Broken RecordsRating: 4.5 stars
Buy Link:
Amazon | All Romance | Amazon UK
Length: Novel


Nico is an up and coming stylist in demand. A successful business is what he wanted, but the stress, the clients, and the late night Hollywood lifestyle are all getting to him. He dates, but there hasn’t been anyone truly special and he still dreams about something more.

When country music star, Grady, asks Nico to style him, Nico is hesitant for a number of reasons. Grady is gorgeous and, as far as the tabloids are concerned, he is also a player. Nico can’t resist the man or the opportunity and after one photo shoot he finds himself in Nashville with Grady. Nico tries to resist but the attraction is too strong and the men realize they could truly be a good fit. But with Nico’s life in Hollywood and Grady’s life on the road, it’s certainly not easy to begin a relationship and Nico has to decide if he can handle being front page gossip.

Broken Records was utterly enjoyable. It’s wordy and descriptive, has a specific flow to the phrasing, and manages to be both poetic and dirty. It was the book that I could just sit and read effortlessly page after page.

Nico’s career is going great as he styles some of the hottest celebrities. He loves his work for the most part, but he’s completely exhausted. He sees a magazine shoot of Grady just moments before the man enters his office unexpectedly and that’s about all it takes for them both to fall hard and fast.

When these guys first get together, Nico tries to resist. There is the distance for one thing and there is the matter of the tabloids exploiting Grady for being seen with numerous dates, both male and female, with one female singer in a more regular rotation. Then there is also the matter of Nico’s self esteem. He styles the hottest celebrities, yet he wears his own clothes as armor secretly thinking he is not good enough. But when he first gets his hands on Grady, Nico knows immediately that it’s different as he thinks back to previous relationships.

He brings home a date he’s gotten comfortable with over time, serves red wine in fragile stemmed glasses, folds down the sheets and makes gentle satisfying love….

“What do you want?” he’ll usually say, lip-bitten nervous and coy.

Not, “Fuck, you’re so hot….”

This is what Grady Dawson has reduced Nico to: starving, debauched, on his knees, shaking apart with raw desire.

The focus of the story is solely on the relationship and in this case it’s enough just to watch two guys fall in love. The guys spend lots of time exploring each other. The tension and turmoil comes from within themselves, mostly from Nico. He runs at the first negative comment made to him and continues to spook easily. The guys get to a point where they have to figure out if they can make it work and how to handle their careers, the travel, and the obsessive internet fans. But, instead of having even one conversation about it, Nico takes off yet again and the men try to work out separately how to fit into each other’s lives and I pondered if this was the best approach.

While Grady’s early years are discussed, his current life and tabloid rumors are not addressed much. He is shown as one of the good guys, visiting sick children in the hospital and spending time with fans, but his point of view is not in the forefront. Although we are slightly led in a certain direction regarding his personal life, I would have liked to have gotten a little more solid information on this aspect of his life to be able to know him better and there were a few areas that I was looking for a little more.

Time passes quickly in this book much like life. The entire book has a dream-like quality that flows and ripples and it’s the atmosphere of the book that stayed with me after the last page. In addition to all of that, this book has entertaining inner dialogue, all nighters, flavored condoms, M&Ms, laughter, and love. Even better is that this is the start of a series and I am definitely ready for more.

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