Review: Fade Into You by Tracy Wolff (Shaken Dirty #3)
Note: This ARC was provided by Entangled Publishing via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
And still he played. Still he wailed away at the drums like the demons of hell were after him. Or worse, like the sins of his past had finally caught up to him after all the years he’d run and all the drugs he’d used to keep them at bay.
And maybe they had. Maybe they had.
Since he couldn’t do anything about it, he played instead.
Face Into You is the third and latest addition to the Shaken Dirty series from bestselling author Tracy Wolff, and if you're like me, this is probably the story that you've been waiting to read since the events in the first book, Crash Into You. Fans of the series and fellow Shaken Dirty groupies know how the band's drummer, Wyatt Jennings, suffered a drug overdose in the first book, and he was in the middle of trying to get a handle on his addictions in the second book, Drive Me Crazy. Now, he's back in his rightful place with the band and trying to manage not giving into the cravings that still wrack his mind and body, but he's getting sick and tired of having everyone hover, making sure he doesn't fall victim yet again to his addictions. However, the record label has already paid the price for Wyatt's bad choices, and now they've sent someone to play babysitter, but the person tasked is not the one the owner originally sent nor does Poppy Germaine have plans of divulging her real purpose on the tour. Her first meeting with Wyatt proves to be an unforgettable one, but Poppy refuses to let the sizzling mutual attraction between them distract her from proving to her father how good she is at her job...but being with Wyatt is quite addictive.
Wyatt has been the one member of Shaken Dirty whose story I've been itching to read, and yes, I admit that it has a lot to do with the fact that he's an addict. I wanted to see how Tracy Wolff was going to handle relaying his battle with addiction and how he was going to find his own happily-ever-after without over simplifying what he was going through. And can I just say that she's given fans of the series a story that's heartrending but isn't overly dramatic or too much of a tearjerker, and it's my absolute favorite among the books currently available in the Shaken Dirty series. Wyatt is damaged but he isn't broken, and while he has his struggles--and rightly so because addiction is no joke nor is it something that's easily overcome, especially by someone as hooked as Wyatt was--he's got one heck of a strong support system in his best friends, and later on, with Poppy. Speaking of Poppy, I agree that I wasn't a huge fan of what she was doing because a lie is still a lie, whether by omission or not, but it was difficult not to see how quickly she became invested in not just being there and helping Wyatt but the rest of the band as well. I so wanted to smack her father, but I did like how Poppy and her brother resolved that particular issue in their own way.
There's a particular scene in the book that gave me goose bumps and had me a bit teary-eyed as well. It felt like that a-ha! moment that Wyatt needed and it had to come from someone who only knew the Wyatt that the rest of the public saw. Yet, even though this individual only knew Wyatt as a rock star and as a recovering addict, he saw beyond the labels and helped Wyatt see that he was so much more. That was both both an eye-opener and a poignant scene because there are times that we no longer believe what those closest to us say because we assume they're only doing it out of misguided loyalty. Sometimes, we need to hear and actually listen to someone who has no ties to us, a stranger or a simple passerby in our journey of life. I was honestly thinking that Wyatt's story would be told last, but once again, Tracy Wolff threw me a curve ball, not that I'm complaining. I'm certainly looking forward to both Jared Matthew's and Drew Fitzpatrick's own stories, especially Jared, since the poor guy got his heart trampled on by two people he thought he could trust in book one. This series has made such a groupie out of me, and now I have to wait for the last two books, but I know the wait will be worth it. Five-plus stars for Fade Into You. ♥
Date Read: 19 February 2016
Learn more about Tracy Wolff.
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