What I love about the books in this series is that everyone wants to figure out how to form authentic connections with people but they just have no fucking clue how to get out of their own way. . . But when these people finally figure it out - and even tho it’s out of sync with the person they are in love with and sometimes their best mates - it just lights me up inside like nothing else!

Loved this book and I love how with each book, it is reinforced that even tho the guys are not perfect, they want to learn and they want to be better. It warms my heart - no one is some alphahole and gross lol. They are just a bunch of guys who are dealing with some shit and long to be loved and to love.

Anyway, I’m worried we won’t get a book about Mr. Drummer boy Whack I can’t seem to find any future works. Fingers crossed!!! ( )

I’ve been waiting on Rye’s book and was super excited to finally read it. In this one we follow enemies, lovers, Ryland and Brenna who start an enemy friends with benefits relationship. Rye loves to get a rise out of Bre and she just thought he was a heartless player with no care fir anyone else. Bre pretty much runs the band Rye is part, her family is part, and has been with them from day one so in a way their relationship is a little taboo in workplace type of romance. I loved Rye in this book because he opened up and showed us more to his repetition and character than what he came across as and Bre was this tough lady who works super hard but just wants to be loved. Rye loved with all his heart and hard but Bre was hesitant to take things seriously with him. Rye was a truly beautiful soul but they both had things they had to workout so do they or do they turn away and just remain friends? I still think Scottie and Jax’s stories the best but I did thoroughly enjoy this read. ( )

I just made, quite honestly, a split second decision to DNF this bad boy. Why? I'm not sure I entirely...care? Is this all manufactured? And when I said I was really noticing dual POVs, I guess what I mean is..in the right books, it's seamless, and natural and something about this book's choice of breaks or overlap just didn't work quite right for me.

Anyway, I think the arrangement did me in, I don't know. There wasn't much left to build. That's great, I think they are gonna make it, I'm just not gonna make it to the end.

Emma Wilder's performance as Brenna is NOT FOR ME - which is really irritating because JF Harding is great. If Wilder just used her full voice rather than her breathy narration that seems paced in the most unnatural way, I would've loved it. As it was, it was truly hard to listen to, so I didn't. In turn, that makes it too much effort to read+listen...so eventually, I didn't. ( )

One of the best of 2021

I have been waiting for this book since I discovered this series last year. The blurb had me 100% and had me eager to dive into this story. I knew it would be good, but what I didn't know was how good. This is one of those books that grabbed me in the first few paragraphs and kept me beguiled until the very last paragraph. This is the type of book that reminds me why I read romance, and no it isn't just because of steamy times, although, those were hot too. No, this book reminded me that I love to fall into the pages of the story and have the characters and their journey towards finding love become almost tangible.

This book had a different feel to it than the previous books. While those had humor and snark and great connections, there was something more palpable about Brenna and Rye as they discovered that behind their antagonistic attitudes and begrudging contempt there was something deeper. Watching that grow and evolve in this book was everything. From the very beginning, it was as if their souls touched and it was wondrous to see. Both Brenna and Rye changed personally but it was their connection and building trust in each other that made their relationship special. I know that a lot of authors strive for that in their story but somehow this author managed to do it in a way that is hard to describe. All I can say is that it resonated with me and I live for those magical moments in books.

There were great cameos and conversations with previous characters, one in particular with Jax, that all served to enhance the story and did not distract from Brenna and Rye being the main characters. There were a few foreshadowing moments in regards to Whip and I hope that means that the author intends to finish out the series. I would like it if Jules had a story too but I won't be greedy.

I highly recommend this story to anyone looking for a story that is pure romance, with engaging characters, the right amount of angst, and a great cast of characters. The steamy times were hot too but in no way overshadowed the story. This author knows how to traverse the line of quality story with just the right amount of steam. It is my favorite book of the series by far. It will definitely be a reread for me at a future date. It is going in my best of 2021 because it left me hopeful and believing in love and that isn't a bad thing for a romance book to do. ( )

This is the fourth book in the VIP series. I read the first three a while ago, so it was kind of hard to remember the details about some of the characters and I honestly didn't remember much about the main characters Rye and Brenna. The book was just ok for me. 3 stars. ( )