The Words by Ashley Jade

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

He was the talented bad boy everyone wanted.
I was the irrelevant geek everyone hated.

He was the sun…drawing all of us in.
I was a black hole…taking up space.

He was destined to be a star.
I was destined to remain an insignificant no one.

Until he made me believe I was special…

And then he destroyed me.

I never thought I’d see Phoenix Walker again after he broke my heart, but fate had other plans.

One tour. Eight weeks. Forty shows.

Countless opportunities to make him pay.

The world thought he was a God…
But I knew the truth.

The Words

Engrossing story!

The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: 💙❤️💚💜💖
Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📘📙
World building: 🌏🌍🌏🌎🌍
Character development: ☺️🙃😳🥰🤓
Narration: 🎙🎙🎙🎙🎙
Narration Type: Dual Narration

The heroine: Lennon – her mom died when she was born. Her dad is a songwriter who works for different bands. Most recently a current band called Black Lung is looking at hiring him. Lennon is attending Hillcrest high school, and it has been her personal hell since she started there. She is a short, curvy girl and she attends a school full of good-looking people. She has quite a crush on Phoenix Walker.

The Hero: Phoenix – his mother left when he was seven years old. His father was once spoken about like he was the next Jimmy Hendrix, but he lost it all and became a drunk, abusive jerk. Phoenix promised himself that would never happen to him. He is one of the most gorgeous students at Hillcrest high school and is considered quite the player. He may not be one of the most popular students but people flock to him.

The Story: Lennon’s english teacher asks her to tutor Phoenix when he is in danger of failing her class and if he does, he won’t be able to graduate. So, Lennon agrees, and the two of them end up coming together when Lennon is able to help Phoenix with a serious problem he has, and they find that they both have a mutual love of music. They become friends until he passes his test, and something happens between them.

I have to say, that I hate how this book centered around Lennon being the fat girl in high school. Phoenix was basically the guy who would hook up with anyone willing, but only the beautiful skinny girls. It was obvious the girls he was attracted to all had awful personalities though they were pretty, so they were ‘his type’ and Lennon was his friend but not his type. She got bullied badly because of her weight and Phoenix really liked her, he was the only one who treated her like she was worthy until things got too hard, and he broke her heart.

I just hate books that focus so much on the heroine’s weight. I just knew that she would lose the weight before they came back together again. Before, it seemed was that everything came down to her weight. I was glad that she lost the weight and was finally happy with herself. Though I really didn’t like the fact that even after Lennon lost the weight and was a size 10, she was still referred to as overweight. Size 10 is not overweight as far as I’m concerned.

I did love the romance between the two main characters though. They hated each other for much of the book, but the back and forth between them was so engrossing. Usually I dislike too much back and forth, but with these two it was good. I didn’t like it as much in the beginning when Phoenix was still drunk all the time and sleeping with groupies, but I definitely couldn’t put this one down and though it was a long book, I could have listened to hours more of this story.

This audiobook was told in multiple points of view via dual narration. It was narrated by Teddy Hamilton and Erin Mallon. Teddy Hamilton has a soft yet deep voice which is perfect for any romantic Hero. Erin Mallon has a clear, feminine voice and is great at showing emotions through her voice.

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