REVIEW: Insider (Exodus End #1)

Insider (Exodus End #1), by Olivia Cunning
Publish Date: June 30, 2015 
Publisher: Vulpine Press
Format: e-ARC, provided by the publisher 
Genre: adult erotic romance
To Buy: Amazon * Barnes & Noble   

Rating: 3.5 STARS

(From Goodreads) Toni wants to be an insider.
Logan just wants inside her.

She’s finally ready to rock...
Toni Nichols set aside her dreams to raise her little sister, but now she's reaching for the stars as the creator of a revolutionary interactive biography about Exodus End. She’s on tour with the rock band to immerse herself in their world, but how will she ever gain the trust of four veteran superstars who've been burned by the media before? Nobody said this was going to be easy. Then again, good things can come in hard packages.

He's always ready to roll…
Adrenaline junkie Logan Schmidt lives for the rush of playing his bass guitar before thousands of screaming fans. When he's not performing onstage or in the bedroom, he's looking for his next thrill in extreme sports. So why does a sweet, innocent journalist get his heart pumping and capture his full attention? Is Toni the real deal or just digging up dirt on his band? Logan’s eager to rock Toni’s world and roll her in the sack, but when she starts to get too close to his heart, she takes her insider look to a place he may never be willing to go.

I was really excited to get into the Exodus End series. The Sinners On Tour series is the first one I ever read by Olivia Cunning, and this spin-off is sure to bring good things. It starts with the bassist, Logan Schmidt...

For the most part, I liked Logan. He is playful and fun. He loves women and any activity that gives him an adrenaline high and a thrill - motorcross, skydiving, bungee jumping - if it involves danger, Logan is in. Which, perhaps is why I was a bit perplexed as to why he was the one who was drawn to Toni, a woman who is about as far from dangerous as you can get. 

Toni works for her mother's publishing company, and this is her big chance to make something of herself. She's been hired to ride along with Exodus End to get the inside look at what it's like to be in a world-famous metal band, and then write an interactive digital book about them. Toni has been sheltered on her family's chicken farm her whole life. She's never dated, she wears turtlenecks and ankle-length skirts, and she has zero experience with danger. 

I think one of my biggest issues with Insider was that I just couldn't quite get to the place where I believed in Logan and Toni as a couple. They didn't have that spark for me. And they were just so unbelievably different. Don't get me wrong - I totally believe in the whole "opposites attract" thing. But, this was taking it to the extreme. Within an hour of being on the bus and in the company of the band, Logan had taken Toni's virginity. I just have a hard time believing that a woman who has held on to her v-card for 24 years would give it up so easily to a guy like Logan. 

I really enjoyed the dynamic in the band. There are obvious leaders and followers. Dare and Max definitely tend to take charge of situations and be the voices of reason. Steve and Logan are the goofballs that need reigned in when they get out of hand, which seems to be often. Reagan is the newbie, only with the band for a year while Max recuperates. I liked reading Toni's take on the concerts they played at, from the set-up and tear-down of the set to the promotional stops and marketing gigs they did in between. It really was a pretty cool insider look. 

And, what's even better is that we caught small glimpses of the secrets in each of the band members' lives throughout the course of the book. It's obvious that Dare, Max and Steve have all experienced things in their lives that, for better or worse, led them to be the people they are today in the place they are today. Despite my lack of enthusiasm for Logan and Toni as a couple, I'm still incredibly excited to get to the bottom of the other band members' stories. 

Reagan's story is next, and hers will be a real treat, because it will be the only one that is actually a continuation of a Sinners on Tour story. Regan is dating Trey Mills, guitarist for the Sinners, AND Ethan, one of her bodyguards. Their story came out in Double Time (Sinners on Tour #5), and it appears it's not done yet. 

Even though I couldn't get behind Logan and Toni, I did enjoy the drama and Toni's backstory. I loved that Insider was a dual POV, because Logan's headspace was a fun and interesting place to be, as he worked through his feelings for Toni and the place he wanted her to hold in his life. I'm excited for the rest of the series to get fleshed out, since I have a feeling the most compelling stories are still to come.   

