ARC Review: MESS ME UP by Lani Lynn Vale

When Rome Pierce moved to Bear Bottom, Texas, it was his intention to lay low. To not be seen. To find a way to heal his body and soul—as well as his son’s.

Nobody would know by looking at him that he used to play professional football. Not with the Bear Bottom MC cut covering his back, and definitely not with his friendly smile completely obliterated.

No longer is there charm in each smooth word that comes out of his mouth. What’s left is an angry, bitter, scared man that’s terrified one day he’s going to wake up and his entire world is going to be gone.

Nobody knows what drove him to leave the game he loved—nobody but her.

She’s the one person that has helped him make it through the dark days and even darker nights. She’s the bright and shining star in his pitch-black sky.

And he doesn’t even know her name.

He should be afraid that she knows things that not anyone—not even his best friend—knows.

Yet, with each encounter, he gives what little bit of his soul remains, and before he knows it only two people on this earth—one dying, and one too afraid to live—make his life worth living.

Until one day he has to choose—the love of his life, or the life he brought into this world.

Two impossible situations. One decision that would change him forever.

Goodreads | Amazon

Review

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I knew right from the start that Mess Me Up was really going to mess me up. And it did. After everything I learned about Rome in Tyler's book, Too Bad So Sad, I knew that his story was going to try to break me. And it tried really hard. The beginning of this book made me smile so hard and cry so desperately.

I was a mess! Rome's story was at once incredibly sad and incredibly heartwarming. While it devastated my heart, it also found a way to soothe it. It was full of hope and pain and heartbreak and loss and suffering and so much freaking love that it sometimes didn't know what to do with itself. This story ran the gamut of emotions and if you feel nothing after reading it...

On to the characters themselves...
Rome was a retired NFL player who recently joined the Bear Bottom Guardians MC. During a time he needed someone in his corner the most, his brothers were there for him to lean on. What he didn't count on was sweet, selfless Isadora. She was the type of woman no one could resist. She was easy to love and although she was no stranger to pain and loss, she still gave so much of herself and she had such a huge heart. In the midst of the greatest kind of heartache, Rome and Isadora found each other.

I haven't read an LLV book that I didn't love and this one quickly became one of my favorites. One of the things I love about her books, as I told one of my daughters when she demanded to know why I keep buying them, is that she creates realistic characters and puts them in realistic situations. Everything isn't sunshine and rainbows because that's just not how life works. Real life is full of hope and dreams and inspiration and love, but also full of pain and hurt and suffering and grief. I truly believe that she captured all of that when she created this beautiful tale for Rome and Isadora. And that's why I'm so in love with this book!

With an intriguing cast of secondary characters, I can't wait to get my hands on the next book in the series, Talkin' Trash, which releases October 2nd!!!

Release: 09.06.2018 | Genre: Contemporary Romance | Dual POV - 1st person | Heat: 3.5 | Standalone - Bear Bottom Guardians MC #1