Rating: 3 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | All Romance | Amazon UK
Length: Novella
Silas’ dream is to be a famous guitarist. The night of his big break, a stage accident leaves his hand permanently damaged and he is no longer able to play. After a painful recovery, he now just marks time working as a technician in a sound studio.
When rock star Asher books the studio for an extended period of time, Silas is at first relieved for some more interesting work. After circling around each other, Asher and Silas realize they work well together and Asher’s muse is inspired. Their attraction builds, but Silas is still wrapped up in his own misery and pushes Asher away. Asher has limited dating experience, but maybe he can get Silas to let go and grab hold of some happiness.
Give me musicians and more specifically, a wounded, broken musician and that’s certainly a story that I will gravitate towards. The story here was an interesting premise, but ultimately it did not deliver for me.
The opening was interesting with Silas getting to play a concert with a famous rock star. It moves quickly at first as an accident severely burns his hand and he is no longer able to play guitar. The specifics of the accident are not clearly explained at all throughout the book. The book then moves ahead, the exact time is not specified, and Silas is depressed and just going through the motions in life. His hand is badly scarred and he is extremely self conscious about it. There is a comment made about Silas working so many hours because he needs the money. It is stated that his medical bills from the accident were taken care of and I questioned why there was no monetary payout for him as well.
When Asher comes along it gives Silas something else to focus on. Asher is blocked musically and the two men together get the creative juices flowing. We do not get to know much about Asher at all. The story primarily takes place in the studio over the course of a few weeks. I just was not feeling it between these guys and I kept waiting for something to happen as the story was slow and not all that interesting.
One of the main issues I had was the dialogue. The writing was choppy and lacked flow with awkward phrasing. There is a statement in the beginning of the book saying that since the story takes place in Boston, the book was written in American English. Many of their interactions did not capture how two American guys would converse, however, and there was phrasing that was not indicative of casual American conversation. Some phrases sounded like they had been awkwardly translated from another language. There is also an ex of Silas’ mentioned a few times throughout the book, but that story line was not fully developed. It was not stated until well into the book that this character was actually his ex.
This book is the start of a new series and Silas and Asher’s story will continue. As much as I enjoy a wounded musician story, there are better books to be found elsewhere.
