Didn’t finish. This was not for me. There was literally zero plot and the main point of conflict was that he’s a mess and she’s not.

“Sometimes people will always be pieces” ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Lily and Rome’s story is so beautiful. Rome is a reformed (for 17 days! )playboy (yes he’s keeping count) with a pierced Yk, and she's a dancer under strict supervision. Both are broken in ways that draw you in to their stories.

The author mentions tough issues like eating disorders and abuse adding depth and “imperfections” to these characters. The narrators fit the characters perfectly making the story such a fun and easy listen.

The book does have a third act break up that last about 3 chapters due to circumstances that you’ll understand when you read it but it definitely shows the growth between the characters and how they went from not believing in love to being in love with each other.

Thank you for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook. It was a bit of a darker storyline than I’m used to but it was so good. I liked the back stories of the characters. It really gave them depth and gives the listener an understanding of their lives and what makes them the way they are.

The spice was perfect for me and that’s the type of books I love. And the narrators did it perfectly. I did skip the first books but will have to go back and read them!

I enjoyed Lily and Rome story. I loved all the characters in the story. I'm going to read their stories in the series. This is my first time reading from this author. I found another author who may make my favorite list.

DNF @ 17%
Im sure it doesn't continue through the whole book, but the way the MMC speaks about women is so gross. I get the whole bad boy X good girl trope but this just felt uncomfortable to listen to...
Outside of that it seems like it could have some potential but I couldn't get past this bit

Rome is your classic bad-boy rockstar/playboy, emotionally unavailable. Lili is a talented dancer trapped under the thumb of her abusive, controlling mum. Expect plenty of smut with a dash of character development. Is this the most unforgettable book ever? Probably not. But was it a fun, entertaining escape. Even without reading the other books in the series, I never felt lost and the narrators were both great.

3 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The audio was good. I enjoyed the narrators. The plot/story. It is much. It was so cheesy!

"Worth the Trouble" is a heartfelt, slow-burn romance beautifully brought to life through the amazing dual narration of Connor Brown and Desiree Ketchum. Their voices perfectly convey the tension, passion, and depth of Rome and Lili’s opposites-attract journey. The thrilling forbidden romance and the intriguing bad boy/good girl dynamic add so much intensity, while their emotional scars make the story feel wonderfully raw and real. Even though it's part of a series, you can enjoy it as a standalone. Thank you to NetGalley and Eva Simmons for the chance to experience this ALC.

The audiobook narration was really good overall. But one thing that bothered me was the male narrator mimicking a girl's voice during Lily's lines in Rome's pov and the female narrator mimicking Rome's lines in Lily's pov. Since this is a duet narration, I don't understand why they just don't give the lines to the respective genders?

However, I didn't love the book much. I had trouble liking Rome's playboy character. The story wasn't one with a lot of angst or tension so I couldn’t connect well with the story.

Worth the Trouble by Eva Simmons
dark emotional tense medium-paced
Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0

This was a treat!
Rome has tried everything to shut himself off from everyone around him. He was so close to reclaiming his bachelor rockstar lifestyle… until Lili waltzed into his life.

His bandmates totally have his back, and watching him try (and fail) to hide his pining? Absolutely adorable.

On the flip side, Lili’s relationship with her mom is rough: calorie counting, a painfully segmented lifestyle, eating disorders, and even arranged relationships — ugh. Honestly, this book could double as an easy guide to "How to cut contact with a toxic parent."

By the end, the story wrapped up the many tangled plot points that had me hooked from the start.

In love,
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶️🌶️🌶️
Thank you NetGalley and Tantor Audio for sending this book. All opinions are my own.

Thank you NetGalley and Eva Simmons for the chance to listen to this ALC!

“Maybe Rome is the sky, out of reach and echoing with thunder. He hurts like lightning and soothes like rain.”

With beautiful writing like that capturing the moments and emotions between characters, I thought this was a good quick read.

The narration by Desiree Ketchum and Connor Brown was great. They captured the characters and their emotions well. Especially Desiree Ketchum. Her range and voice was great at keeping me engaged in the story.

