Jail House Rock

So not long ago, I reviewed Pain by Amanda Mackey and it was one of my favorite new finds. Now that Mackey has a new book out, I was jumping to review. Her new book is called Defending Jagger and no it doesn’t have anything to do with Mick Jagger…

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Heat Level: ♥♥♥♥

Overall Rating: 5/6 Glass Slippers

One of the first things that you need to know is that Jagger is his first name. Second, he is in jail for murdering his father. Third, he loves his brother, who has down syndrome, more than anyone in the world. They were abused by their alcoholic throughout their life. Now, all he can do is write about it in his ridiculous creative writing classes at the jail. There is just one problem… the teacher.

Rosalind, Rose, is a creative writing teacher who wants to save her students in any way she can. She believes that when the prisoners express themselves, they can feel a kind of release. But when she stares at Jagger, Rose wants a completely different kind of release. It is more than that though. She reads his writing and realizes his deep dark secret that convinces her that Jagger is innocent.

Despite his constant threats and his intimidating form, Rosalind begins the journey of trying to exonerate him. But what happens if he doesn’t want to get out. Will he spurn her help? Is he willing to risk the most important relationship to him? Or will Rose ruin everything because she insists that she knows what’s best?

I studied criminal justice in college so I am always a fan of anything looking at the criminal justice system. At the same time, it totally hurts my soul that it was so corrupt. I know that is a reality sometimes but it still makes me sad.

One of the things that I thought Mackey did well was the writing exercises. Not only is this book in dual point of view, but she also has different written assignments from the prisoners. But none of the writing styles are the same. The writing assignments differ from the types of voices, and the narrative writing in the book. I had no problem telling the points of views apart or differentiating between the different writing styles. I give Mackey a lot of credit because I, for sure, would have gotten myself confused.

So what didn’t I like? I thought that Rose was kidding herself for a while. She maintained that she wanted to help Jagger because of a need to right an injustice. But it seemed to me that she wanted to help him because she was attracted to him and didn’t want to believe he was a criminal. This was a little annoying to me. However, it didn’t deter me from liking Rose. She did mean well.

The first half of this book goes down with almost no sexual interaction at all. Jagger is in jail so it’s not like they have a whole lot of opportunities to go at it. But the language is still a little vulgar and when things do happen, it gets a lot more vulgar. This seems to be Mackey’s writing style and I think she does it well without going too far.

You should consider this book but beware of your facial expressions! Someone is going to know exactly what you’re reading if you don’t keep it under control.