black goldRating: 4.5 stars
Buy Links: 
 Amazon | All Romance
Length: Novel


“Which celebrity would I fuck if I could fuck anyone I wanted? … Goldie.”  -Jett Black

Billie “Goldie” Goldean is a mega rock star, beloved around the world, and practically leading his own music empire. Though he is gorgeous and oozes sex appeal, he is also squeaky clean. In fact, no one even knows he is gay.  Jett Black, on the other hand, is a punk wild child.  He says whatever he thinks, behaves however he wants, sleeps with every hot woman he meets, and lives the hard life of a rock star. He is popular and well known, but nothing on the scale of the global sensation that is Goldie. Despite their apparent differences though, when Jett is asked who he would like to sleep with during a magazine interview, the first person he thinks of is Goldie.

What unites them is that both men are frustrated with the direction of their careers.  Goldie is tired of being packaged and managed and controlled.  He leads an empire of people dependent upon him and all he wants to do is just break free of the structure and enjoy making his music.  And Jett is constantly pressured by his other band mates to sell out, to focus on giving the fans and the industry what they want instead of the music he wants to make.  As the face of the band, they want him to pander to the industry execs in hopes of getting them more exposure.

When the two meet unexpectedly at an industry party, sparks fly between them. They have both been harboring an attraction to one another that they finally let free.  And they let free emotionally as well, each sparking the other to cut loose of the chains that are binding them in a place they don’t want to be, and to take a chance on each other.  They couldn’t be more different, but they both seem to want the same thing: freedom to make the music that they love, and each other. But changing their lives means pushing back against the industry, the media, and former friends who want the status quo.  And Goldie and Jett must stick together as their love grows to try and build what they really want together.

So after last year’s Rock Star Week, you all probably know what a fan I am of rocker books. For some reason, even though this one is a couple of years old, I had never read it. But when the sequel came out, I picked up both books.  This was a really interesting spin on the rock star story.  It really focuses on being true to yourself and what you want out of life.  Both Goldie and Jett are sort of trapped, their careers going to places they don’t really want but neither quite sure how to stop it.  And one day, they just blow their lives out of the water and start fresh.  It was sort of cathartic to read about these guys who basically say, to hell with it, and do what they really want, even though they know there will be fall out.  At the same time, they find themselves bonded together in this process, and unexpectedly falling for one another.

I loved the way this relationship develops.  Jett just throws out there in Rolling Stone magazine that he wants to sleep with Goldie and suddenly the world is talking about it.  When the media catches on that these guys are together, no one can believe it.  Goldie is a media darling, and so managed by his people that he is treated half the time like a commodity and the other half like a child. I had sort of a giggle that after Goldie is all swollen lipped and hickeyed up from their first sexual encounter, everyone thinks Jett has attacked Goldie and kidnapped him.  No one sees him as a real man and not just as a beautiful object, except for Jett. In fact, Goldie has barely had any real sexual experience prior to being with Jett.  So I loved the dynamic between them and seeing Goldie come into his own sexuality.  I also loved that although Jett has never been with a man before (or even considered it), he has about zero concern that he is attracted to Goldie.  He basically says, well if my heart and my dick want it, who am I to question?  I sort of loved that we skip all that angst about suddenly wanting a man, and it is just a total non-issue for him.

Now I will say this book is heavy on the instalove.  These guys jump into an emotional connection really quickly and in a matter of what seemed like days were professing their love.  Now I get that they were in an extreme situation, and the bond they created by suddenly turning their lives upside down together means that emotions are much more heightened than usual.  So I was willing to mostly give a pass to the quick lovey-doveyness that we get here.  But if instalove is a pet peeve, this may make you a bit nuts.

So this was a fun story and I really enjoyed it a lot.  I loved Goldie, and even Jett grew on me a lot (though he is still pretty immature throughout the story). But it was sweet and mushy (and sexy) and I loved the bond between these guys.  It is a bit of a fantasy, to suddenly and dramatically change your life, and it was fun to read about how they created a whole new wonderful world for themselves together. It may have been a bit smooth sailing, but it was a lot of fun to read.

Cover Review: Rock stars and a P.L. Nunn cover? Be still my heart…