Lick by Kylie Scott

Waking up in Vegas was never meant to be like this.

Evelyn Thomas's plans for celebrating her twenty-first birthday in Las Vegas were big. Huge. But she sure never meant to wake up on the bathroom floor with a hangover to rival the black plague, a very attractive half-naked tattooed man in her room, and a diamond on her finger large enough to scare King Kong. Now if she could just remember how it all happened.

One thing is certain, being married to one of the hottest rock stars on the planet is sure to be a wild ride.

I love it when a book turns out much better than I originally anticipated!

Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t buy Lick expecting it to be bad per se, I just didn’t expect to love it so much. Scott has given me a set of characters I instantly fell in love with and while I’m so darn sad the story went by so quickly (those 300 odd pages flew!) I’m still really happy I gave it a shot.

Lick (a title that still doesn’t exactly fit in my opinion) is the story of Ev’s one go at letting her hair down. See Ev and her best friend thought it would be fun, and beneficial for Ev’s nonexistent sex life, if she brought in her 21st birthday in Vegas. Sweet, innocent and “I have my life planned out” Ev in the city of sin. Needless to say Ev decides to go all in and one minute she’s taking shots the next minute she’s waking up with her head in a toilet and the hangover from hell. It isn’t until she notices this all out sex on a stick man sitting across from her (while she pukes her brains out) that things get interesting. Ev’s a Mrs. now…to rock god David Ferris.

I know the rocker / sex on a stick man has been done over and over before (pun intended) but somehow I managed to forget that while reading Lick. Ev and David’s relationship was different from the stereotypical rocker approach we’ve all seen before. For one they both attacked their problems head on (for the most part). They’re married, David remembers exactly what happened while Ev is completely clueless so of course divorce is in the cards…at first. Things happen and next thing we know we’re following David and Ev on this journey to get to know one another. To remember what caused them to go and jump the broom that night in the first place. And it really is an adorable and cool journey to be a part of.

Usually these stories about true love at first whatever annoy me but I didn’t see Lick as that. In fact I sort of feel like a hypocrite because if you told me two people met and got married in Vegas in one night I’d bet my own child it wouldn’t last longer than a week. If you then threw in the fact that half of this couple is a crazy successful and über famous rockstar I’d bet both of my legs it wouldn’t last longer than 2 days. But I didm’t see this with David and Ev. Instead I saw two people who took the time to know each other more thoroughly. Yeah they may have rushed the marriage bit but to be perfectly honest these two were genuinely made for each other and I’d just be kidding myself if I didn’t acknowledge that Scott wrote them to be that way.

In fact I’m convinced that Scott wrote these two halves to one puzzle this way just to keep us on the edge of our seat. Think about it. You’re sitting here reading about this two. You’re hoping they blow through the “vegas wedding” statistic and you’re shouting at them to make it. But then you remember it’s a book; which means something is going to come and tear them apart. Something bad is going to happen and you start to dread that moment when the conflict is introduced. This is usually the point in a “rocker” NA book that some groupie or something comes between the happy couple and everyone is miserable and in denial that they’re still in love. THIS IS NOT YOUR “USUAL” NA. Is there conflict? Yes, of course there is. Will it make you roll your eyes and say “saw that coming”? Will it still force you to root for them? I won’t give you spoilers I promise but I’m telling you the best way to get an answer is to go snag a copy and see for yourself. As for me, I’m off to read about Mal.