Book Review - Beat of the Heart by Katie Ashley • Ana's Attic Book Blog

AJ Resendiz was my favorite character in Music of The Heart by Katie Ashley, hands down. In fact, I mentioned in my review that I wanted his story, and I must say, I was pleasantly surprised at how much more I enjoyed Beat of the Heart compared to Music of the Heart. Music was sweet, the heroine a virgin. Beat was plain old H-O-T. It also had one of my favorite things, banter. I love flirtatious banter, and Beat of the Heart by Katie Ashley had it in spades. Just what I expected from AJ, but better.

Mia Martinelli is a feisty, curvy, Italian cardiac nurse. AJ Resendiz is the sexy latin drummer for Runaway Train. He is visiting a crew member in the hospital and meets Mia in a very cute scene.

A tall, dark haired, dark-eyed goddess of a nurse strode into the room. Through her standard blue scrubs, I detected she possessed every attribute that gave me instant wood–wide curvy hips, thick thighs, a voluptuous ass and a full, natural rack.

Since this is how my husband would describe me (totally his type), I was able to to hop right in there and be Mia (I love that!). Immediately the banter began.

“Holy shit, dude! I can’t believe what she just said to you!” Rhys exclaimed, wiping the tears from his eyes.
I stared momentarily at the closed door before a smile spread across my cheeks. “Now, that gentleman, is the future Mrs. Resendiz, right there.”

Mia has some major issues though with her body (I can so relate) but most of her issues come from her dickhead ex. Mia has been burned. Big time. And she is not about to let it happen again. Her best friend and co-worker, Dee, a gay male nurse, was absolutely hysterical. So him, combined with the banter between AJ and Mia, and the friendship between the band guys had me smiling the whole way through.

AJ tries a few ways to convince Mia to go out with him (I loved this!) But luckily Dee keeps Mia from being a total idiot.

“You look like just the hot ticket she needs to clear away the vajayjay cobwebs.”

After much convincing, because Mia doesn’t want to follow all of the fake skinny girls he dates, Mia finally agrees to basically sex with AJ. (I told you I’m Mia, right? Yay! Sex with AJ!)

“This is going to be epic!” Dee gyrated his hips as he danced over to me. “You need to make an appointment for hair and nails ASAP.” His gaze dropped below my waist. I’m thinking a bikini wax as well. Don’t want to be welcoming Mr. Latin Lover to the jungle.”~ Dee

Though the date was supposed to be ‘sex only’ it turned out to be an awesome date. And then got even more awesome.

Oh my. AJ was the perfect blend of commanding alpha, and totally hot and sweet. Plus he loves a curvy girl! And let me tell you. I didn’t know Katie, the sweet Steel Magnolia, had it in her, but Beat of the Heart was:

The first half of Beat of the Heart was a total 5++++ star read for me. The second half went a little downhill for me for a few reasons, the main one being the use of very common plot devices. I still loved it though, and I’m a huge fan of Runaway Train!

Likes:

I was grinning the whole time.
The fun banter.
Dee, the Lafayette-looking male nurse was awesome.
Lots of current pop-culture references.
A curvy heroine with body image was totally relatable, and her doubts were understandable.
Totally hot sex!
Teasing about romance novels “Why is it that during the sex scenes the guy always says ‘Come for me, baby, and the chick comes?”
Usage of some of my favorite words like Vajayjay and Douchenozzle.
How much AJ loves Mia’s body.
The pre-connection AJ has with Mia’s family.
A surprise tie-in with the Proposition series by Katie Ashley (not necessary to read first at all, just a guest appearance).

Dislikes:

Too many typical plot devices used (misunderstanding and more).
Not enough of the music part of being musicians. You would barely ever even know they were in a band.
AJ lost a bit of his fun side towards the end, though he turned sweet and romantic.
Not very memorable.
Mia fought a little too much, AJ didn’t push hard enough.
The epilogue was just too over-the-top good to be true.

Rating: 4.25 stars 4.5 Heat

Beat of the Heart, to me, was way better than Music of the Heart which I really enjoyed. It brought me back to that feeling I had when I read my first Katie Ashley book a year ago, The Proposition. I had a perma-grin on my face the whole time I read Beat of the Heart (in one sitting!). It was a fast, sexy, fun, feel-good read with lots of ‘I can relate’ moments and fun current references. It started as a 5+++ star read, and though it lost a little momentum through the book, overall I still highly recommend it.