I give this 3.75 stars and 🌶️🌶️🌶️ It had the potential to be a 4 star read. But for me I struggled with the first several chapters. Romes activities and the count of his issue went on and on as he struggled to understand or agree with the choices of those around him to settle with a woman due to his history. Once Rome and Lili met, I was able to get into it. The story takes off and gets good from there. There’s some character growth, chemistry, spice and some funny moments between them with a good steady pace to the story. Overall I enjoyed it. The charachters and side charachters were likable and the story of Rome and Lilli was good.

If you like tropes like opposites attract, forbidden love, bad boy/good girl, opposite sides of the track and rockstar romance I’d recommend giving this book a try. The MMC is a hot, tattooed, guitarist with questionable morals and the FMC is a sweet, talented, ballet dancer. This is the fourth book in the Enemy Muse series.

Worth The Trouble Honest ARC Review:

4.5 ⭐️

Okay, who is Eva Simmons and why have I not read her books before?! This was great! Interesting, characters with depth, plenty of spice.

Worth the trouble is fantastic.

To the rest of the world, Rome Moreno is a Rock God. When Rome and Lilly bumped into one another, he thought Lilly was a stripper. Lilly was not impressed with him at all at first glance.

Yet, Rome has repeatedly come into her life like some magnetic storm, drawing her in to the deepest parts of his soul. Worth the Trouble really pulls at your heartstrings.

This is definitely one to add to your TBR!

⭐️ Forbidden romance
⭐️ Chance encounters
⭐️FMC and MMC from two different worlds
⭐️ Plenty of Spice

Thank you so much for sharing this ARC with me. I am really looking forward to reading more from this author!

4 stars.

I've never listened to or read an Eva Simmons book but I'm glad this was my first introduction into this author's books. I would definitely pick up another. This book was gritty and heart wrenching the characters were broken in a lot of ways, but I loved how they came together. They were honest and just accepted each other for what they were which actually allowed them to grow from a lot of it. It was gradual but obvious at the same time.

I typically don't like rockstar romances, but I guess I didn't see that this book was prior to being approved for the ALC. I was pleasantly surprised. Although the inner dialogue for Rome in the first 7ish chapters was very repetitive. Like dude we get it, you like sex, no strings attached, no repeats sex and hate monogamous relationships #rockstarlife and all that. That was made clear several times. Rome and Lili had extended dialogues but once I was really into it, I didn't mind so much. Overall, I really enjoyed this author's style of writing. Darker and some trigger themes were explored in each character, and I could tell the previous books in the series were the same in that aspect. *Check the trigger warnings*

My favorite parts were when Lili and Rome were just honest about their darker parts and didn't shy away or judge the other. Mostly to see if they'd scare the other away. They just accepted it and found understanding in each other. Communication is key and I love to see it.

My main gripe with this book was the audiobook, I almost wish I just read it instead. Desiree Ketchum could've narrated the whole thing honestly. Her male voice was perfect, imo. I hate to say that and the only reason I do is because the way Connor Brown narrated Lili's voice was something. High pitched and grating on every nerve. Is that legit what he thinks women sound like? I'm genuinely curious. The deeper into the audiobook, I either got used to it or he improved. Then suddenly he'd return to using it out of nowhere. The way I imagine Lili speaking, who had described herself as a hollow shell, was far from screechy. I digress. I think Connor did a fantastic job as Rome though and really enjoyed his voice overall - minus the slightly insulting female voice.

Anyways, I enjoyed this and will definitely be picking up another book from this author.

Dual Narration - Connor Brown & Desiree Ketchum
Great voices.

Book 4 in Enemy Muse Series
Can be read as a standalone but for best experience reading in order is recommended

Dancer x Rockstar romance
Dark romance
Reformed playboy

Rome is a bad boy, a playboy, he isn’t interested in settling down. That is until Lili shows up in his path. Lili is a small petite dancer with problems of her own.

These two turn each others lives upside down but in all the ways they both need it to. Really enjoyed their story.

This book was definitely worth the trouble. I loved how these two lost souls found each other and helped to heal each other and themselves through their love.
The narrators were great, their pacing and voice acting were on point and the story was better for it.

🖤💔🔥🩰🧨🎸

Let me tell you something.

