Pondo’s Review: Rock God in Exile

By Kella Campbell

Is it overreacting to knock someone down for groping you? Nell Whelan is a black belt whose self-protective instincts kick in hard when she’s uncomfortable.

Then she arrives at her hated day job to find the handsome jerk from the pub kicking the photocopier, and finds out that he looks familiar because he’s the bass player from a famous rock band… but when she asks him what he’s doing working for her boss, he avoids answering.

Eamonn Yarrow — known to the rock world as “Easy” — hasn’t always been a good person and he’s reaping the consequences, but maybe Nell is just what he needs to turn his life around.


I can’t begin to tell you how excited I was when I heard Kella Campbell was working on a sequel to Rock Star’s Heart. While I do read a variety of genres, romance and chick-lit will always have a place in my heart – it was often what I saw female family members reading while I was growing up. Kella’s writing is easy to read and always formatted so perfectly.

Rock God in Exile starts fairly soon after Rock Star’s Heart ends, with the introduction of Nell. Honestly, I was a little uncertain about how I felt about Nell at the beginning of the book. She’s very different from Crys in the first Smidge book which caught me a little off guard – though it turned out to be what I loved about her character. As someone who likes routine it took me a couple chapters to appreciate what makes Nell such a great protagonist for this story. She’s strong and independent but is able to learn how to be vulnerable.

I didn’t remember a lot about Easy from the first book since he was primarily in the background except for one large event (no spoilers but you do read about it in Rock God in Exile) so I was able to relearn about his character without any pre-judgments. As the romantic lead, he’s a great mix of broody, charismatic, exciting, and troubled. In real life, I totally support the idea that you can’t fix someone in a relationship, but as a reader, it’s an addicting idea. One that Kella captures so well in both books.

No spelling errors or formatting mistakes, which made Rock God in Exile so lovely to read. This book is another great one to read before bed, by the pool, or whenever you just need a little escape. Kella is a genius when it comes to writing stories where both of the leads bring their own baggage to the relationship and work on it together.

Love love love this book!

Goodreads

Amazon

5/5