Kate's Reviews > Exposed

Despite the slow start, Rye and Brenna's story brought me just...IMMENSE J O Y.

4.5 stars!

And just to clarify, the slow start does not refer to action taking a while to pick up, it's more that I expected to love this book immediately. I was looking forward to it for so long and was building all these expectations, and when it didn't sweep me off my feet on page 1, I felt oddly disappointed for a moment. But that did change as I kept reading!

I love romance genre and it's almost exclusively what I read these days but it's been a while since I encountered a story that made me feel so much and delivered on so many fronts: steamy romance, love story spanning years, a beautiful found family trope and characters that seem real, flawed and human in all the best ways, in ways that can be relatable.

"There is a time in a woman’s life when her friends start finding their true loves and suddenly everything is a couple’s deal, complete with private looks and inside jokes that you’re no longer part of, and ugh! Somebody hand me a drink already and get me out of this nightmare."

Tell me Brenna James is not the most relatable person ever! I've adored her from the very first sentence in 'Idol' and that has not changed. I love how Callihan expanded on her character here and really delved deep. Brenna is independent, witty, controlling and vulnerable at the same time. We get layers, dimensions, angles and whatnot here.

Rye is going like this half the time, trying to figure things out:

“Because I know you,” he says softly, firmly. “I’ve spent years trying not to learn you, and failing.”

And yet at the same time, Rye DOES know Brenna, and it would make my heart burst at times with just how well he knows her: knows the rhythm of her steps and makes it into a beat of a song, knows the smell of all her perfumes and what it means when she uses them, knows that it means that she's got a headache when she wears her hair down. This man could make a catalogue of all things Brenna and I am HERE FOR IT.

Half the time I wanted to smack Rye's head for things he said, and half the time it made me melt. Then he would say shit like below, which honestly made me laugh out loud, but seriously, romance gods, whoever you are, give me a person this dedicated to making me feel good:

"As it is, I don’t eat another bite of food. If it isn’t Brenna in my mouth, then I don’t want it."

For all the things Rye knew about Brenna (and things she knew of him), it was made abundantly clear that both of them had built their walls so high, they became impenetrable even to people closest to them. And that's where the title - which is suitable as hell - kicks in, as both Rye and Brenna learn each other anew, and slowly let go of misunderstanding and misconceptions that had grown around their relationship like poison ivy.

“When the stage lights go off, when the music stops, what am I? Where do I go?”

There are two things I particularly love about this series, outside of how the romance itself is written:

❤ how the characters are so well fleshed out, each one a distinct personality, dealing with issues, traumas, mental health, their identity, loneliness...; everyone here struggles with something and is on a personal journey of their own - I can feel their vulnerability and in return, I feel I can relate, and the story goes from being just another story to being my friend

❤ omnipresent love for music - I've said this before but I love how music is an important theme throughout this series, it means something to these characters and I can tell how much music means to the author just by some of the lines/scenes that come up

Quite often, musician setting is used just as a way to sexy things up but the writing does not support it and it's like the characters could be anything else instead. Which isn't something I point out to criticize actually, but just to drive the point home - and that point is that this very much IS NOT the case here.

"Truth?
I don’t think I’m good enough for anyone.
And here’s the real horror: this is the complete opposite of what I project to the world. On the outside, I am a confident woman who knows exactly what she wants and how to get it. I don’t let anyone fuck with me. (...) I believe in myself. When it comes to my profession.
When it comes to me?
Apparently, I don’t.

Brenna is my soulmate, I rest my case, your Honour 😭😭😭

Other random thoughts:

♫♫♫ seeing the Kill John gang together and all their interactions left me laughing, giddy with happy feels and content - it was just so wholesome 🥰🥰🥰

♫♫♫ I was surprised here - in lots of stories, it's possible to pinpoint the source of third act drama after the first few chapters, like it's not subtle at all: e.g. character A hates The Thing with a burning passion and character B used to do The Thing or sth along these lines - we all know where that's going; here there was this Thing with Rye and (view spoiler)[Killian's mom that I was 99% sure would come back to bite the characters in their asses at the conclusion of the story but they actually talked it over, communicated and solved it? It was not the source of drama and KC has my respect for that! (hide spoiler)]

♫♫♫ miscommunication happened but in a believable, non-annoying (at least to me) way - what I loved actually was how honest Brenna and Rye were with each other, and the times when they were not so forthcoming with their feelings? I understood that, because the foundation for that had been laid down. Plus, it did not take them too long - like ridiculously long - to actually speak their mind

♫♫♫ there was a bit of this Thing that makes me break out in hives aka a professional woman in control of her life simply must be in need of being controlled in bed to "let go" - but the way this was done was not OTT and in the end, did not bother me***

*** this annoys me for one simple reason: show me a book where the hero is The Boss in his professional life so much that he wants to be told what to do during sex so that he can "let go of control" -



♫♫♫ but there were some refreshing bits, sex-wise - Rye admitting that he had never actually had great sex (even with all the rock star sexcapades), Brenna being opened about her sex drive, sexual desires etc. (that should NOT be groundbreaking but sadly - yeah), Brenna being the one more...challenged when it came to intimacy, commitment and relationships, that's my girl xD

♫♫♫ Scottie playing the matchmaker, he's an evil puppet master in whatever he puts his mind to, it's not even funny 😂😂😆

♫♫♫ there was one continuance mistake that DROVE ME NUTS, in Brenna's flashback at the beginning it's said that A Thing (mentioned in 2nd point) happened during Brenna's birthday party, but when it's discussed later it's suddenly Rye's birthday party and I'm left with my brain churning SO WHAT IS THE TRUTH KRISTEN DON'T DO THIS TO ME

♫♫♫ but aside from that, writing was really something else here, some turns of phrases and lines were so beautiful, it made me emotional

"God, but she’s sharp-edged beautiful in this faded watercolor world of mine."

In conclusion, Brenna and Rye's story was...so worth the wait! And now, having devoured 'Exposed' so quickly and so recklessly, with no consideration for the fact that the next book is not even announced yet, all I can do is patiently wait for Whip's story.



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07/06/2021: THIS IS NOT A DRILL, JULY 13TH, THIS IS NOT A DRILL

It's probably not healthy to get so psyched for this book and yet here I am:



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18/02/2021: SAVE THE DATE TO GET YOUR DERRIERES SNATCHED BY BRENNA AND RYE, JUNE 2021

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Waiting for release date like: