RITA Reader Challenge Review

Wanderlust by Roni Loren

This RITA® Reader Challenge 2017 review was written by KB. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the Mid-Length Contemporary category.

The summary:

From the New York Times bestselling author of the Loving on the Edge series and Off the Clock, a story of sex, love, rock & roll, and a reporter who’s about to learn a new meaning for staying on top of her assignment…
 
Restaurant critic Aubrey Bordelon is never at a loss for words to describe her meals in the fancy restaurants of New Orleans. But after her magazine’s high-profile music reporter falls ill, she finds herself out of her element and in a sea of screaming fans awaiting Wanderlust’s lead singer, Lex Logan. The sound of his voice gives her goosebumps, and the stage presence of the hard-bodied rock star takes her breath away. So when he pulls her onstage for a sexy stunt, she knows she’s in real trouble.

Lex doesn’t want to pretend that the sparks on stage between him and Aubrey never happened, but it certainly makes the fact that she’s writing a story on his band all the more dangerous. The last thing he needs is some nosy reporter revealing their problems to the world. But the sexy Southern belle doesn’t give up easily, and soon he’s wondering if the best way to chase her off the story is to coax her into his bed…

Here is KB's review:

I was pretty excited to start reading Wanderlust. Roni Loren is an author I’ve been wanting to check out for a while–I know she has another series about sex therapists that sounds super interesting, and by all accounts H-O-T. I am also a sucker for a rock star book of any kind. Write about a hot guy who expresses his feelings through music, and I am probably going to be here for it. So when I saw the opportunity to review a rock star book by this author for the RITA challenge, I jumped on it right away. Unfortunately while the overall story was OK, there were some aspects of the book that really didn’t work for me.

So, Wanderlust is both the name of the book and the name of the fictional sequel-bait band that is depicted in the story. Our heroine is Aubrey Bordelon, senator’s daughter, Southern belle, magazine reporter, and DEFINITELY NOT SLUTTY (we’ll get to that). As the story begins, Aubrey is on her way to a Wanderlust concert to begin a profile of the band for the Nola Vibe, the magazine for which she is a columnist. She’s technically a food columnist, but has ended up on this assignment because reasons.

During the concert, the lead singer Lex Logan randomly selects a girl from the audience so that he can do a body shot (all I can think about is sweaty tequila at this point and it’s gross) and that girl just happens to be Aubrey. Sparks fly, it turns out Lex and Aubrey will be seeing a lot more of each other while she is writing this article, and there you have our setup. There is a lot more to the story, including some pretty intense family backstory for Aubrey and some not-unexpected interpersonal drama between the band members.

Wanderlust is fairly well-written, and the story flows along through all the twists and turns. That part I didn’t have a problem with. My main issues with the book were really just things that rub me personally the wrong way, and I will try to explain them now without spoiling the whole thing for you.

First, this is true of the book overall but particularly the first chapter: it is super slut-shamey. In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that I read a lot of category romance, and I tend to gravitate toward the ones where innocent English Rose heroines get whisked off to fabulous locations by Greek billionaires. My point being, I am no stranger to the virginal heroine thing. But I generally don’t expect to see this in a contemporary romance, especially from an author whose writing I have heard is pretty sex-positive, so in this context I found it jarring.

In the first chapter, Aubrey meets a Wanderlust “groupie” and becomes friendly with her while they stand in line. Despite the fact that on the surface they are becoming friends, Aubrey’s inner monologue is so snarky about the other woman’s background and intentions that it becomes super off-putting.

Like this:

The image of a herd of women charging the lead singer, yanking one another’s hair extensions and tripping their competition came to her. “But I had dibs, bitch!” each would cry. Aubrey handed her ticket over to enter the club, the amusing image lifting her mood.

I think the combination of the constant slut-shaming, and the fact that the heroine’s thoughts were so negative while outwardly she was pretending to be nice, made me dislike Aubrey in a way that I never quite got over. Plus, the women who follow the band wear t-shirts that say “Wanderslut.” I get the play on words but still…yikes.

There is a major plot point involving Aubrey and her family that drives a lot of the conflict for her, and I thought that whole part of the story was well done and interesting. For a while there I was ready to put the first chapter behind me and enjoy the rest of the book. Then came the conflict at the end, which just seemed unnecessary and contrived.

Show Spoiler
One of the band members OD’s on something (not really clear what exactly) and ends up in the hospital, close to death. Earlier in the story, Aubrey sees the guy using but decides not to tell Lex. When the OD happens, Lex gets angry and inexplicably blames Aubrey for not saying anything, to the point where he is so upset by her betrayal that he decides not to see her anymore. WTF? At the point when Aubrey witnessed this behavior, she and Lex barely knew each other!

Plus, you guys are in a band! If drugs have been an issue for this dude and he starts acting weird and changes his behavior all of a sudden, shouldn’t you, his closest friends, start to suspect something before putting that responsibility on a random girl you just met? 

