Beneath the Stars by A.L. Jackson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Maggie Fitzgerald is the last girl I should think about taking to my bed.

On the cusp of turning 21, she has her whole life waiting out ahead of her. Sexy AF while still radiating an innocence that I know better than to taint.
And here I am, itching to reach out and touch a girl who is so forbidden that just thinking about her feels like committing a mortal sin.
Thing is, I love playing with fire.

Rhys Manning is everything I shouldn’t want.

Country-rock’s newest superstar.
Fun. Wild. Ready to show the world a good time.
He’s so off-limits it isn’t even funny.
So out of reach he might as well be a poster tacked on my wall.
Too bad every time he looks at me, my heart races out of control.

Now, I’m stuck living with him for the entire summer…

We’re only supposed to be friends. Still, I should have known it was a terrible idea when I started sneaking into his room. Especially when it’s clear he’s keeping secrets.
Secrets that might destroy us both.
One touch, and I want more.
One kiss, and I’m spiraling out of control.
I know it’s reckless to start dancing in the flames.
But in exchange for getting to spend one night with this brooding bad boy? I might be willing to get burned…

It’s Rhys Manning day!

The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: 💜🩷🩶🤎💙
Heat/Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📙📘
World building: 🌏🌍🌎🌏
Character development: ☹️😄😍😮
Narration: 🎙🎙🎙🎙🎙
Narration Type: Dual Narration

The Hero: Rhys Manning – he was in his home town of Dalton South Carolina when he noticed how gorgeous Maggie Fitzgerald was. She was the little sister of one of his friends and was completely off limits. She was twenty, and twelve years younger than Rhys. She was in town to help prepare for the wedding of Royce to Emily the lead singer of Rhys’s band, Carolina George. All he really wants is for his band to make it and to buy his mom a new house and bulldoze the old one and all its bad memories. His band has a record deal and they will start recording their album soon.

The story: Rhys comes across a guy that he immediately wants to murder, a man from his past. A man who is trying to pick up Maggie, even says he wants to defile her. The man says something that makes Rhys go nuts and he beats the guy to a pulp, all while the guy just grins. Rhys get hauled off to jail, with Maggie not knowing what just happened. Six months later, Rhys has become one of the biggest names in country music. Though he has an upcoming court appearance and has been arrested five times for bar fights. He is facing up to six months in jail.

The heroine: Maggie Fitzgerald – She had a huge crush on Rhys but felt raw and broken by what he had done that night. She had no clue why he had freaked out and beaten that man, all the while spewing words against her. She hadn’t seen him since, except on the internet. She worried that his demons had taken over and that he wasn’t ok. She had enough of her own mess to take care of anyway. She brought trouble into her life and was now in group therapy trying to get control of her life. Her condo burned down, so she needed a place to stay. She will be spending the summer with Royce and Emily, she will be able to babysit their daughter Amelia and spending time with the rest of the band and their family.

This was one of those books where both main characters have secrets about things that happened to them in the path, and the story gives up little clues here and there, but the reader is just left wondering for a long time as to what they are hiding and why it affected them so deeply. I liked that it was a forced proximity story and both characters had a deep connection to each other. Though I am not fond of the forbidden love trope. I didn’t like that Maggie’s brother Royce thought Rhys was bad for her and wanted her to stay away from him.

There were a lot of flashbacks in this one and it turned out to be emotional. I got all the feels for Rhys as a little boy. They both had tragic childhoods in different ways which colored their present and left permanent marks on them. I sometimes hate both flashbacks and secrets that come out slowly in a story, because I just want to know what is going on. I know they are a valid plot device and if it all came out in the beginning, there wouldn’t be much of a story, but darn it I have no patience sometimes. Though I must say, I didn’t see some of these things coming, so that was a definite plus.

This audiobook was told in dual points of view via dual narration and was narrated by Zachary Webber and Andi Arndt. These are two of my favorites. Both of them sound very natural and expressive and they have terrific voices. They do a great job on this one. Zachary has a deep, gravelly voice that I just love and Andi has a clear, feminine voice which is so pleasant to listen to.

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