The Beat by D.J. Manly
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The blurb…..
The beat of love doesn’t always move every drummer in the same way…
The members of Frenzied Water, an up-and-coming rock band, can’t believe their luck when Frank Harold, former drummer for Heirloom, the most famous group on the planet, enters the studio and offers to be their new percussionist. And Johnny, Frenzied Water’s front man, never expects that his feelings for Frank will grow to the point where he needs to know the reason Frank left Heirloom for a less popular group.
One night, after a few drinks with Johnny, Frank finally confesses the reason he left Heirloom–a love affair-gone-wrong with his former vocalist. With the truth out, Johnny believes he has a chance with the sexy drummer if only he can convince Frank to leave the past behind and give their blossoming love a try.
Then a miracle happens, one that Johnny suspects may be more calculated than it appears. His band is invited to be the opening act on Heirloom’s American tour. It’s a dream for a rock group struggling for recognition, but a personal nightmare for Johnny, who wishes Frank as far away from his former lead singer as possible.
But Johnny is not the only one dreading this tour, and when a snowstorm in Denver traps Johnny, Frank, and two members of Heirloom together in a cabin, there will be no escape…
So what did I think?
This is another one of those books for which I have mixed feelings.
I love a good story about rock stars, there’s just something so yummy about those singers, drummers, keyboardists and guitarists! This book didn’t let me down in terms of the characters. The leads and secondary characters were great.
The story started really well. It was a nice play on the theme of letting a broken heart stand in the way of finding true happiness with some hot sex thrown in!
There was one particular incident where the four men had sex together (this is not a spoiler as the blurb/classification states menage and m/m/m) that detracted from the story for me. I lost a little respect for Johnny and Frank both as the romantic in me wanted them (and only them) to be together.
The story would have benefited from being a full length novel. This for two reasons. The first reason would be to allow for greater plot development as part of the story, particularly the end confrontation with Johnny and Frank, felt to rushed. The second reason was the price of the book. I might just be stingy but I read this book in about 30 minutes. Ok, so AU$3.20 might only be the cost of cup of coffee, but Amazon didn’t list page numbers so I had no idea it was only a short story. I wanted more!
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