This is the first in a new series by an author I really like. Blow introduces us to the rock band Virtuous Paradox. This is Bodhi's story.

Bodhi finds himself in a downward spiral and with his manager and his parents intervention, he is headed to rehab. Even though he is humiliated at how far he has fallen, he is ever the player and starts the charm on his rehab "friend" Kimberly. She shuts him down immediately but still finds him intriguing.

The story follows Bodhi's time in rehab and a few months post rehab. It gives the reader some insight into the world of the professional musician and the temptation of addiction but is basically an inst-lust story that morphs into love between two unlikely and forbidden characters.

I appreciated the effort to help the reader understand the path to Bodhi's addiction and his road to the challenging world of recovery. I wanted as little more meat here since it is not ever an easy process. As long as the reader knows this going in, I think there is some joy to be had with Kim and Brodhi's HEA.

The secondary characters were more intriguing at times. I am looking forward to the other two bandmates stories. I would really like to read fellow addict, Susan's story, as well. Ok set up to the series. More goodness to come, I am sure!

I’ve never read Heidi McLaughlin before so I wasn’t sure what to expect when I asked to review Blow; my reason for picking it for review was simple, it is about a member of a boy band spiraling out of control and ending up in rehab. Music has always been a big part of my life even though I don’t play an instrument or sing, I love music so I tend to gravitate towards books about musicians or bands and I’m not naive so I know substance abuse runs rabid in the industry and I was curious about this book. I found the characters compelling, but there wasn’t enough substance to it to make it an excellent book. I’m going to break it down and explain what I liked and what bothered me about it in hopes that will help those readers on the fence.
I liked that once Bodhi realized how his addiction was affecting his father, he knew he needed to settle in and give his all to rehab. He realized that having his father hold his barf bucket, help him change his clothes, and hearing him weeping that he had hit rock bottom and needed help. He fought it, he didn’t want to believe he was an addict, but in truth he realized he was and that he was lucky to have people who cared enough about him to help him. I liked that despite the fact he could leave the facility at anytime he didn’t because he knew if he did he’d lose his family. That told me that even though he craved the drugs his family was more important and that underneath it all he was a good guy who lost his way. I liked that when he realized another patient had been mistreated by her husband and he was keeping her children from her he reached out to help her and continued to do so. This showed that despite being somewhat self centered he had compassion for others and although he could have just walked away he didn’t. I liked that once he was out of rehab, he began to understand everything that triggered him to use in the first place and that he knew he was going to have to make changes in his work and in his life so he didn’t relapse.
I was bothered by the fact that despite one really bad episode Bodhi’s detox went very easy. I get that detox is different for everyone but considering the shape he was in I really feel it would have taken more than the approximately three days for him to be up and around and acting pretty normally. His patient liaison Kimberly going from loathing him to being in lust with him in the space of hours really didn’t work for me nor did the fact that despite working at the facility with her father and knowing that rehab patients should not get involved or make someone else their reason for staying clean she continue on as his helper. I was a bit bothered that Bodhi never really pinpointed what caused his addiction or really took responsibility for his addiction; he blamed his parents for their lack of supervision when he was younger, he blamed his manager for their grueling schedule, he blamed his friend/dealer for always being there to provide him with the drugs; but he NEVER took responsibility for the fact that no one forced him to take them, that was on him. I wanted him to realize that in the haze of drugs he lost himself and I don’t feel like that ever really happen. While I’m glad he has a support system when he got out and that his parents took him to their home with open arms, I really wanted them to hash everything out, I wanted his other two band members to really get in his face and ask him if it was worth messing up what they had, and I wanted HIM to confront their manager and make her see that her constant harping and the ridiculous schedule she had them on did not help any of them. I wanted him to stand up and be a man and confront EVERYONE about what happened to him, what caused him to spiral out of control and how they could help him stay clean. Everything was too easy for him in this book; his detox, his rehab, and going back to real life after his time away. IMHO, that was his problem his whole life had been too easy and with little to no consequences.
Was I happy that he found Kimberly and realized what a healthy relationship looked like? Yes, but he only had to look as far as his parents to see a good relationship. While I didn’t approve of the timing of him and Kimberly being together, I can’t discount that she was good for him. However, they really didn’t know much about one another and the fact they went from her hating him, to lust, to professing their love in under 30 days just didn’t work for me. Overall, I was disappointed that the rehab process of this book was glossed over and the addiction part was pushed aside. Had this book been longer and had they reconnected outside of the center, it would have been much more believable and then Bodhi’s success in rehab would have been on him, not on his relationship with Kim.
I realize Blow is fictional and I realize that author’s take liberties in fiction, but when writing about something as serious as an addiction to a narcotic or even alcohol it needs to be realistic or it is a slap in the face to so many people who have been through rehab and fight their demons every day. While I did enjoy the characters, the story was lacking, so for me this book didn’t work.

Every single time I read a Heidi McLaughlin book, I am once again wow’d by her ability to create a work of genius!! You will be intrigued from the moment you open the book, till you reach that last page. Make sure you are ready to read for the long haul, because you won’t be able to put this book down. There are some super fun elements in the story, and you will enjoy every single one of them! I absolutely love the way Heidi's mind works.

This author may be new to me but after this book I am definitely going to read more

This is the first book that I have read by this author. There were parts I liked and other parts that I did not love.

Bodhi meets Kimberly while he is rehab for drug addiction. He is the famous boyband Virtuous Paradox. Kimberly is the daughter of the owner of the facility and assigned to help Bodhi while he is there. They start a relationship quickly - maybe too quickly while he is there.

We meet the rest of the band and the nasty manager. Based on their relationship and how they help Bodhi I would be curious to read the rest of this series.

Curious to read the rest of this series and maybe see how Bodhi and Kimberly are doing.

This was an interesting perception into the rock star lifestyle as well as romance. They say don't get in a relationship in the first year of recovery, yet here we have Bodhi and Kim jumping right in, while he's still in rehab! Now, I will say, I've never seen anyone ruin their life over coke. Yes, if it turns to something harder, but it's like marijuana. People don't exactly rob banks to get it. It's cheap, easy, whatever. So, I felt that maybe we could have added something more in there, like alcohol or whatever. But, either way, we have Bodhi going to rehab, trying to fix his life, get his career back on track. Great, this is a new premise I haven't seen in a romance yet. I will say, this is not your average, happy happy romance. I like that it's dark, I like that it's dirty and screwed up. It was a fantastic read, and I honestly hope there's more in this series.