As a side note, there was also one part of the book that really, really bothered me. Were I a different person with different life experiences, this event had the potential to change the book from “slightly problematic” to “DNF!” with a quickness.

The hero is at a photoshoot at the magazine where the heroine works and they run into each other. They go into an office to talk privately, and he LOCKS THE EFFING DOOR and won’t let her out, and then they get busy. Audibly busy. In her place of business. After he basically coerces her to stay in there with him and do this.

This made my face do something like this:

 

A gif of a woman making a disgusted face

To be clear, there is total consent to the sexytimes. That’s not an issue. But the whole interaction still left me feeling super weird.

In the end, I didn’t hate Wanderlust. However, I did not love it, for the reasons mentioned above. The writing itself was not bad though, and I will probably try more from Loren. In fact, at the end of Wanderlust there is a preview of her next book, about people involved in a video game that sounds basically like a sexual version of the SIMS, and they meet up unexpectedly “IRL.” I was still thinking about this short excerpt a few days later, which is definitely not true of Wanderlust.

Overall my grade for Wanderlust is a C, but your mileage may vary. Just please, for my sake, don’t refer to yourself as a Wanderslut.

This book is available from:
  • Available at Amazon
  • Order this book from apple books

  • Order this book from Barnes & Noble
  • Order this book from Kobo
  • Order this book from Google Play

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!

Wanderlust by Roni Loren

View Book Info Page

Add Your Comment →

  1. Gigi says:

    Great review! I’m also a sucker for the Rock star regular girl trope but wanderslut?!? No. Just no.

  2. ClaireC says:

    Excellent review, and I am also feeling icked out about that office situation. Especially since I’m sitting in my tiny office now, with customers not 5 feet away. Yikes!

  3. Megan M. says:

    Great review! I’ve only read small excerpts of Roni Loren’s books. She seems like a talented writer, but I agree it’s disappointing that some of these elements were present in this book. I’ve read too many crazy Ask A Manager letters to be turned on by the idea of having sex at someone’s work! LOL

  4. DonnaMarie says:

    Sorry this was so unsatisfying. I’ll go ahead and rec Kristen Callihan’s V.I.P. series, in case you haven’t already picked it up. Right now it’s the series I’m holding all other rock romances up to.

    Thanks for the review!

  5. Demi says:

    Nice review KB! I’m right there with you on the slut-shaming aspect. In regards to this book, it just feels like lazy stereotyping to make the heroine stand out as “different from all the other women who want to bone the lead singer.” Her bone desire (ha! cover snark?!) is *special*

    @DonnaMarie – I’m going to check out the Callihan V.I.P. series, thanks for the rec! I also enjoyed Karina Bliss’s “Rise” and it has a few sequels, which I haven’t read yet. There’s another book I’ve been meaning to try by Dee Ernst, that has older single mom with younger rock star guy (and it’s romance, not erotic romance). I love the idea of rock star romances with older couples. Like, where is the equivalent of aging rocker a la Def Leppard or Billy Idol, who has seen some things in life, who meets a woman around his own age…OOH OR SIMON LEBON. Is this just me? Haha.

  6. Ginger says:

    @Demi – I read “Rise” and the sequels. All good!

  7. Donna Marie says:

    @Demi, I must be older than you. I see Joe Walsh and think rawhr.

  8. chrisz says:

    @DonnaMarie – 100% second the V.I.P. series. I can’t wait for more!

  9. Rose says:

    Fab review! Well done for making it through. I must be particularly picky, because I have zero tolerance for slut-shaming in books, and next to none for a heroine who’s so determined to view herself as unlike other women. What’s wrong with other women? We’re awesome.

    If someone wants to lose her shit with joy over a band or a hot lead singer, power to her. It irks me when enthusiasm is presented as pathetic, and the heroine is celebrated for being somehow above it. It’s great not to be seduced by false charm, but it’s a privilege to be so crazy about something that you jump around and scream with happiness.

  10. Jennifer says:

    Your using a Kimberly Walsh GIF made me grin.

  11. Antipodean Shenanigans says:

    Ah yes, fellow rock romance lover right here. Thanks for taking one for the team so I know to avoid this one.
    I want to throw the Stage Dive series by Kylie Scott and the Sinners on Tour series by Olivia Cunning in the mix as my faves. Jimmy Ferris *swoon*
    I also enjoyed Rise and would love to see some older (is 30s old now? Christ) rock stars in the mix. Unfortunately I didn’t love the rest of the series as much.

  12. I enjoyed the Roni Loren novella that won a Rita last year: Nice Girls Don’t Ride. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20926722-nice-girls-don-t-ride

  13. Snowmom says:

    Thanks for the review. Love, love a good rock romance. Loved Stage Dive and VIP series. But will throw in Nalini Singh’s Rock Kiss series for good measure. Yum!!

Add Your Comment

Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

*


This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

↑ Back to Top