BLOG TOUR + REVIEW: ROCK HARD by Kat Austen

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Synopsis

First loves don’t last. Especially one as unlikely and turbulent as Elodie and Caspian’s.

It’s been years since she’s seen the rough rebel she fell in love with as a teen. She’s put him behind her and moved on. That’s the story she tries to sell her friends and family, but deep down, she knows it’s a lie. She hasn’t moved on from Caspian Cruz and she probably never will, but she has to finally give up hope they’ll ever reunite.

Or does she?

When her friends drag her to a sold-out rock concert, she comes face to face with the lead singer . . . who just so happens to be the boy she fell for all those years ago.

She never thought she’d see him again. She never realized he’d made it in the music world. And she never expected him to confess that he’s been waiting for her as long as she’s been waiting for him.

What will happen when their worlds collide again? A repeat of the past or a second chance to get things right?



ROCK HARD is a short and sexy read, chock-full of excessive sweetness and heaps of filthy talking. Not for the faint or square of heart.

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Excerpt

“Men suck. It’s official. If a girl like you can’t keep a guy, there is literally no hope for me.” My friend, Sydney, shook her head and took a drink of her margarita.

   “Just to confirm, you know for sure that he was cheating on you?” Our friend Jessie twisted on the stool to look at me straight on.

   Exhaling, I pulled my phone from my clutch and scrolled through a few messages until I found the one I’d been sent a few days ago from a number I didn’t recognize. I refused to look at the picture, but I made sure Jessie and Sydney got a good look.

   Jessie’s eyes narrowed.  “Two-timing, sorry bastard.”

   Sydney winced like the image was grotesque. “Dude, if that’s what he looks like beneath that fancy composer’s tuxedo, let that violin-playing hussy have his pasty, blubbery ass.”

   “He’s all hers,” I said, tucking my phone back away.

   “Hans was crazy about you though. I don’t get it. Why the sudden change of heart?” Jessie pulled the olive from her martini and popped it into her mouth.

   “Oh, please, it didn’t have anything to do with his heart. He was thinking with his dick when he fell into bed with Tits McGee there,” Sydney chimed in, which worked for me. I wasn’t eager to hash out my most recent failed relationship with anyone, my two good friends included.

   Hans and I had been dating on and off for a couple of years. He was the conductor for the world-renowned Los Angeles symphony, twenty years my senior, and had a golden reputation in the upper circle. My parents had been thrilled when they found out I was seeing Hans Vandenberg, visions of musical-prodigy offspring dancing through their heads.

   No doubt they’d been devastated when I told them we’d split. They probably would blame me for ruining it even if I showed them the photo I’d been sent of him asleep and naked in bed with some other woman. They always seemed to prefer the ones who treated me like crap over the only one who’d ever treated me the way a person who claimed to love someone should.

   “I bet you’re relieved you didn’t let him finally wear you down, right, Elodie?” Sydney had to nudge me to bring me back to the present. “Way to hold out on a guy for two years. You made his true colors come through.”

   “His true colors being pasty with a splattering of really unattractive body hair,” Jessie muttered.

   “Truthfully, I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner. Hans and I were never good together. He or I should have called things off months ago.” I shrugged like that was that, because it was.

   Other than looking good on paper, Hans and I had never made sense. I’d never once looked at him and felt my stomach drop, and I knew all he’d seen when he looked at me was a young girl he was hoping to add to his rumored lengthy list of bed mates.

   That was part of the reason I’d held out for so long—I didn’t want be one of a hundred others, or even one of a few. I wanted to be the one of one. The one he’d waited for. I wanted to be someone’s The One.

   “Okay, so I’ve got a brilliant plan for Operation Over Hans VanPastyAss.” Sydney tipped back what was left of her drink, lifting her finger at the bartender. “We’re going to get good and mildly drunk, then we’re going to go see My Mortal Affliction from the front row, baby”—Sydney pulled a trio of tickets from her purse, fanning them in my face—“we’re going to get on our knees and worship that god of a lead singer of theirs, probably flash him a few dozen times, then we’re going to make out with some really fine specimens before we allow our heads to hit the pillow tonight.”

   My eyebrows came together as I studied the concert tickets. I’d agreed to meet my friends for a drink after my earlier performance, but I hadn’t planned on anything else after this. As it was, I was already checking the time, hardly able to wait to crawl into my bed and put an end to this day.

