“Because I heard your soul singing to mine.”
Soul Songs is #2 in the Bad Boy Series, I have not listened to #1 Hawk’s Call, but have been assured by the author that the only connection among the titles in the series is that they all contain “Bad Boys”.
HEA with no cliffhanger!
SEX Warning
YES!
Trigger Warning
Child Abuse, Spousal Abuse, Rape
Length: 3 hrs and 40 mins
♥ Story ♥
This story will definitely pull at your heart strings!
Marty Donahue is a traveling artist famous for her murals. Her mode of transportation is her RV dubbed “Big Red” and a one-eyed old cat named Gruff is her co-pilot. She tries to avoid musicians and their lifestyles because of her bad experience with her washed up drunk of father. Who was, you guessed it, a rocker.
🐾 ~ Gruff ~ 🐾
“Well, Gruff is not just your ordinary cat, but once he decides to be your friend, he’s your friend for life.”
– Marty
Marty makes an exception for Jake Stryker, bad boy of country music, because her heart hurts for the children that have been left in his care. Jake took responsibility of his sister’s 4 year old twins after her death at the hands of her husband, in front of those said children.
Jake is, of course, drawn to Marty the moment he sees her. He compares her looks to a young Ann-Margret. For those of you who may have seen Viva Las Vegas with Elvis, she is the main chick. For those that have no idea who Elvis is, I have included a picture and a link.
Ann-Margret in Viva Las Vegas [from IMDB]
Martys backstory involves a very descriptive scene of her rape in chapter 05.
The scene is played out in Marty’s head for the reader, and no one else. After that one chapter, it is abandoned as an afterthought, but as a reader I was left feeling dirty and uncomfortable. I kept waiting for it to have relevance sometime later in the story, but nothing else ever came of it. I feel that an attempted rape would have been a more effective of an explanation for why she had a gun and why the one interaction disturbed her without potentially scarring the reader.
👫 ~ The Twins ~ 👫
“Ah, dumpling, you don’t understand. When a man and a woman get married they should love each other. They should know how to make each other happy, make each other’s souls sing.”
– Marty
The twins will make you want to crawl into the book and hug and rock them in comfort. The request for cops in the mural made me want to cry. Good thing Jake has money because those poor babies are going to need some therapy to go along with their hugs and love.
This was a heartfelt story of 2 people wounded by life looking for the one to make their soul sing.
♥ Author ♥
This is my first read/listen by Simone Carter. The characters are interesting and engaging. I could listen to this story again, but just skip chapter 5. I would definitely listen to other works by this author.
Simone has 16 titles to her name listed on Audible.
♥ Narrator(s) ♥
Lissa Blackwell performance was very pleasing to listen to. The narration parts were easy to listen to and the voices for the females and the children were great. Jake’s voice could use some polish. It was great when he was on his own but when thrown in the mix with others talking on and off, he got lost and sounded just like Marty. I would listen to more works performed by this narrator.
Lissa has 19 titles to her name listed on Audible.
Soul Songs
Written by Simone Carter
Read by Lissa Blackwell
Ebook obtained through Kindle Unlimited
Audiobook obtained for free at my request and I am voluntarily leaving this unbiased review