbering fileshare fangirl I am. How he came to be nude and lost six hundred miles from home is quite the tale, but how we fell in love is even more unreal.Because someone like Trevor Connor, headed to Harvard Law next year, isn't supposed to want someone like me, a rural Ohio chick majoring in Boredom at Convenience Store University who is all curves and frizzy blonde hair and manners so unpolished they have sharp edges that make you bleed.But he did.When his best friend, Joe Ross, the bass player for Random Acts of Crazy and a man who makes Calvin Klein models look like Shrek, drove eleven hours through the night to rescue him, though, it got real complicated. It's one thing to like two different guys and be torn.What do you do, though, when maybe – just maybe – you don't have to choose?As my Aunt Josie says sometimes, "It's always complicated."* * * * * *Random Acts of Crazy is a standalone, full-length novel (300+ pages, 85,000 words) featuring Darla Jo(sephine) Jennings, the 22-year-old niece of Josie Mendham from the Her Two Billionaires series. It has, like many New Adult novels, an exploration of sexuality for the three main characters, doesn't shy away from mature content, and Darla has a sailor's mouth.

Close


Laurelin Paige - 2018
    Everyone wants to get close to a rock star. The bright lights.The music.Those talented fingers strumming… a guitar.Everyone wants to bang a rock star.So why do I keep running from the one who wants me?I’m America’s Sweetheart.I have a reputation.He’s a boy-band icon turned rock god.I’m vanilla.He’s every flavor of bad.And he’s much, much too young for me.If I end up in Nick Ryder’s bed, my career and I will both be screwed....but that’s only if I’m caught.

After Midnight


Sarah Grimm - 2011
    After an automobile accident took her mother's life, Izzy hid herself away, surviving the only way she knew how. Now she is happy in her carefully reconstructed life. That is until he walks through the door of her bar...Black Phoenix singer/front man Noah Clark came to Long Island City with a goal — one that doesn't include an instant, electric attraction to the dark-haired beauty behind the bar. Coaxing her into his bed won't be easy, but he can't get her pale, haunted eyes nor her skill on the piano out of his head.Can Noah help Isabeau overcome the past? Or will her need to protect her secret force her back into hiding and destroy their chance at happiness?

Jaded Hearts


Harper Sloan - 2016
    Our chance at everything we never had but always wanted. All our dreams would finally come true and we were on top of the world. It was our chance at the happiness we never had in life.Our every desire was at our fingertips and the power of that feeling was all consuming. But then it took every dream we thought would come true and it slapped us in the face with the cold hard reality.Dreams were just that…something that floated on the cusp of untouchable, taunting you with every graze of your fingertips before slipping even further away. Happiness…that feeling is a joke.In the end it became painfully obvious that each of us would always have each other, but we would forever be alone.*Jaded Hearts is the first book in the Loaded Replay series.*

I Surrender


Monica James - 2013
    Returning home to Los Angeles was never going to be easy for Ava, as her heart has been shattered to smithereens and she’s convinced it’ll never heal. Or, so she thought.Enter Jasper White.Unbeknown to Ava, he will change her life forever.The attraction is instantaneous, which troubles Ava, who has sworn off men indefinitely. Yet, she is finding resisting Jasper—with his tousled bedroom hair and piercing cerulean eyes—harder than she ever imagined. That’s because Jasper knows what he wants … and he wants her.Can Ava surrender to her feelings for the one man who compels her to love again? What happens if love isn’t enough?

Carter


R.J. Lewis - 2015
    This is a story about a rising rock star and a love-struck girl. Leah: I was a fool in love. From the moment I saw him, Carter Matheson had always been it for me. I just wished he felt the same way. We grew up together in poverty, seeking solace in one another through our love for music. His voice swept me off my feet. He sang like an angel, making me forget for a little while that my unrequited love would destroy me. I thought I’d go to the ends of the earth for him. I thought my future along his side was engrained in stone. But when faced with a decision that would forever change our lives, I need to choose whose dreams to follow. Mine or his. BOOK 1 OF 2