This review may contain spoilers, so fair warning, upon reading the review. Also my tags may have spoilers in them so be forewarned before checking out full review.

Book Evaluation:
Plot: 🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️
World Building:🌎🌎🌎🌎
Cover:📔📔📔📔📔
Hero: 🦸🏻🦸🏻🦸🏻🦸🏻
Heroine:🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️
Intimacy Level: 🔥🔥🔥
Relationship Building: 💒💒💒💒
Heart & Feels:💞💞💞💞💞
Witty/Banter/Reaction of Laughter: 😂😂😂😂
Page Turner Level:📖📖📖📖📖
Narration:🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧
Ending:🧧🧧🧧🧧🧧
Overall View: ✨✨✨✨✨


First Impressions
Painful is the male POV version that matches up with "Effortless" and this is a much longer story and has more details to the story for part two of their saga. And for me this version was definitely leagues better than "Effortless". This isn't saying that I didn't love Effortless, because I definitely loved it way more than the first book, but there is something that just delivers so much more for me when it comes to seeing Kellan's POV. And especially since in this book, our heroine and hero are doing a long distance relationship so I do think reading both POV was truly essential and his POV is like 100 pages longer so there is much more details in it that you don't see in Effortless.

First Line
The summer sun pounded on me as I waited in the backstage area with my bandmates, Evan, Matt and Griffin.

The Main Protagonists
The Hero: Kellan
The Heroine: Kiera

Summary
Kellan Kyle has everything he could have dreamed of....his band is becoming more and more lit, he finally has the love of his life and he is rebuilding his friendship with Denny. But then things get even more interesting when his band is offered a position on our multi rock band tour. At first he doesn't want to leave Kiera as things are just starting to be good for them. But he can't put his relationship above the dreams of his brothers. So with the encouragement of Kiera, he goes on tour but while on tour he has to face the torments of his past and dealing with the anxiety of fearing losing her while on tour. But Kellan will have to learn the value of trust and the lack of it could cost him everything...

What I Loved
Painful was a gorgeous story that I couldn't put down. I was so on edge and didn't want to put this one down. I loved seeing Kellan's POV story, and it really had so many more details than what Effortless contained. We also get to see Kellan's bonds to his band mates, seeing his torments that happen dealing with his PTSD from his childhood, the fear of losing Kiera and having to face up to some uncomfortable emotions that he isn't used to facing. We also get to see more sides to Griffin lol And I am finally on Team Griffin (it took a while but it happened, he made me swoon) and also the HUMOR in this book just had me laughing all over the place. Especially the ketchup scene and Griffin and Anna's reveal in the end.

What I Struggled With
The one issue I had with the story here was some of the angst between the couple. I get that some aspects were needed, I just didn't truly understand his fear of not communicating with her for so long.

Narration
Brilliant!!!! The voice was dreamy and really captured the essence of Kellan just right.

Overall View
Painful was a charming, emotionally driven story that keeps you on your toes and will dig deep on your emotions.

Book Details (also in my shelves)
Sub Genre: Contemporary Romance, New Adult
Character Types: Rock Stars, Musician
Themes: Angsty, Heart/Emotionally Touching, Musical, Big Tomes
Tropes: Epic Love

Book Perspective
1st POV-Male POV

Relationship Conflict vs Plot Conflict
Relationship

If you like these authors, I recommend This Book
K. Bromberg
J. Bengtsson
Emma Chase

Recommendation For Reading Order
Yes --please read this series in order
Thoughtless=Thoughtful
Effortless=Painful
Reckless=Wonderful
Untamed

Steam/Spice Explanations

Simmering cup of tea---soft warm touches and light intimacy
Warmin' by the fire- a medium level of sexual tension, a balance of sexual and emotional intimacy, lighter on the details in the sexual moments.
Steamin' up the room -the sexual content is more explicit in the language and tone, heavier amount of sexual scenes.
Blazing fire to the building-The prime focus is the sex scenes, scorching hot, and could burn one. Less focus on the emotional intimacy to the relationship.

Narrators:
J.F. Harding