Beautiful Mess: Rock ‘n’ Ink, Book 2

Lane’s lush prose adds color to her second Rock ‘n’ Ink contemporary, brings depth to some otherwise flat characters, and freshens up a rather familiar plot. Straitlaced Portland lawyer Jami Dillon is ambushed by a run-in with her onetime guilty pleasure. Hoping to stop her brother, Mason, from throwing off the chains of respectability, she follows him to a tattoo parlor. Turns out that Mason’s ink artist and new best friend, Jackson Paige, aka Jax Pain, is also a jarring reminder of Jami’s debauched youth. From the moment she and Jackson lay eyes on each other, steam wafts off the page in memories of their highly charged college-years love affair. The heat ratchets up even more after Jami agrees to represent Jax’s heavy metal band and he begs her for more of what they once had. Opposites attract powerfully in this scorching tale. Agent: Cate Hart, Corvisiero Literary. (Mar.)