BLOG TOUR REVIEW, EXCERPT & GIVEAWAY: Take Me Home Tonight (Rock Star Romance #3)

ACK - this series! I think every book gets better and better. I loved Calix and Mimi in TAKE ME HOME TONIGHT. I can't wait for you to read it. Check out my review and the excerpt. Don't forget to enter the giveaway!

Take Me Home Tonight (Rock Star Romance #3), by Erika Kelly
Publish Date: April 5, 2016
Publisher: Berkley Romance
Format: ARC, provided by the publisher
Genre: adult contemporary romance
To Buy: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Rating: 5 STARS

(Synopsis) Calix Bourbon might seem like a free spirit, but that’s all a front. In reality he’s just trying to keep his fractured family together while working as a session musician. When Blue Fire hires him to replace their keyboardist, Calix is determined to make the most of the opportunity—but he can’t help being distracted by the band’s sexy personal chef. 

Mimi’s temporary gig is great, but she has her heart set on auditioning for a televised cooking show. There’s just one problem: she only has a week to acquire the skills necessary to survive the competition. Luckily, the band’s new keyboard player can teach her exactly what she needs, in the kitchen and in the bedroom...

I have loved all of Erika Kelly's books in the Rock Star Romance series. Honestly, rockers are my absolute favorite of the bad boys. There's something awesome about the marriage of the creative, musical side of these men with the hard, embattled side. This is never more clear than it is here with Calix Bourbon.

Calix has such a huge heart. His family is his world, even minus one key member. He would do anything for them, including give up the lifestyle he obviously loves. He's been the band's stand-in keyboard player for awhile, but because he needs to stay near his family, he refuses to fully integrate with the other band members. 

Mimi's last ditch effort to make her father proud is to win a televised cooking competition. She seeks out Calix's help when it becomes clear that he and his mother know their way around a kitchen. Mimi and Calix have so much in common. Like Calix, Mimi gives and gives and gives of herself, just wanting others around her to be happy. But, when is it her time to go first and be special? 

As much as I adored Calix, his back and forth with Mimi frustrated the hell out of me. He obviously wanted to be with her. Their chemistry was so good, and they enjoyed each other's company so much. Calix loved how sweet she was with his family and how well she got along with the band members. She really was his dream girl. He would get together with her, have a fabulous time, and then come home and feel guilty for enjoying himself. This went on over and over and over again, and poor Mimi's heart took a beating because of it. One thing is for sure though - the hot and cold romance between Calix and Mimi kept me turning the pages well into the wee hours of the morning. 

I loved Mimi and Calix together, but I really just wanted Mimi to put her foot down, you know? I wanted her to give Calix the wake-up call that he so desperately needed. It's just not in her nature to be that way with someone - especially someone that you love. I also wanted her to put her foot down with her father. He was sweet to her until he decided he didn't like something she was doing. And, then he treated her pretty horribly, which broke her heart. And mine! Mimi very much needed to stand up for herself and stop being a doormat to the dominant men in her life. 

The glimpses of the other band members in Take Me Home Tonight were awesome. I love how all these guys take care of each other, and by extension, their women. Even though Calix wasn't an official member of the band, that extended to him and Mimi anyway. There are still a few more band members who have to tell their stories. I've fallen so in love with these characters that I never want this series to end. 

He didn’t see Mimi but figured she’d be watching Chopped or doing research on her computer. Whatever. He wasn’t about to look for her upstairs, so he’d just head outside. Walk down to the beach, while the guys ate breakfast.

The moment he turned, he saw her.

On the covered porch, the early morning sun tipped its light onto her, turning her russet hair a fiery mix of golds, reds, and light browns. She usually wore her hair straight and sleek. This morning it tumbled around her in a bounty of curls.

Huddled over the table, she focused on her project. Wearing a long-sleeve T-shirt and pajama pants, face free of make-up, she looked like an ethereal creature, and it made him want things he couldn’t have.

The sound of his boots on the hardwood floor should’ve snagged her attention, but her intense concentration never broke.

Leaning against the doorway, he watched her use tweezers to carefully place a tiny yellow petal in a pulpy mess of crap covering a screen. The frame of the screen was set over a pan of more of the pulpy stuff immersed in water. Around the room drying racks held sheets of paper the size of notecards. He leaned further in to get a better look and discovered she’d made scenes out of the delicate and colorful petals.

“This is beautiful.” His voice cracked the silence, and she jolted.

Award-winning author Erika Kelly has been spinning romantic tales all her life--she just didn't know it. Raised on the classics, she didn't discover romantic fiction until later in life. From that moment on, she's been devouring the genre and has found her true voice as an author. Over three decades she's written poems, screenplays, plays, short stories, and all kinds of women's fiction novels. Married to the love of her life and raising four children, she's lived in two countries and seven states, but give her pen and paper, a stack of good books, and a steaming mug of vanilla chai latte and she can make her home anywhere.

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