I really didn’t get this. It started with a bang (literally) that I didn’t understand. They didn’t know each other and the h obviously had other motives... sort of. See what I mean. And this feeling of sort of understanding but not really never went away unfortunately. 2 stars.

Harlow had known of Alec Davies all her life. He was the reason why her dad wasn’t a member of The Skies hasn’t been for more than twenty-five years. Alec was known as the devil in her house. Harlow had to pull in a lot of family favors to be let in 01here. She was in Alec’s dressing room. Harlow kissed Alec then Alec toke over the kiss. Harlow thought she had been bringing him a message, but Harlow guesses she had been fooling herself. Honestly, she’d been looking for the this, by confronting the dragon of her father’s fairy tales to see if he’s as bad as she ‘d always been told. Or if the man Harlow had binged on in the YouTube app was the real one. Harlow wanted a way to lash out at the past, the one she’d gone looking for. Alec gets Harlow off orally. The she redresses herself and Harlow said she hadn’t planned that, and Alec asked what she had planned. Harlow told Alec to give him a message. Then Alec asked what that had been, and she said Revenge possibly. Then Harlow told Alec her dad had cancer and not long to live. And she told him you used to know her father. That Alec used to call her father the brother he never had. Then Alec breathes “Silas” Harlow sees the moment Alec realizes he has the taste of his best friends’ daughter on his mouth. Harlow then left. The next day Alex comes to their hotel to see Silas. Alec asked to make Silas’s porridge Silas was to have for his breakfast and Harlow let him. Alec was surprised Sirus was staying at a hotel. He’d previously been highly dismissive of most material things and signs of success. He’d been dismissive of Alec and The Skies. Alec takes the breakfast tray to Sirus his old brother, old competitor. Sirus does recognize Alec and said he couldn’t believe Alec had come. Once upon a tome Alex respected Silas above all others, the man The Skies needed the most. He would have promised everything the fairy tales demanded. The Sirus became an ogre. Then Sirus left them. They made more albums but it all still fell apart after thirteen years. Harlow watches Alec come out of her father’s room She says a plea to herself “Please God, tell me that dad was as mean to Alec Davies as he’d always been to me.” Alec told Harlow he wants to move Silas to his townhome, but Harlow said no they didn’t need his charity. Harlow added” where he goes, I go too.” Harlow felt Sirus owed her that much, her hurt her and scared her and turned a blind eye to every emotional hurt he’d warred on her.
I had mixed emotions on this book. Why did Harlow stay with her father when all her did was hurt her? Why did she start an affair with a man her father’s age I don’t know this just didn’t make a lot of sense to me? I enjoyed some of this book but for the most part I didn’t really care for it. So, I will give it a three. I did like Alec was willing to take in his old friend and daughter. He eventually slept with said daughter but why he wanted her she was young but his best friends’ daughter I don’t know I just have mixed feelings as this shows.

Hot older British rockstar. Hot sex. But also very angsty and emotional as she deals with her dying father [who has not been great to her, really]. This hit all the right spots for me and was a nice escape from *gestures at world*.

Messy is a story about an aging rock star and a much younger woman. The reason I wanted to read this book is because I enjoy reading about older men with a younger woman and especially, when it is about a musician. The two main characters, Alec and Harlow are both flawed and must come to terms with all their issues before they can learn to love another person. Their relationship is also taboo, as Alec and Harlow's father we’re best friends and bandmates, but their relationship changed and now they are enemies. This is a steamy story full of angst and at times, feels unrealistic. By the end of the book I liked Alec and Harlow, but it took me a while to warm up to them. It is worth taking some out and reading this emotional and sexy story.

Oh do I love when a romance starts with a bang, and this may be one of the hottest first chapters I've read in recent memory.

So steamy and just *this* close to feeling a bit wrong, Messy is both a deliciously erotic age-gap romance AND a stark portrayal of grief and caring for a dying parent while also trying to find your own place in the world.

Read this one when you need a good punch in the heart and a fire in your loins, sexy British rock king included.

CW cancer, sick parent who dies during the story, drug/alcohol use, hero is 20 years older than the heroine.

I received a free copy for review from Netgalley

I really wanted to like tis story and for the most part I did, however I also found some parts stilted which impacted the flow of the story.

The blurb alone should prepare you for the crazy rollercoaster ride between riding his face to the townhouse hospice, it's just curiosity that wonders how this all plays out. This is definitely a story with many layers, add a rockstar, even an aging one and all bets are off. Messy turns sexy but there's no way it's gonna be boring.

