Taming the Storm

Opening for The Mighty Storm should have been the best night of her life, but what she found backstage tore her apart and almost her band... ten months later Lyla and the boys of Vintage are gearing up for their first tour, newly signed to TMS Records. For those ten months, Lyla has avoided men and sex - not willing to allow that kind of hurt and betrayal to touch her again, but when Tom Carter, man whore bass player of TMS, is announced as their fill in tour manager, avoiding one particular man might something that even the strong willed Lyla isn't capable of.Tom has spent most of his life getting lost in women, staying in the background harboring his own pain and coping in the only way he knew how. But when he sees his friend Jake ready to tumble down that same rabbit hole when Tru and their baby’s lives are at risk, Tom makes a promise to give up the women if God will spare their lives and in turn save not only them but Jake in the process.Tom had failed to land the beautiful Lyla twice before, sure there was always someone else close by to fill her spot, but Tom wasn't used to being turned down that just did not happen... EVER. Being stuck on a tour bus with her and the worst case of blue b@lls ever, they tip toe around their attraction and form an unlikely friendship. As they grow closer as friends, keeping their hands of each other becomes too much to bare and a deal is struck. After all, his promise to God was to end his streak of one-night stands with women he didn't care about... and for some reason he cares about Lyla.But as the tour comes to a close, Lyla has exposed every bit she's kept hidden to him and as for Tom, well not many really ever got to see the real Tom Carter - his secrets were his to hid and letting Lyla in is something he wasn't planning on. Letting her in is only going to lead to the past repeating itself and he saw the destruction of love can cause. One agreement, terms laid out, agreed upon led these two down a road that neither of them expected.Samantha Towle accomplished something huge with this book. Not just amazing writing and a fantastic story line that had enough twists to it to keep it feeling original, but something much larger than that. She took Tom, the wh0re of a bassist, and elevated him to a status of pure book boyfriend land that sort of left Jake in the dust. Yes, ladies - you heard that correctly. Jake who? Tom ended up being so much more than I expected him to be and between that eye-opener and the sexual tension that poured from these pages - I was a goner.Tension and angst... the lead up to this affair was pure torture of the best kind. Little moments of oh-so-close kept me on the edge of my seat while chanting in my head for them to just do it. Then when they do? Poof, p@nties gone. Tom is a h*llcat in bed - a machine of epic proportions. Then the tears, oh yeah... you can't get the tension, angst and that kind of explosive sex without shedding a few tears along the way. My heart plummeted and was left slowly beating on that sidewalk, even expecting that the pain wouldn't last forever - it was still all consuming. Throw in that this is our goodbye to the boys of The Mighty Storm, and yeah getting emotional is pretty easy.TMS was one of my early reads when I picked up the romance genre back in 2012. I was picking books at random to read without having much in the way of recommendations or connections built with fellow readers. This was also one of my first (if not the first) rock star romance reads ever and sort of kick started a little obsession with bad-boys with an affliction to groupies and poor decisions. Saying goodbye to this series is hard as a reader, but Samantha Towle gave us such great book to do it with.If you have not yet read this series you should question your sanity. In the first two books you get Jake & Tru's story. A second chance at love, childhood friends... reconnecting and a whole lot of a broken (hot) lead singer finding his way. Then in the final installment you get the guy that uses sex to escape his past until it all catches up to him once he meets his match. Check out this series, you will not be sorry.

Samantha Towle is a absolute rock star when it comes to writing hot romance. So it's really fitting that her series ,The Storm, about a rock band, is a best selling series. The latest, Taming the Storm, is Tom's story. I didn't even know I wanted to read Tom's story, because to be honest, he was not my favorite character-not by a long shot! Of course as soon as I learned the book was released this week, I immediately bought and read it, because the other two books were such wonderful reads. I must confess to be kinda a fan girl when it comes to rock romances; I am sure my unrequited love for the Beatles, Herman's Hermits, etc., might just have something to do with it! I know that is showing my age, but what can you do?Tom is what Lyla calls a Mut-also known as a man slut. Rock concerts, the groupies that have one night stands, and all that comes with it, is his life. Lyla is the lead singer of an up and coming group that is managed and produced by Jake's company. Jake was the main character, along with Pru, from the first two installments of this series. He's also a mega star in the rock world, along with Tom, another member of the group. When the manager of Lyla's group has to quit right before their first tour, Tom is given the job of tour manager-much to Lyla's dismay. He has been hitting on her and she has been declining for awhile now. Having him live on the bus with her for the next 6 weeks, is not her idea of the fun first tour she was anticipating.What I loved about this bookThe Writing. Anything, and I mean anything, by Samantha Towle is a can't put down book for me. She can pull every emotion from me, and to be honest I don't cry while reading, but this one had me as close to crying as I have been in a long time. She doesn't pull any punches and her writing is honest and well paced. I am not a fan of erotica. This book pretty much falls into that category, but it didn't bother me a bit-well maybe a smidge! After all, this is about Tom, and how could it have been any other way? It really couldn't.The Characters. I never thought I would put Tom in a like column for characters, and yet here is where I am putting him. Since we finally get his story, we finally understand why he is the way he is, so yes, I like Tom now. And Lyla was a no brainer to be put in this column. She's a great love interest for Tom, can give back as much as he gives, and is just an all around good heroine of a rock romance. The lesser characters were all well written as well. I really liked Lyla's best friend, Cale, and actually would love to see him get his own book some day. However, since this is the last book in the series, I doubt that will happen.The Premise. Famous womanizing rock star finally meeting his match? Oh yes, sign me up! And a heroine that really wants nothing to do with a Mut-even better. Loved this whole premise!And nothing falls into the didn't like column for me. Some of the sex scenes fall into WHOA! territory but for whatever reason, I just went with it, so no, nothing goes in this column.Who would I recommend this book to?Adults who likes hot,rock star romances, erotica or not, should appreciate this whole series.This series starts with Jake and Tru's story, The Mighty Storm, continues their story with Wethering the Storm, and finishes with this one. I would love to read more in this series, but I guess that's not happening. At this point, I have read all of Ms. Towle's books, starting with her Alexandra Jones paranormal series-which by the way I loved and would love to read the next in the series, whenever it comes out. You really can't go wrong with anything by Samantha Towle.(PureTextuality.com)

