If you’re looking for a book with a traumatic past, best friends, humor, and an 80s feel, this is for you. It’s a HEA, MFM second chance romance that will pull you in and keep you engaged from start to finish! 4/5


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From the moment I saw the song title chapter names, I instantly knew this was right up my alley. It’s a story of two of my favourite things; a romance novel and a metal band. The fact that there isn’t a huge collection of popular novels of this kind is baffling to me because this was perfect - I will be going back to read the others in this series for sure!

From the authors note at the end, I could tell that the multiple POVs alongside the flipping back and forth from past to present was a concern of the author’s. I would just like to say: you can certainly trust your strength as a writer in the future, this was perfectly executed and ridiculously easy to follow. Thinking of others, maybe dates or even “Key - 13 years old” on the titles as opposed to “thirteen years earlier” might be helpful, as you do have so do some mental Math to figure out how old Key and Dusty were in each flashback, but it definitely works well without it.

All three of the main characters in this story were truly lovable throughout, and I could not fault any of the characters or how they were written. As an atheist Brit, it’s almost unthinkable to imagine how difficult what growing up in a strict religious household must be like for the kids, let alone kids also experiencing abuse from their parents, and it was heartbreaking to read. Their shared experiences brought them together in such a touching way, I couldn’t bear thinking about them not ending up together.

However, in the present, Joel was also a lovely character and I loved him immediately. He was clearly besotted with Dusty from the moment they met and treated her with such respect and admiration from the get go. I couldn’t imagine him not ending up with her either, so I’m very glad this was a MFM romance, as no other option would have sufficed for me. I’m not usually a multiple partner kind of girl, but this was that one time I was rooting for it to happen.

And finally, a complete commendation to the author on her exploration of more rare themes you don’t see in contemporary literature all that often. I was worried some of these themes would be overwritten when they first appeared, similarly to how some authors go completely overboard with plus sized girls or learning difficulties to the point where it’s mentioned every other line, but I soon realised I was worrying for no reason. These were seamlessly included in the story in such an authentic way to really bring these characters to life. A beautiful, funny, heart wrenching tale I’m really grateful to have read.

After meeting in a Vegas "dance" club, the connection between Dusty and Joel goes much deeper than just a night of Sin City fun. But they part ways and two years later, chance brings them together once again, in a new city. She's no longer a dancer but is now using her skill set to fulfill fantasies over the phone. Once again, she starts connecting with a client on a level much deeper than you'd expect to over the phone lines.

Past and present storylines between multiple characters are interwoven in this book to create a high stakes, high stress but highly worthwhile book. Despite all that's going on, the characters are pretty funny, though trauma tends to do that and there's no shortage of trauma in this book either.

*I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

This is a series is about a band called Carnal Sin (set in the 80s).
Book 3.
The story of Lost love, Found Love and Rekindled love.

The story followers 3 main characters,
MMC - Key
MMC - Joel
MFC - Dusty.
Dusty finding new love in Joel while not realizing his best friend and band mate Key is her childhood love, The boy
she hasn't be able to get over. (and either has he.)

In this book the band is growing and finally getting some hype from MTV when an "old friend"
comes back to try and take everything they have worked so hard for,

This was actually the first book in the series that I have read and I will be 100% reading the other 2 books,
I LOVED this book. The different POVs and different timelines kept me coming back for more.
The Writing was wonderful and I cant wait to read more from L.H. Blake.
This is a Why Choose Book, and let's face it... Why would you choose between these two men,

A Must READ

the story was very entertaining and had a lot of good emotional aspects but i wish we had seen the three of them together more. the ending felt quite rushed and i think the book could’ve been paced a little better or had another few pages. overall an entertaining read with great characters!

Romance book where FMC is a sex worker and the two MMC are in a metal band? Love.

I haven’t read either of the other books in this series, but it didn’t feel like I was missing out on anything by not having read them. The writing was good, and the plot explained well enough that it didn’t matter that I didn’t know the characters back stories.

I loved how well written FMC was in her role as a SWer - if felt respectful. I’m not gonna lie, when I read at the start that she was a stripper my heart sank a bit - I thought she’d end up being the butt of every joke (as is generally the case), but it was the exact opposite.

The poly relationship felt natural, and not like it was being shoe horned in. Seeing poly representation in one of these ‘easy readers’ was a real nice change.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

I fucking loooooved this book!!! i didn't realize it was part of a series, but after I read this one, I went back and read the author's other two books in a feverish haze. I'm absolutely obsessed

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC.

