Consumed by Emily Snow

"Now that Lucas has declared his love for her, Sienna is sure the drama between them is over.

She’s not afraid of Lucas’s ex-wife or whatever secret the other woman is holding over him. For two blissful days—the remainder of Sienna’s contract with Lucas—they hole up in a vacation house in the mountains of Tennessee, consuming each other. At the end of their stay, Lucas comes to Sienna with a proposition: his band, Your Toxic Sequel, is going on tour with Wicked Lambs, and he wants her with him the entire time. Sienna agrees to work wardrobe and be his official girl.

Life on the road is different from anything Sienna has ever known. Not only does she have to deal with Lucas’s band members, but she’s also forced to be around Cilla, the lead singer of Wicked Lambs, who’s clearly in love with Lucas. Despite horny band mates and a persistent gorgeous rock goddess determined to sink her claws into Lucas, Sienna stays by his side.

Then the threats start.

Lucas’s ex-wife Sam isn’t happy that he’s moved on, and Sam begins harassing Sienna—everything from threatening emails to phone calls and even fake accounts on Your Toxic Sequel message boards slamming her and spreading vicious rumors. Sienna keeps this from Lucas since she knows how bad Sam is for his music.

It’s not until Sienna is attacked by a crazed YTS fan hired by Sam, and Sam starts to aim her verbal threats at Sienna’s grandmother, that Lucas finally reveals his secret. And it’s a big one." (Description from Goodreads.com)

Devoured is the first in this series by Emily Snow. I discovered Devoured sometime last year on Amazon.com as a suggestion to read. You know, "If you like this, try that book too" suggestion. I think I might even have picked it up for $0.99. Of course, I feel in love with the book. Bad boy rocker with tattoo's and good girl Sienna trying to save the family home. What's not to love? The term "Google is your friend" came from here as well. What resonated with me throughout book one was how Sienna found her inner voice to stand up for herself. It was fun to watch her grow as a character.

So, fast forward a year later. Fans had LOVED this series so much Emily Snow became a New York Times Best Seller. As is usually the case, she was picked up by a mainstream publisher. Here's where things get a little tricky. The thing fans love most about their indie author's is how much interaction we get from them by Facebook, Twitter, newsletters, etc. Indie author's seem to have social media down and understand that fans are what's helping them live their dreams as an author. Now, saying that, I'm not putting down mainstream author's. I love them as well. And some mainstream author's also have social media down with their fans. But what you seem to get with Indie author's is the extras. Extra scenes from different character's POV, extra snippets into the character's personalities, extra interviews as the characters. Those extras seem to create a cult following, including myself.

When Snow was picked up, book two--Consumed, was pushed back for editing and whatnot. Companies have to look at their bottom line and if they see a quarter that's going to need more help on the bottom line, they'll move a book to balance it out. Consumed was moved several times to the fist shaking of the fans and maybe Snow herself. Which is, I think, a lesson the mainstream companies need to learn. Don't piss off the fan base. Honestly! One move date, OK. But four different dates and then a "who knows", not acceptable. Fans support the book business by buying books, indie or mainstream. And it always seems to be the author's that have to deal with the brunt of a bad deal.

Which brings us back to present. Snow decided to take back the rights to Consumed and produce it herself. I don't know if she was just as mad as the fans but taking back the rights to one's book can become a very hairy mess with lots of lawyers involved. Once I heard this, I thought we would never see the book to my sad disappointment. So, you can only imagine my surprise when I was on Facebook and saw that she posted Consumed was live. I might have done a little dance and then proceed to download it right away. I since learned that the link had been taken down. I don't know why but I suspect it was legal stuff involved. The cover has since changed from what I posted above as well.

I'm sure you're wondering where the actual review is of the book. Here goes...of course, I LOVED it. The story gives both POVs from Sienna and Lucas. It was nice to see a maturing of Lucas with his relationship with Sienna and his friendships in the band. We learn that there was a strain in Savor Your by Snow. Watching Lucas work for his relationships was also nice and hearing his thought process gave a lot more to the story so you understood what was going on from his side. In Devoured, we're left wondering at times but having his POV really rounded out the story. Lucas did have some truly swoon worthy moments.

Of course there was drama, drama, drama in the names of Cilla and Sam. Those two ladies and all sorts of crazy. We also learned more about Sinjin and got to see a lot more of him. I wasn't the hugest Sinjin fan in the first book but after reading more in book two, I look forward to reading Sinjin's own story.

Finally, Lucas secret. It's big, huge even. What's more important, he almost, almost let it break him but finally told Sienna what it is. How and why he told Sienna was another story. As a reader, you wish he just came out with it but you also understand why he waited. As for the ending, I was left wanting more. Especially because of the crazy thing that happened. I felt like I was feeling exactly what Lucas was feeling, that we're never going to truly get all of the answers from what motivated a certain character.

I also wanted to post about the drama of Snow getting this book online because I find it to be a valuable lesson for the mainstream seller as well and the consumer. Make sure you support your favorite author's with buys or checking them out at the library. Both count and help an author. More importantly, don't get mad at the author when deadlines change. It's hard to forget that not every author has the JK Rowling power. Most don't even get to choose their covers for books. I love both mainstream and indie author's. I view supporting indie author's is like shopping in your hometown stores instead of the big box retailers. I like to do both and support to economy on all ends. As well as visit the library for my free books.

We're hoping to have this book in the library collection one day. Until then, you can find Consumed through the following link: http://emilysnowbooks.blogspot.com/p/where-to-find-consumed.html

Devoured if the first book in the series and can be found at both the library and retailers. Snow also has done an amazing job of providing fans with other stories in this world. If you like Devoured, make sure to check out the other stories as well. They're well worth the read!