“Messy” is a very apt description for this book! First off, it’s an age gap romance between an aging rock star and the daughter of his ex-bandmate who’s dying of cancer, with all the content warnings that implies. Secondly, both main characters are, well, messy – they’re broken, with lots of sharp edges that don’t fit well together.

“What did you plan?”
“To give you a message.”
“What was this, then?”
I like that he’s on his knees. I wonder what that says about me. “Revenge, possibly. Acting out, certainly.”


Harlow’s life in San Francisco – such as it is – has been put on hold while her father, Silas, is dying. She’s accompanied him back to England, his birthplace and where he was once part of The Skies. Silas left the band before she was even born, but its breakup and the aftermath has tainted every part of Harlow’s life, though her father has always refused to talk about his past. Alec and Silas, her father, had been close as brothers, before Silas’ actions led to the breakup, so the natural thing for Harlow to do is to break into his dressing room and confront him. She’s near obsessed with him, having analyzed everything available about the band – and him, like that he wore sunglasses to all his interviews in the 90s – in hopes of learning more about what made her father the way she is, and so made her the way she is. Meanwhile, Alec is trying to get the band back together for one last benefit concert. It’s not just the cause, but also the opportunity to rewrite the ending of The Skies. The overwhelming attraction between them is just an added complication. But is there anything between them besides their complicated relationships with Silas?

“This will only go bad if you think years makes you the one in charge.”
“Christ, no one is in charge of you. Maybe not even you.”


This is an angsty, steamy read between a pair of very flawed characters. Both had difficult, abusive childhoods, and while Alec has come to terms with it in his own way, Harlow is still very much in the midst of figuring out who she is and what she wants. While the beginning of their relationship is centered on how they both interact with Silas, they discover that their broken pieces fit together – mostly through lots and lots of sex. It’s definitely a taboo romance on several levels, with both the age gap and the fact that Alec was Harlow’s dad’s best friend turned enemy turned unlikely host, but both are addressed well in the book. The story is told from both Harlow and Alec’s POV and bits and pieces of the band’s history, as well as their personal histories, are revealed as the book progresses. It did take me a while to warm up to them as a couple as there’s so much about them that shouldn’t work, but it somehow does, and in the end, I was satisfied with the state of their HEA. Was it a typical one? No, because while both Alec and Harlow heal a bit together over the course of the book, they’re not the sort of people to have a fairy tale ending. As for cons, the pacing is a bit uneven and it does feel at times like everyone is just waiting around for Silas to die, and the flowery language was at times over the top for me.

Overall, this was exactly the angst-fest I needed. Perfect if you love messy, broken people having sex and falling in love!

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

MESSY's first chapter is a mission statement: Aging rock star can't resist younger woman who he finds in his dressing room. She's a bit of an emotional wreck. There's earth shattering oral sex before she reveals she's the daughter of his estranged former bandmate who's now dying. Yeah, it's messy.

This book is super angsty and super hot. Harlow is dealing with her difficult dad's terminal cancer, her deep emotional wounds, and desire to more know about her past. Alec is managing a reunion of his band while welcoming his estranged bandmate into his house to die. They're both dealing with insane attraction for the other.

There's a lot here and it's solid. One of the things that makes this book special is that it doesn't feel tidy at the end - both characters are still going to be flawed and dealing with stuff - but that's completely appropriate for a book with this title.

I received an ARC of this book for review via NetGalley.

Not for me. Characters were not fleshed out. Tons of sex but most of it was flat. Plot was odd. Everything moved at supersonic speed. It just felt really disjointed. DNF @50%.

I think ultimately this just wasn't for me. I enjoyed previous books in the series, but this felt different in tone. Although it does say that it's messy right in the title, I wish the heroine didn't quite have to always be the bad guy. It just seemed like she deserved some more consideration.

Is it uh…. hot in here?! No?? Just me? Oh, okay. This book brought the heat, man and I am HERE for it! Alec and Harlow meet as strangers who turn out to be connected pretty deeply, and Alec has no clue who Harlow is. After he finds out who she is and why she’s there things get interesting. There are boundaries put into place, but even those can’t stop things from getting insanely hot. It’s not long before said boundaries get blown to pieces and lines are crossed and people who shouldn’t be in love are in love. This book has some pretty deep and sad moments, some exceptionally funny moments, some downright sappy moments, and of course… lots of sex. What more could you want?! I loved this story.