This is the first book I read by L.H Blake, I have not read the other books in this series but that did not take away from this story at all.

This follows Joel, Key and Dusty. I thought this would be a fun and spicy little book about rockstairs , but the author managed to pack so much emotional substance and really developed these characters.

There were so many layers to this story and flash back to the past.

It was a beautiful moment when they are three final came together.

I will be reading the other books in this story.

Having a difficult time rating this one. I’ll be honestly, the first quarter of the book I was kind of getting the ick left and right. Not sure what I was expecting, but there was a lot of insta love and that’s just not my jam. When it’s love out of no where with no character building, just feels a little flat. That being said, glad I stuck through, this ended up being really sweet, crazy serendipitous story, but I really wish it didn’t take 75% of the book to really get there. I wanted to see more of their relationship, it felt a bit rushed at the end.

Thank you Netflix Galley for ARC

Joel and Key are best friends, band mates, roommates, and more. Soulmates even. But when Joel falls in love with Dusty, a woman he met stripping in Vegas and Key falls in love with Cherry, the woman with the sexy voice on the fantasy phone line, and a threat faces their metal band, Joel and Key get to decide what they want their lives to be and whom they want in their lives with them. Sexy. Explicit. A fun read.

An absolute banger from LH Blake and I need to read more from this author. Yes there was smut and some pretty raunchy scenes but there was such a story there and so much more than a meet cute and shag! This is the kind of story I will think about! Couldn’t put the book down, thank you NetGalley for letting me read and review.

I went into this a little blind and a lot of unsure of the plot. Maybe if I'd read the first two books in the series I'd have been a little more interested in the characters and their struggles. I honestly wasn't super interested in anyone though. Everyone involved just felt very one dimensional, even with the split POVs I feel like we never really got to know the characters. At times it felt like I was reading a journal entry and everything was being written in a specific order. That being said, it did make it very easy to get lost in the story and there were no moments where I had to pause to look anything up or really ponder the meaning of a sentence. Not too bad. It did make me physically recoil to read "I'm not like most girls." in a book being published in 2025.

I was a little icked out by a lot of the on page conversations that took place. I think it got to a point where the phone sex got to be a lot and it was feeling very icky in the relationships that were forming. Especially because it would switch POVs and it was a little jarring. On an unrelated note, I was rooting for the band in the lawsuit and I do hope they sue for defamation.

Final notes: This was an interesting book that I think will find the right audience on Tiktok and be very popular for its 80s backdrop, poly romance, smut percentage, and the fact that it reads like stranger things fanfiction. If that seems like something you're interested in, you'll probably enjoy this book and I assume the rest of the series, I am just not the right person for this book I guess.

Thank you netgalley and L.H. Blake for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Publishing on Goodreads on 04/06/2025.

This was a really sweet poly romance. Set in the late 80s, we watch Dusty and Joel begin their relationship, while also getting flashbacks to Dusty's childhood, where she's falling in love with Key, which the readers know is Joel's best friend and bandmate.

To be honest, until it was spelled out to me, I didn't realise it was set in the 80s. If you're worried about it being over top or dipped in references and lingo you're not used to, don't be. It was just a really nice little blast from the past, which favoured the use of a specific trope.

The writing wasn't my favourite, and while the characters clearly had intricate backstories, they still fell a bit flat at times. The phone sex scenes weren't for me either. To me, they work as examples of her job, but didn't create any feelings between the two characters, despite what the characters claimed. The other smutty scenes however were HOT and I loved them.

The love triangle did feel like it was bordering on cheating at times, which I'm not a huge fan of. Just because we the readers knew/could assume the identity of the mystery caller, Dusty clearly didn't. Technically everything happened rather fast in Joel and Dusty's relationship, but because it was interspersed with flashbacks to Dusty and Key falling in love as children, it felt like it was going on longer, which I think is where my discomfort of Dusty prolonging her decision came from. I'm impatient. And because this is a poly/why choose romance, it did feel a bit like a slow burn, since the final person in the relationship isn't there until the very end. That's not a bad thing, I just didn't expect it.

Overall, I enjoyed this story and I love discovering new authors who write retro and/or abnormal relationships, so L.H. Blake is definitely someone I'm going to read more books from.