🎧 Reviewed by LD | Rating: 4.1/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥
⚠️ This is a full spoiler review. If you haven’t read Deep yet — go read it first. We’ll be here when you’re done.
The Opening
Ben Nicholson is the quiet one. The private one. The one who keeps his walls so high that even the people closest to him can’t see over them. Lizzy Rollins has had a crush on him for years and has spent most of that time being categorized as off-limits. Then Vegas happens, a pregnancy test comes back positive, and suddenly the most emotionally unavailable man in rock music has to figure out how to show up for someone other than himself.
The Full Story — Spoilers Included
How It Started
The backstory begins back in book two, when Ann and Mal invite Lizzy to band practice. The girls get drunk that night, and Ev deliberately leaves her phone unlocked so Lizzy can grab Ben’s number. What follows is months of texting — Lizzy initiating at first, and then, gradually, Ben starting to reach out too. A friendship builds entirely through screens, which in hindsight says everything about who Ben is.
The night Ben goes on his date with Lena — which readers of Lead will recognize immediately — Lizzy tells him she’s going out with friends. He shows up at the bar anyway, unhappy about the number of men around her or that she is even out at all, takes her home, and they talk. Something is clearly there. Neither of them does anything about it.
Then comes Ann and Mal’s Vegas wedding. Mal gifts Lizzy a car for her twenty-first birthday. Lizzy goes out to celebrate. And then Ben hunts her down bar by bar, finds a man getting too close, physically removes him from the situation in full caveman mode, and fireman-carries her back to her room against her protests. She has, by this point, basically given up on anything ever happening between them. And then it does.
Except immediately after, Mal calls Ben to check in, and Ben tells him he returned Lizzy to her room and is out partying. That Lizzy isn’t his type. That he’s not interested in her.
While she is lying right next to him.
She kicks him out. This was obviously hurtful to her.
The Pregnancy
Back in the present, Lizzy discovers she’s pregnant and plans to tell Ben at a party that night. He shows up with a date — something he never does. While she’s still processing that, Ben’s date- a naturopath looks between Lizzy and Lena and deduces that both women are pregnant, based on theri recent mystery illnesses. Lena didn’t know yet. The chaos that follows — Lizzy confirming her pregnancy to Ben, Lena processing her own surprise, and Mal realizing Ben slept with Lizzy after he explicitly asked him to stay away from her — is a lot happening at once and is honestly one of the most entertaining sequences in the whole series.
Mal goes after Ben. They fight. The rift between them is the hardest part of this book — two people who have been through everything together, genuinely at odds, because of choices Ben made that he knew were going to land exactly here.
Ben shows up at Lizzy’s place drunk that same night and tells her he never wanted kids. Never wanted to settle down. In the morning he denies saying it, then sys he didn’t mean any of it. It stays with her through the entire book.
On Tour
Lizzy ends up convinced to go on tour, initially staying with her sister and eventually, staying in Ben’s suite while he’s barely there. They communicate almost entirely by text, even when they’re in the same building. Jimmy eventually calls Ben out directly — he’s going to appointments with Lena, showing up, being present, and Ben hasn’t done any of it. When was the last time he actually talked to Lizzy? What exactly is he doing?
That’s the push Ben needs to try building something real. They develop a friendship. He convinces her to keep staying in his suite. But since he is so distant, basically avoiding her, she decides it’s time to go home. He gets jealous watching her talk to another man, goes full caveman again, she shuts it down, and in the middle of all of it he finally admits he only brought a date to that party because he thought she was bringing one. He was jealous. He’s been jealous for a long time.
He asks for another chance. She tells him she doesn’t trust him. He starts actually opening up. He tells her he’d like to be her boyfriend. She says she’d like that too. and they start dating. They are taking it slow
Martha
Martha
Ben’s sister Martha shows up at his suite with no idea about Lizzy or the pregnancy. When she finds out, she freaks out — and Lizzy feels like she’s going to have to defend herself. Sam steps in before it gets there. He calls Ben, then asks Martha for a word, and tells her plainly to stop being stupid, to stop pushing her brother away, and to recognize that Lizzy actually makes him happy. Lizzy is listening from the other side of the door the entire time. Sam clocks her immediately and calls her out for it, which is genuinely funny. Martha seemingly backs off and the situation diffuses.
But it isn’t over.
Later, when they’re all out at supper together, Martha shows up and thrusts papers in Lizzy’s face — a document waiving any claim to Ben’s money, contingent on a paternity test before he would pay child support. She makes sure Lizzy knows these were Ben’s idea. Lizzy signs them without hesitation, which visibly shocks Martha. Then she takes the fact that the papers even existed as proof that Ben doesn’t really trust her. He insists he does. She asks why he’d have had them drawn up if that were true.
Lizzy tells her sister she’s leaving tomorrow, waits for her to go to the concert, and tries to leave that night. She doesn’t make it far. Vaughn, one of the opening band members, intercepts her and takes her to the stadium instead.
Ben has something to say in front of the crowd. He tells her he loves her. That if she still needs to get on that plane tonight, he’s getting on it with her.
Time jumps forward. Lizzy is delivering their baby. Ben proposes right after their son is born. They eventually get married for real, surrounded by the whole Stage Dive family.
Best Part of This Book
The double pregnancy reveal. Lizzy knowing, Lena not knowing yet, Ben’s date clocking both of them at the same time, and the absolute chaos that followed — Mal finding out, the fight, all of it happening at once. It’s the most Stage Dive thing that has ever happened in this series and I loved every second of it.
Worst Part of This Book
The rift between Ben and Mal. These two have been through everything together, and watching that friendship fracture because of choices Ben knew were going to blow up — it’s genuinely hard to sit with. The angst in this book is real, and a lot of it comes from watching Lizzy spend so much time chasing someone who keeps pulling away, gets pregnant, and then reaches a point where she simply can’t keep doing it anymore.
The Steam Rating Breakdown
🔥🔥🔥 — Present throughout but the emotional tension does most of the heavy lifting. Content warnings for an unplanned pregnancy, family estrangement, and a hero who takes a frustratingly long time to get out of his own way.
The Ending — Satisfied or Disappointed?
Satisfied. The stadium confession is earned — not because it’s a grand gesture, but because of everything it cost Ben to get there. And Ben proposing in the delivery room is exactly the kind of chaotic, imperfect, completely them moment this book deserved.
Would I Reread It?
Yes — already have.
The Twist We Didn’t See Coming
Ben being the one texting during his date with Lena in book three — and finding out in book four that it was Lizzy on the other end. That detail retroactively reframes that whole scene and it’s a nice payoff for readers who have been with this series from the start.
Who Is This For
Readers who love an angsty slow burn where the hero’s damage is specific, painful, and takes real work to overcome. Anyone who has been reading this series from book one and wants to see the whole Stage Dive family land somewhere good. Just know going in that this one earns its happy ending the hard way.
Where to Get
📖 Physical Book
Amazon
📱 Ebook
Amazon | Bookshop.org
🎁 New to Audible? Get 3 months free (US)
🎁 New to Libro.fm? Get 2 free audiobooks
More from the Stage Dive Series
Book 1 — Lick | Reviewed by LD | ⭐ 4.1/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥 — [Read the Review]
Book 2 — Play | Reviewed by LD | ⭐ 4.7/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥 — [Read the Review]
Book 3 — Lead | Reviewed by LD | ⭐ 4.6/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥 — [Read the Review]
Book 4 — Deep | Reviewed by LD | ⭐ 4.1/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥 — [Read the Review]
Series Review | Reviewed by LD | ⭐ 5/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥 — [Read the Review]
Ready for more from LD? Find them here