   From the friends’ texts I’d had to field who were just finding out about Hans’s and my split, to avoiding my parents’ incessant calls encouraging me to work things out, to the concert where I’d felt haunted by a ghost during the last few minutes, I was ready to put this day to bed.

   “I’ve got early practice tomorrow,” I said.

   Jessie lifted her finger at me. “You’ve always got early practice. That’s no longer an excuse to dodge life.”

    I blinked, offended. “I’m not dodging life.”

   “Correction, you dodge the fun parts of life.”

   My mouth fell open a little as I looked at Sydney to back me up, but all she did was lift her hands and keep her lips sealed. I wanted to defend myself, but they were right. Other than the endless hours I spent playing piano, my life wasn’t very exciting. Outside of these two dragging me out for the occasional good time, my social calendar was pathetic.

    I had no idea who this My Mortal Addiction was, what kind of music they played, or if I’d even like it, but having my friends call me out stirred something inside me. They were right. I’d spent enough time waiting for my life to really get started. Enough time feeling like an empty shell.

   “Well?” I finished the last of my wine and slid off of my stool. “Ready when you are.”

 
 
 

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Rock Hard was the sweetest, most heart warming rock star/musician romance I’ve EVER read!!!

True, this is a genre a don’t venture very often given my personal pet peeves, and specially the renown and usual groupie drama attached to the trope, but this sugary sweet smutty story had nothing of those! 

What it did have was one smoking HOT, swoon-worthy hero, Caspian! Sigh…

Caspian and Elodie have been in love with one another since they were teenagers, so when after two years of dating they were broken apart by her parents, and Elodie thought she had lost her heart forever.

Caspian. The first boy I’d ever loved. The only one I ever really had. The one who had promised me forever, only to make me realize forever was for storybook people, not real ones.

What she didn’t know was that her life was indeed storybook like, because not once, not even for a minute, did Caspian let go of her, and time and space meant nothing because she was always on his mind. She was is lifeline, his everything…

“You,” he whispered with conviction, his steps echoing around me as he moved closer. “All I want is you.”

Eight years passed, and just when she least thought possible, her life and heart rebooted, because right in from of her, as a rock star in a crowed concert was her First Love, Caspian Cruz. 

“So I made a promise to myself to not approach you until I’d made something of myself. Until I’d become a man worthy of a person as beautiful and talented and perfect as you are. Until I made myself worthy of your love.”

“Caspian Cruz.” I lifted my head from his chest and looked into his eyes. “You have always been worthy of me and my love.”

Of course that very fast all the misconceptions were cleared and they fast realized that they were still just as much in love and devoted to one another now as they were eight years prior.  

Caspian had always been like a drug to me, an addiction I could never recover from, even after almost a decade of being sober. He swam in my veins. He stirred my very being.

“Because I might want every part of you there is to have, angel, but right now, only one part is on my mind—the one part of you I’ve never had. I want to have it so I can know I’ve had every part of you. So I can say I’ve loved every part of you.”

Actually, if anything, their love shone even brighter now, because their repressed sexual craving (LOL) took it a whole new level, now that they were adults! 

Caspian was already the perfect romance hero, with his immeasurable devotion to Elodie, but that extra dirty mouthed talk of his… Lordy… Not even Elodie was prepared – not that she was angelic in between the sheets – specially considering their equal inexperience on that regard. 

“No, this isn’t making love wet. This is hard, rough fucking wet, sweet angel.” His mouth lowered to my ear, nipping at my lobe. “Is that what you want? Is that how you want me to take you?”

I sure as hell loved every second of it! And it more than guaranteed Caspian a place on my best book boyfriend list – and the main reason for my five star rating -, because equal parts sweet, devoted, loving and panty-melting is something we don’t see in romance these days. And that is exactly what Kat Austen gave us, once again, in the most perfect and unusual – least for me, at least – of settings. I can’t wait for her next super sweet, sizzling hot, smutty read! <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

“After all of this time, after everything, do you still want me? Do you still want a forever with me?”
I wasn’t crying. Sobbing was a more accurate word. “I want forever and then some with you, Caspian Cruz.”

Every part of me loved every part of him. Every piece of me belonged with every piece of him. I was meant to share my life with him, and he was made to share his life with me.

ARC kindly provided by the author via ArdentProse in exchange

for an honest review

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About the Author

Kat Austen is the secret pen name of a New York Times and USATODAY bestselling author. Kat writes short and steamy reads that leave hearts (and other parts) satisfied.

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