This was my first book read by Katie Porter, and it wasn't a favorite.

The characters are Alec and Harlow. The book is told in duel point of view which is my favorite writing style. The book starts off with Harlow getting sexual with Alec without him knowing who she is. After that she lets him know she is his ex best friends daughter and her dad is dying.

Things move pretty fast in the book. Alec hasn't seen his ex best friend in over 20 years and now he's moving him and his daughter in his home. He doesn't want to get together with his friends daughter but falls for her anyways. Harlow is into Alec the first moment she seen him.

I wasn't really a fan of this book. They didn't even know each other and were all over each other from the beginning.

#Messy #NetGalley
** I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Storyline was fine, but the characters and relationships fell flat. Not a favorite option for a sexy romance.

I enjoy a good age gap/forbidden love story and after reading the blurb, I was excited to try this one. However, while the concept of this novel was great but the final product was lacking. Alec and Harlow's characters were only skin deep. It seemed like anytime the characters could have a genuine connection or conversation, the author just threw some random sex scene into the book. Overall, disappointing.

I wanted to like this one way more than I did, like there were things I liked about it, but other times I just didn't understand the appeal the couple had to each other. It felt more like a sexual attraction and the actual love stuff just didn't sit right with me. I was so bummed because I do really want to read age gap stuff.

I do want to point out that if cancer or the idea of death of a parent is a trigger for you, you might want to stay away from this book. A key part of this book is that Harlowe's dad is dying and he wants to do it in his home of England. Which means he has to get reunited with his ex-best friend. I liked the stuff between Alec and Harlowe's dad. I'm glad they kind of have some sense of closure, but Harlowe's relationship with her dad was...while realistic, it annoyed me too.

There is a ton of sex in this book, which I don't mind at all, but sometimes I felt like it was lifeless. Like it was just there to be there. I just really didn't like these two together at all. I didn't get a sense that they really had feelings for each other too. I liked Alec a lot, and I felt like we got Harlowe's point of view a little too much, and I wanted more of Alec. Even though we got more of Harlow, I just didn't like her or understand her. She fell really flat for me as a character.

I really hate when books don't work for me! I feel bad giving negative reviews, but this one just didn't work for me. And it felt like I had zero reasons to really explain why when I was reading it. I'm so bummed! I might try another book by this author down the line (I believe in giving author's second chances) but this one just was a let down for me.

*I received a review copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Years ago, Harlow’s dad was in the famous band and with a falling out he left and moved to America. When her dying father insists on returning to England, Harlow reaches out to Alec not sure what would happen between the two. What she didn’t expect was an instant attraction between her and Alec, Alec finds himself moving Harlow and her father into his home.
Things are messy between rock star Alec Davies and Harlow Tate, yet they can not deny the passion they have even though it could have disastrous results.
At the beginning of this forbidden love story, I felt thrown into their story, a little lost, however, I was quickly drawn into their romance. Katie Porter has written a story of two people who find an everlasting love.

Rock star? Father's best friend? Age gap? Sign me up! Everything about the blurb had me intrigued. Combine that with a new to me author and I was psyched to read it.

Honestly, I never really grasped the plot. I found a lot of the book to be well, confusing. I mean, I understand what it's supposed to be about but I felt like it was kind of all over the place. Like there were a lot of holes in the story. I really struggled with this one. It never really held my attention and I found myself getting bored about 1/4 of the way through.

A father's east friend type of romance...Age difference obviously. It's well written and hot....subject matter turned me off, it's not my trope of choice :(

The fact I didn't care for this book, is on me 100% - I was so excited to see a new Katie Porter book I jumped without looking at the description too closely...I've missed my Katie Porter books :)

The book started off wrong or odd. I was not impressed with Harlow at this point and I wondered what the author was attempting.... still am. A groupie or not a groupie....why introduce yourself to your dad's ex-bandmate with a hand shake.
We don't get details on why Harlow has chosen to greet Alec in such a manner and it sets the tone. We're clueless and so is she on why we are in England. A light bulb goes off some where at some point for her that her dad came there to die. Such great bones but the author fails to flesh them out to give us satisfaction.

The ending was plain dumb.....running off a plane and leaving luggage to figure out the love of your life is at an important concert....she manages to get scalped tickets and a spot where Alec can spot her...even managed to get backstage to dressing room....very weird ending....