SERIES REVIEW: Sinners On Tour

I read all five Sinners on Tour books in the month of August, almost back-to-back-to-back. When I sat down to think about my thoughts on these books enough to write a review for each of them, I realized that each review would sound strangely similar - just the names would change. So, I thought I'd do a review for the series as a whole this time around.

Sinners On Tour series, by Olivia Cunning
Published October 1, 2010, April 1, 2011, February 5, 2013, August 6, 2013, November 6, 2012
Publisher:  Sourcebooks Casablanca
Format: e-copy, gifted (Wicked Beat - e-ARC obtained from NetGalley)
Genre:  adult contemporary romance/erotica

Series Rating:  4 STARS

The Sinners on Tour series follows the rock band Sinners as they... go on tour. I know - crazy, right? These five guys are your typical heavy metal rock band members - gorgeous, wild, slutty, talented. Yet, while they all might look the same on the outside, they are all very different. And, as each one finds love in each book and we look at each guy both directly and on the periphery, we realize that there's so much more to each of them than what meets the eye.

Sed Lionheart, "The Leader" - lead singer (Rock Hard, Book 2)
Brian Sinclair, "The Lover" - lead guitar (Backstage Pass, Book 1)
Trey Mills, "The Player" - rhythm guitar (Double Time, Book 5)
Jace Seymour, 'The Brooder" - bass guitar, piano (Hot Ticket, Book 3)
Eric Sticks, "The Joker" - drums, vocals (Wicked Beat, Book 4)

Out of all the "bad boys" that authors write about, rock stars are my absolute favorites. Reading about guys getting serious about music and living that sort of life is fascinating to me. So, right away, the Sinners on Tour series had a lot going for it. 

Each book focuses on a different band member. We see into his past and lean about what got him to where he is today. Some band members had crappy lives with terrible or non-existent families. Others had great lives with supportive loving families. It was nice to see that not every bad boy needs to come from a broken home.

In each book, a band member finds love while on tour. The types of women and the manner in which they meet them are all different. One is a college professor. Another is a law student. A stripper. A sound tech. A guitarist. One thing is consistent - their love affairs never go smoothly. But, would you really expect them to? Each relationship is seen as temporary at first, because really - how permanent can anything be when you're screwing a band member on tour? But, eventually the guy and the girl realize that love is more important than logistics and they find a way to make it work.

My favorite Sinners book was book #3 - Hot Ticket. This was Jace's story. He's the quiet, brooding bassist, and also the newest member of the group. He had a horrid past and has some demons he just can't let go of, not to mention a healthy dose of self-loathing. His story and how he meets and falls in love with Aggie seemed the sweetest to me. Jace comes a long way from cover to cover.

My least favorite Sinners book was book #5 - Double Time. This was Trey's story and the one I had looked forward to the most. Perhaps my expectations were too high. He's carried a torch for Brian for years and has turned into the biggest man whore of them all as a way to combat the unrequited love. I so wanted to see Trey find the love of his life to make his heart feel better. But, I couldn't connect with the story or the characters, and I wasn't a fan of the open relationship he ends up in. Those aren't my thing - it feels too much like cheating and I can't wrap my brain around how anyone would be okay with that.

In each book, you get a very healthy dose of sex. It seemed like there was more sex than story in the last two books (Wicked Beat and Double Time), which was disappointing. Cunning sure knows how to write sex, though. Most of it is super hot. And, the love stories are really sweet too. These rough, scary rockers bare their feelings in believable ways, and it made me fall in love a little bit with each one of them.

There aren't a ton of side characters. There's a few recurring roadies, but we never learn too much about any of them except their soundboard operator, Dave. There's Jon Mallory, their former bass player whom they kicked to the curb because he was doing drugs and unwilling/unable to quit (LOVED that). And then there was Dare. *sigh* Dare Mills is Trey Mills' older brother and the lead guitarist for Exodus End, another metal band (I get the impression that Exodus End is more popular or at least more well known than Sinners). I HEART this guy. I sincerely hope that Cunning's next series is about Exodus End, because I need to read more about Dare Mills.

If you are in the mood for something sexy and sweet and full of awesome rock band action, put on some Ozzy, settle in your favorite chair and give Sinners on Tour a try.