Problematic Love 4.5 Stars
It has taken me awhile to process this book to be able to write a review. Danny Boy and Amelia started out as Therapist/Ex Drug Addict-Bad Boy in the previously written book Looking For Trouble - book 5 in the insanely great series The Rogues. If you haven’t read this series, you are missing out on one of the best Rock Series I have ever read and I have read hundreds, but reading Danny’s first book is strongly recommended to fully understand where this one is going.
Ok so here it goes, I wasn’t a fan of Danny & Amelia in this book, until perhaps 2/3rd’s into the story, they were in my opinion toxic. Loving an ex-addict is one of the hardest things to do, and I come to this conclusion by personal experience and it is because Lara writes with an unprecedented gift of reality in her books that I do applaud this. However getting this relationship off the ground was excruciating at times. I went from wanting to throttle Danny to slapping Amelia.
Now to my next issue – Amelia – I am not convinced she is the “one” for Danny. Why Danny latches on to Amelia, or is it the idea of Amelia, maybe due to others surrounding him that now have play dates with their kids instead of bar dates. Danny has never been in any kind of healthy relationship, not even with his brother Shay, who has stood by him through everything. It has taken years for the other band members in Rogue to not want to throttle him for the stupid shit he pulled in the past. So yes Danny is evolving, and his 4 legged faithful companion Roscoe should be credited with most of his growth. Amelia, being a therapist tends to push his buttons, more as someone with no idea how to handle him would, but you see from the first, they only knew each other through sessions and frantic texting on Danny’s part and for this reason Amelia seems to be torn between the ex-therapists role and the girlfriend role. But again this goes to Lara being realistic (there’s that word again, which pops up in every review I have done on her books). Nothing is easy for these two, but by the end I had hope they had a chance and it took the fantastic epilogue to see that yes, they made it.