Two For One: Rock and A Hard Place - Snapshot by Anne Stanton

So, I'm doing a two for one review this time around because this two books are linked, the both belong to the Jamieson Collection.

The Deal:
In Rock and A Hard Place we meet the Jamieson brothers, who are in a musical band together. They are super famous and constantly touring the country with their parents. Their mom likes to stop every once in a while and do family things, like having a picnic.

Is during one such stops that one of the brothers, Peter (the musical genius of the family), meets Libby. Libby's life was turned upside down when her family got into this really bad car crash and she was sent to live with an aunt while her father recuperated. So now she's stuck in a little town in the middle of nowhere and the only thing that keeps her sane is staring at the high way while waiting for her dad to show up, and trying to avoid her paranoid aunt as much as possible.

Meeting Peter is the first normal thing that has happened to her in forever, and so is for Peter... until fame and family intervene...

The second book Snapshot, is about Adam, probably the most childish of the Jamieson brothers and it follows him as he goes undercover in a regular high school and meets Marti. Marti is rock and roll royalty, as the daughter of a very famous rock star, but she hates everything related to rock music, and all she wants is the normal life she has made for herself next to her grandmother.

Yet, she is very drawn to Adam, who is hiding just how deep "in the business" he is, even if sometimes he wishes he weren't, as he's growing tired of a micromanaged life and constant touring.

Marti and Adam enjoy their time together, until said time grinds to a halt due to a tragedy.

My Thoughts: 
There were two reasons why I decided to combine the reviews for these two books: a) they do go hand in had, and I read them back to back; and b) the things that work and that don't work in each book are basically the same.

First, lets get the bad stuff out of the way: While I was reading both Rock and a Hard Place and Snap shot I could help comparing the Jamieson's band to the Jonas brothers. My mind just kept going there, I couldn't help it. Plus, from how their music was described, I didn't get the sense it was very rock and roll. Again, it had that Jonas brothers vibe that it just couldn't shake off.

Second, well, there were times where the characters sounded a lot younger than they were supposed to be. For example, when I started to read Rock and a Hard Place, I thought Libby and Peter were like 12, rather than 17.

Now the stuff that works: both stories are very easy to read and the characters can be quite likable. Both stories kind of have the same narrative structure - couple meets, fall in love at first sight, tragedy strikes, couple is torn apart and then brought back together - and when you read them back to back that becomes really obvious, but I didn't mind too much.

All in all, both stories were pretty harmless and they were okay. They didn't really stand out for me but I had a good time while I was reading them. And I am a bit intrigued about the last brother.

(for both)