He wanted nothing at all…
Until he found she had everything to give…
Sunder lead singer and guitarist Sebastian Stone has everything—fans, fame, and fortune. He also has a heart full of bitterness and a reputation for a short-fused temper. But an outward reputation rarely reveals the true man inside. Facing assault charges after trying to protect his younger brother, Sebastian is sent to Savannah, Georgia to lie low until the dust settles in L.A.
Shea Bentley is beautiful, kind, and hiding from the very lifestyle Sebastian has always embraced.
When the mysterious, tattooed stranger begins hanging out at the bar where she works, Shea is quick to recognize he is nothing but trouble, but she’s helpless to the way her body lights up every time his intense gray eyes tangle with hers.
They both soon find themselves drowning in a sea of desire and passion that won’t let them up for air.
Sebastian knows firsthand secrets never die, and he’s not the only one who’s hiding them.
Loving someone always comes with a price. But will it be Shea’s past that costs them everything?
Bleeding Stars
Book 1
Can be read as a standalone
Contemporary romance
I love getting lost in A.L. Jackson’s impeccable, lyrical writing. Her stories are rife with love and heartache, bleeding emotion in a way that you can’t help but connect with. This novel, the first in a new series, marks Jackson’s return to self-publishing and is her first foray into rock star romance territory. Despite being one of my very favorite all-time authors, I was curious to how she would breathe new life into a story whose protagonist lived under the the spotlight, behind the always-snapping clicks of camera lenses. And boy, did she did deliver. A Stone in the Sea truly centered on the love story between two individuals with secrets that had torn them down, with pasts that delivered brutal heartache.
“It’s time you stood up for yourself and took some time to deal with what’s going on inside of you. Because if you don’t? You’re going to end up losing everything that’s important to you and there won’t be a damned thing in this world I can do to stop it.”
Sebastian Stone’s life was falling apart… again. His life had been marked by loss and heartbreak, his days filled with the worry of responsibility. The stage was the only place he felt alive and free, and now, that freedom was being threatened. Sebastian was fiercely loyal, and his protectiveness over his younger brother had brought him to blows with a man determined to tear him down. With an impending lawsuit, he was at risk to lose it all. So he and the band are sent to Savannah, Georgia, to hide away and decompress. To have some time for Sebastian (Baz) to figure out his life.
For Shea Bentley, she had come back to Savannah to escape her past, to start over and build a life rich with happiness and love. She didn’t have time for distractions. She didn’t have time to date. Working at her Uncle Charlie’s bar gave her plenty of opportunity, but she needed to keep focused. When she met a stranger, Baz, sitting in a dark corner of the bar, a odd and unlikely connection flared to life, a trepidation for what this stranger could unsettle.
Baz and Shea are both selfless, but tortured souls, wrestling with secrets and past mistakes that keep them from living their lives to the fullest. For Baz, he was quickly taken with this girl, but he knew he would be leaving… returning to an ugly reality defined by problems and lies and constant scrutiny. For Shea, she didn’t need to feel desire for a man like Baz, who would surely prove to be the most dangerous of distractions.
“Maybe that’s why I was here, because I could feel her own turmoil, something deep and dark, just like me, something hard and tainted that was searching for freedom.”
Their coming together is reluctant, but intense. These two people would gradually break down barriers, learning kernels of truth about who they were. It was bad news from the beginning, but it was also something neither could push away.
“I was falling farther, sucked beneath the surface. A stone in the sea. Completely drowning in this man.”
For Baz, she was a reprieve from the agony of his own life. From the problems that consumed him. From the guilt. From the pain.
“… she made me feel different when I was with her, like maybe not every single thing in this world was bad.”
For Shea, Sebastian was the promise of everything she had dared to dream, but knew she couldn’t have.
“I was wanting things I couldn’t have, simple dreams crushed before they ever had the chance to take flight, even though they’d somehow taken root, burrowed deep where the dark, forbidden things in my world were stored like a burden, a closet full of dressed up skeletons that would forever grieve what was never meant to be.”
This is a story twisted by secrets. Secrets that could destroy them both, destroy the love they found in each other, the hope they wanted to nourish. Jackson’s lyrical writing sweeps you into the story, evoking so much feeling as I connected with and felt for our two protagonists. There were happy moments, super sexy moments, heart wrenching moments that all mixed together beautifully to give us a great story that kept me engaged from beginning to end. And speaking of endings, Jackson concludes this first book with plot twists (plural!) I never saw coming! I love it when a book surprises in a way that can shift the direction of the story in such an unexpected way. Now, I can only hope June comes quickly!
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