Sweet Regret by K. Bromberg

Narrated by Stella Hunter and Ryan West

Standalone in a series.

There may be some minor spoilers in this review, especially if you didn’t read the full blurb.

“Your different is your beautiful, Shug. It always has been for me. It always will be for me.”

When K. Bromberg mentioned to me that Sweet Regret was probably her favorite of her books, I had to grab it because I’ve read this author a lot and absolutely loved most of her books. It had been a while since I read a rock star romance and I absolutely love single parent romances, so Sweet Regret was right up my alley.

I wish I knew that we actually meet Vince in an earlier book from The Driven Series, Sweet Ache. I think if you had read that first you’d appreciate Sweet Regret even more because honestly, the few things I had listed as negatives may not have applied if I read Sweet Ache first.

Vince and Bristol were high school sweethearts. They were everything to each other, but Vince’s home life was so bad that as soon as he was able to, he left to try to pursue music.

A few years later, when Bristol was 21, they ran into each other again, had one amazing hookup and then Vince shut her out completely. He blocked her number and had his manager get rid of her. When she found out he left her a little “gift,” she was shut out and unable to tell him. Vince had made it very clear, multiple times, that after his awful childhood, he never wanted to be a father, and Bristol never wanted to force him to change his life.

So now Bristol has a 7-year-old son when the PR firm she works for takes on Vince as a client and she is lead on the account.

OMG the angst was angsting in this book! I don’t want to spoil anything, but the blurb says secret baby, so I won’t go much further. While I loved the way this story turned out, I was a little frustrated that Vince was mad at Bristol and she kept apologizing. He’s the one who blocked her!

Likes:

Kristy always knows how to tell a compelling story.
Huge amount of character growth.
Love the scenes with Jagger.
Definitely makes me want to read more in the series.

Dislikes:

I never fully loved Vince.
He had some nerve to be angry with her after he blocked her and partied for seven years while she put everything on hold to raise his kid. And she was apologetic.
I feel like Vince’s dad was kind of like a cartoon villain, too stereotypical.
I double checked to make sure this was first in a series, but I felt like I had missed something–like seeing the band together before they broke up? (I only found out when writing this review that the characters were introduced in Sweet Ache).

The Narration:

Stella Hunter and Ryan West were fantastic and brought the story to life. I absolutely recommend the audio version.

The Down & Dirty:

For me to fully love a book, I need to fall in love with both characters. I never fell for Vince, though I liked him more towards the end. Still, I gobbled up Sweet Regret. The angst, the single parent storyline, and the second chance rock star romance kept me hooked. I do wish I had read Sweet Ache before this because I am dying for Hawke’s book now, but I don’t want to go back and read Vince at his worst.

Though this isn’t my favorite K. Bromberg book, it was still emotional, engaging, and I absolutely plan to continue the series.