Tom is a liveable rogue but his tongue was a little too sharp at times, a classic defence mechanism but brought tears to my eyes knowing how it would cut deep and make Lyla feel. She’s so sweet and so guarded and untrusting in men; for her own very good, personal reasons. Tom’s story was lingering in the backfiring but not addresses at all, until the last minute, and what a background he’d had.Not as many appearances from The Mighty Storm crew as I’d have liked but nevertheless, still a fab story with great writing. I love this series.

A few years back I fell in love with Jake Wethers the sex on legs frontman of fictional rock band The Mighty Storm, the story of how he found love with his childhood friend Tru just blew me away, during the novels The Mighty Storm and Wethering the Storm we found out a little about some of the other members of the band, Denny, Smith and the most notorious man whore that is Tom Carter, the bass player who is a total player every hour of every day, the man is powered by Duracell, he is constantly on the go and I am not talking about just walking about.This book is about him, can the most unlikeable member of The Mighty Storm worm his way in to our Jake Wether clad hearts? Yes he can, the rat!Lyla Summers has sworn off men, ever since she found her brother in a comprising position with her boyfriend, yes thats right her boyfriend, she has tossed them all to one side and concentrates on her up and coming band Vintage.Vintage are signed to Jake Wethers record label and the story starts with them about to go on tour, at the last minute disaster strikes and their manager is unable to make the tour but Jake comes to the rescue with a new manager, one with a lot of experience in the music industry and also a close personal friend of his - Tom.Tom's abysmal ladies man reputation does procede him but Lyla and the other members of Vintage have to go with it, this tour is going to help them become stars. From the get go Tom is a total flirt trying his best to get his way in to Lyla's good books and pants but she is having none of it. But can he prove to her that he is not all bad and can Tom finally come to realise that there is more to life than different city different woman/women!Taming the Storm is a steamy hot read, Lyla is given the nickname Firecracker by Tom and she does live up to it but she is vulnerable at the same time, her attraction to Tom is driving her mad and she does not want to just become a notch on his considerable bed post but as things start to get hot and heavy she realises that this man no matter how bad he has been in the past might just be the one for her.Samantha Towle hits the nail on the head again with this the final book in the Storm series, Tom always struck me as a total dick to be honest but this story has shown him in a totally different light and we have also found out a bit more about his back story and why he is the way he is.A fantastic hot and steamy read!Taming the Storm is awarded 5 out of 5

This is the fabulous 3rd instalment to The Storm series.I'm so glad Tom got his own book. Tom is the bass guitar player in TMS, his ego is as big as the band he's in ! He's a real player but he's also really funny and charming, you can't help but love him. Also loved Lyla's character too, she's sassy and funny too. She's sworn off men and love and definitely Tom ! But thrown together for six weeks, can they resist each other, can Lyla resist the biggest 'mut' of all ?This is a sweet, funny, sexy and a little emotional read. Had me laughing out loud a few times then feeling a little sad towards the end. And the sexy scenes are HOT, Tom is a real dirty talker, which I love.Absolutely loving this series, I recommend you read them all. Brilliantly written by Samantha Towle :-) 5 fat stars *****

A great read, it takes off after the events of Wethering the Storm and it does so brilliantly. It's written in a slightly different style to the previous books, in that it is written from the alternate POVs of Tom and Lyla, we get a great insight into Tom and he is not exactly what we were led to expect from the previous books.What to say without spoilers? There was sexual tension, angst, moments when you wanted to say just do it already. The sex scenes were HOT and although there were several they weren't too repetitive which can be a problem for writers, they emphasised the chemistry between the two.This book can be read as a stand alone but if you haven't read The Mighty Storm or Wethering the Storm, I would recommend you read them first as they are better in my opinion and also this book does contain some spoilers for the first two books, so it does make sense to do it in order.I would re-read this book as I did love Tom. I am eagerly awaiting more by Samantha Towle.

I have read all the books in this series and this one was very good but it was lacking in some parts. I would have liked more of Tom's point of view as there was only a few chapters with his thoughts as most of the story was from Lyla's point of view. It would have been nice to read about how Tom was feeling when he broke up with Lyla but you only got her point of view. Also I was disappointed that Lyla didn't put up more of a fight with Tom after he had treated her so badly and she just seemed to go back with him too easily which made her seem weak. I would have liked her to have given him more of a chase and let him work harder to get her back. That was a total let down. But the good points were that it was a good solid story with lots of great sex! I loved all the other books too in this series and I'm sad it has come to an end. I was hoping we would have got to know more about the other band members.