This author drives me crazy. I have her release dates written on my calendar. I count down the days till her next book and look so forward to that release day that no other book interest me until I get it and read it. And, I can honestly say I am never disappointed once I get that book. Her books are guaranteed emotional messes. They hook you into the lives of the characters she is writing about right from the start. And given some of the characters you’d not think that was possible. But what a person shows on the outside is not always what is on the inside. She does not write formalistic books where the heroine is the one that always needs saving. Sometimes it’s the man that has gone through so much pain and grief in his life that he is full of nothing put self pity with a sense of being useless and using rage to defect anyone from getting close. That describes the male lead of Zenith Rising, Spencer Mattox.

When we met Spencer in the first book he was Spike, a gothic dressed, hair spiked looking freak that wrote music and played the keyboards for the band Zenith. But that was just another of his ways of deflecting anyone seeing the true man underneath. Spencer and Rob, the lead singer of the now disbanded band, grew up next door to each other and both had crappy childhoods. They took off on their own when Spencer was just 13. These two were each other’s lifeline and they went on to create Zenith together and also watched it implode and Rob become an alcoholic and lose everything. As Rob had taken care of Spencer for so many years when the time came he returned the favor by getting Rob into treatment and breaking up the bad. Spencer, during this time, also decided he was tired of the Spike persona and went back to being Spencer to get a job to be able to support him and Rob. During the first book Spencer had run ins with Dr Erica Heathersby who had become Joelle ,his friend and Rob’s ex wife’s best friend who got her out of the unhealthy relationship of being married to Rob. When they meet again Erica doesn’t even recognize Spencer with his newfound change.

Dr. Erica Heathersby what a interesting female character. She was from old family money but chose to be a Dr and a very dedicated one who sometimes gets a little too involved in the caring of her patients. If she sees something broken its like a obsession with her to try and fix it and that includes people. Spencer and Erica are the furthest thing away from two people you would ever think would be attracted to each other but that spark is there from the start. Oh it was not an easy road for these two, Spencer fought it for all it was worth but yet at the same time he was always looking out for her as she had become a target from a few different sources.

I felt along with Erica through the whole story that Spencer was worth saving even when he was such an ass and said cruel things as a defense mechanism to make sure no one ever got close to him. This was another beautifully written story of overcoming ones past and learning that it does not define you and you are worthy of love.
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