BROOKLYN & BEALE by Olivia Evans: Book Review & GIVEAWAY

The life of a session musician is rarely easy. After consecutive tour cancellations and a stack of unpaid bills, Chloe Bennett fears her dream has come to an end.

Then everything changes.

Indie rocker Reid Ryder needs a replacement violinist for his tour. For Chloe, it’s the opportunity of a lifetime. For Reid, it’s a checkmark off his list. Already battling addiction, guilt, and his inability to write new music, Reid’s hopeful that things are finally falling into place.

But life is never predictable.

When the tour begins, he finds himself drawn to Chloe. She challenges and inspires him. Their onstage chemistry is electric. To the outside world, they’re the perfect match. To those involved, however, it’s not so simple. When Reid’s no longer sure that the future he planned is the one he wants, a choice must be made.

Love…or loyalty.

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MICHELLE’S REVIEW

The author of this book, Olivia Evans, reached out to us personally for a review. Now, that happens often but in this case, Olivia knew I had read her book HOLLYWOOD AND VINE (review HERE) and she knew that I had some problems connecting to her hero in that book and that the angst almost killed me. I tell you all of this to tell you that her very PERSONAL request to read BROOKLYN AND BEALE is what made me decide to say yes.

And I’m really glad I did. So apparently, Olivia loves angst A LOT. It still gives me heart palpitations…

…and this book was full of it but it was integral to the story and it worked. This is a pretty long book. Not in a bad way- but because of the circumstances our hero, Reid is facing, the romance between him and Chloe is a really slow build. Like real slow. Again- not a bad thing. In this case I appreciated it.

Now I should go ahead and say there were some circumstances around Reid that I was worried would make me not like this story.

If you’ve read any of my reviews, you might be able to guess what that is but I won’t spoil it for you. What I will say is that overall, I think Olivia handled that tricky subject really well. Towards the middle of the book I did start to get mad at Reid though. I found his actions and choices selfish and irresponsible but then again- so did he.

Chloe is 100% amazing. In fact- forget Reid- I love you Chloe. She was smart and sexy and talented (I LOVE that she plays the violin), she loves Star Wars as much as any intelligent person should and she was at no point in this story- a wet noodle.

I LOVED the supporting cast here, particularly Inky and Greer. If you’ve read HOLLYWOOD AND VINE, Madison and Josie (as well as Holden and Anders) make quite a few appearances. For the record- still not crazy about Anders but I love that the author put me in good company because nobody seems to know what to feel about him!

This book has a lot of angst and a bit of sexual tension but it’s one of those books that you want to keep reading. I read it in just a few hours because I needed to know how it ended even though you kinda know how these books end. I had to see the HEA for myself because I was invested in it.

I do recommend this book and it can be read as a standalone. I’m glad Olivia reached out and asked me to read this because I really enjoyed it and look forward to reading more from her!

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