I thought I was just going to read a spicy little rockstar-meets-ballerina romance to pass the time while avoiding my responsibilities and eating string cheese in bed like a semi-feral Victorian ghost. What I got instead was an existential crisis, several spicy hallucinations, a full-blown emotional exorcism, and one (1) hot fictional man who now owns my central nervous system.

Rome Moreno? Sir, why are you built like a red flag and wrapped in emotional trauma, tattoos, and orgasmic prose? Why do I want to simultaneously slap you, marry you, and make you soup?? Why is your pain my pain? Why did my soul whisper “yes daddy” every time you opened your filthy, filthy mouth???

And Lili? My delicate broken ballerina turned quietly feral chaos goddess. I was rooting for you like my life depended on it. I wanted to scoop you out of your hyper-controlled glass tower and tuck you inside a hoodie made of emotional safety and soft carbs. But then you came for me. You did a pirouette into my chest cavity and danced all over my heart in toe shoes dipped in trauma and glitter.

Together? They are the human version of setting fire to a silk sheet with a candle during a thunderstorm while whispering “this is fine.”

The spice:
I’m sorry, I can’t even look at a guitar or a ballet barre anymore without getting flustered. I am now physically weakened by the phrase, “Do you want me to f*ck the sass out of your mouth?” I had to lay down. Twice. Rome is a menace. A menace with an oral fixation, a filthy imagination, and zero regard for my mental health. Lili is delicate like a razor blade. Together they are basically a crime against serotonin. I will never emotionally recover from the pole scene. I am haunted. I am changed. I need electrolytes.

The emotions:
This book grabbed my heart, stomped on it in Doc Martens, and then gave it CPR using dirty talk and shared trauma. I cried like I was personally involved in the storyline. Rome and Lili didn't just peel back their layers — they emotionally stripped each other down like it was foreplay and then made me watch. I felt like a third wheel at an intimate therapy session that somehow involved handcuffs.

Other notes:

If you think trauma bonding isn’t hot, this book is here to gently but aggressively prove you wrong.
The prose? POETRY. The pain? Sumptuous.
The side characters? An entire chaotic, lovable rock band found family I would sell my soul to brunch with.
If I see someone named Eloise, I will be asking if she has any emotionally devastated roommates available.
Final thoughts:
This book is a spiritual awakening, a smutty ballet, a chaotic emotional takedown disguised as a romance novel. I am unwell. I am in love. I need a support group, a cold compress, and maybe a priest.

Rating: 27/5 stars, 11/10 orgasms, 3.5 emotional breakdowns.
Highly recommended for fans of:

Sad rockstars with filthy mouths
Emotionally repressed ballerinas
Trauma that feels like foreplay
Found family chaos
Spice that makes you rethink your moral compass
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go reread every filthy quote I highlighted and pretend someone is whispering “Hey sweetheart” into my ear while I sob into my pillow.
🖤🔥🩰🎸📖💀

Rome Moreno is a bad-boy, playboy, rockstar with emotional attachment issues. Lili is a professional dancer with verbally abusive and controlling mommy. What could possibly go wrong when these two end up falling for each other? Lots of smut and a bit of character growth. I won't say that this book is the best book ever written, and I probably won't remember a thing about it in a week's time, but it was a fun time. I didn't really feel all that connected to these characters and I don't know if it's because this was book #4 in the series and I hadn't read any of the others or not. Overall, the story was good and the spicy scenes were fun!

The audio narrators Desiree Ketchum and Connor Brown do a good job with the narration.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tantor Audio for access to the ALC in exchange for an honest review.

The audiobook narration was excellent—both narrators delivered strong performances that made the listening experience enjoyable. Their voices fit the characters well, and the pacing and emotion helped bring the story to life.

Unfortunately, the story itself didn’t fully work for me. I struggled with the male lead’s personality and his repeated poor decisions, which made it hard to root for him. The female lead had potential, but her long-standing pattern of being easily controlled—and seeming oddly accepting of it—was frustrating to watch unfold. Their dynamic felt more imbalanced than romantic at times.

While the premise had promise, the character development left me wanting more. Still, if you're in it for the narration, it’s a solid listen.