Title: Tattoo Thief
Author: Heidi Joy Tretheway
Publication date: 10/8/13
22-year-old Beryl doesn't know why Gavin Slater trashed his penthouse, abandoned his dog and fled the country. But as his house sitter, she must pick up the pieces for the front man of the white-hot rock band Tattoo Thief.
When ultra-responsible Beryl confronts the reckless rock star, she wants to know more than just what to do with his mess. Why is he running? What’s he searching for? And is he responsible for the death of his muse?
New York newbie Beryl must find her footing in Gavin’s crazy world of the ultra-wealthy to discover her own direction and what can bring him back.
Steamy, sassy and tender, Tattoo Thief is a story of breaking from a comfort zone to find a second chance.
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Setup: Gavin Slater, front man for the white-hot rock band Tattoo Thief, trashed his penthouse and fled the country. His house sitter, Beryl, is stuck cleaning up the mess and must move into his apartment to take care of his dog. But her curiosity drives her to dig deeper to find out why he fled and what can bring him back.
I’m getting a little obsessed with Gavin Slater because I’m living his life by proxy: his home, his dog, his stuff. I search YouTube and find a video of his interview on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.
“So what inspires you? What drives your music?” Jimmy asks.
Gavin looks down at his shoes for a beat, and I can see his biceps flex under a thin, tight T-shirt.
“What doesn’t inspire me?” Gavin grins, and runs a hand through his hair, spiking it even higher. “Life is music, and music is life. Music is the most important thing. And I can find inspiration in the smallest little things, like the way she sighs when she’s sleeping.”
“She? So is there a woman driving this inspiration?” Fallon sits forward, eager for the answer, and I find myself leaning forward too.
“It’s hardly a secret,” Gavin reaches across the host’s desk and taps a CD case with the picture of a woman, lion-scratched and bloody. I recognize the cover art for Beast.
“So you’re taken? That’s what the ladies here want to know.” The camera cuts to a shot of the audience and I hear shrieks from Gavin’s ardent fans.
“I’m taken by her. And I’m taken with a lot of women. Let’s not make anything too official.” Gavin smirks and I sour. Players—they’re not for me.
“So what’ll it take to settle you down?” Fallon nails it, the question I’m sure a million girls are asking. Including me. But a cloud passes over Gavin’s face and for a fraction of a second he looks lost.
“Chemistry,” Gavin says, and plays another bad-boy card with the sex-charged innuendo. “And physics.”
Fallon stutters; not much surprises him. “Physics?”
“Yeah,” Gavin hunches forward, his elbows on his knees. It’s confession time, and I really listen. “Physics. Newton’s third law says, ‘for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.’ And that’s what I’m looking for. My opposite, and my equal.”
I watch as Gavin’s band plays “Peace of Madness” on Fallon and scan the crowd shots for the woman on the CD cover. I don’t see her, but I do see Gavin working the mic, the cords on his neck straining, his jeans hanging dangerously low off chiseled hips. A close-up shot of his pale blue eyes arrests me.
Finally, I close my laptop and breathe deeply, calming my racing heartbeat. Now that I’ve seen Gavin Slater in action—albeit on my laptop screen—I’m even more charged by him than before.
But something runs deeper than lust, though that’s certainly what’s got my chest heaving right now. What is it? Intrigue? Fascination?
I can’t tell if crushing on Gavin Slater is fangirl crazy-talk or some kind of stalkerish need to know. Either way, it’s bad. I can’t understand why he’s gone from a confident player to a freak show, with a trashed apartment, abandoned dog, and scant communication with the real world.
Where the hell is he? It makes no sense.
I resolve to push my fixation to the furthest corners of my mind and focus on my new clients and my growing business.
Not on fixing Gavin Slater. He’s broken.
"'So what'll take to settle you down?"
"Chemistry and physics."
"Physics?"
"Yeah" Gavin hunches forward, his elbows on his knees. It's confession time, and I really listen.
"Physics. Newton's third law says, 'For every action there is equal and opposite reaction.' And that's what I'm looking for. My opposite and my equal.'"
Beryl is stuck. Stuck in her small Oregon town, stuck in her food service jobs after failing to successfully put her journalism degree to work, and stuck to her mom even years after her fathers' death. But her Uncle Dan offers her a way to be un-stuck, take a job with his company in New York City. Beryl's need for adventure, and her misfortune of her original housing plan falling through, she found herself as a proporty manager (aka house sitter) for the UPPER upper class. Her first client is rock star Gavin Slater. Entering the complete mess and destruction of the apartment he abandoned, plus finding out he left his dog to be kenneled for weeks, did not start the two off on a very good start. But Beryl learns things aren't always how they appear (or Google says) to be and after email coorosponding with Gavin, learns he is in a deep state of grief, depression, and self-destruction. Somehow both Gavin and Beryl are able to very easily open up to each other, and Beryl wants to help Gavin beyond cleaning his apartment. But when she feels as if she could be developing deeper feelings for him, Beryl starts to backpedal. How much truth is there to Gavin's play boy reputation? Will he be able to move on from the loss of his muse? And Gavin isn't the only hot New York man interested in Beryl, but where will her heart lead her?
This was a well written and well developed story, full of the perfect amount of angst and swoon. Both main characters are very likable and real development of their relationship. I wish we would have had more time with Gavin and Beryl being physically together because the build up of their relationship through their online connection was hot hot hot. I think the author did a great job creating secondary characters that will hold plenty of substance for the expansion of the series. Each one if Gavin's band mates had their own charisma, plus Beryl's friend Stella, a music journalist, and one of her clients, heiress, Greta. I can't say I was a huge fan of the ending (basically the last few sentences). The character wrap up was fine but her transition to the next book in the series is far from subtle.
Heidi Joy lives in Happy Valley off Sunnyside Road. She swears she did not make that up.
Heidi’s obsessed with storytelling. Her career includes marketing, journalism, and a delicious few years as a food columnist. Media passes took her backstage with several rock bands, where she learned that sometimes a wardrobe malfunction is exactly what the rock star intends.
You’ll most often find Heidi Joy with her husband and two small kids cooking, fishing, exploring the Northwest, and building epic forts in their living room.
She loves to hear from readers via messages at:
Blog: http://heidijoytretheway.com/
Twitter: www.twitter.com/heiditretheway
Facebook: facebook.com/author.heidi
Author Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6920129.Heidi_Joy_Tretheway
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