Reviewer: Tracy Steady StrokeSeries: Off Beat series #2
Publisher: Swerve, St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: September 6th 2016
Genres: Contemporary Romance, M/M
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Series Rating:
After a tragic accident, Lincoln West’s dreams of making it big as a guitarist fell apart. Unable to play music, he’s battling a hopeless downward spiral, and takes his friend’s offer to stay at their beach house for the summer. While at an open mike night at local bar Off Beat, he locks eyes with a busboy who doesn’t make Linc feel so broken anymore.
Emmett Westmore lives for the anonymity of busing tables in his aunt’s quirky bar where no one pities him for the fire that killed everyone he loved. He blames himself for the fire, and he doesn’t want anyone to see him—except for Linc. Emmett’s walls drop when he’s around the gorgeous blue-eyed guitarist, but he has a secret that could destroy his budding relationship with Linc.
Both Linc and Emmett are looking for a way to live again…will they let their fears control them or take a chance on something real?
Lincoln was in a horrible accident. He almost died but managed to put himself back together and move on with his life. Move on without music, that is. He was a guitarist but can’t play because every time he strums a guitar the vibrations cause a migraine headache. Music was his life and now he doesn’t have that, or anything else – according to him.
Lincoln is staying at Trey’s beach house for the summer and decides to go out to a local bar one night. He meets a friend, Melody, and also sees a bar back who he’s attracted to. Lincoln invites Emmett to lunch as friends and while Lincoln wants more Emmett just isn’t ready.
Emmett is living with his aunt Beatrice and working in her bar and has been since a fire killed his family. His parents were very religious and he feels that he’s betraying them by admitting he’s gay and wanting to be with a man. Linc, however, is making him want things more than ever and Linc finally makes him see that his parents would have wanted him to be happy, gay or straight. The pair become lovers and much more but when Emmett tells Linc a secret about himself it may tear the two apart.
This was a cute but somewhat slow book. I liked the premise and I liked Linc and Emmett together. I thought the pair of them worked so well together and their connection was pretty spot on. It was nice seeing some characters from book one and seeing where they were in their lives, as well.
The story started off well but then slowed down significantly in the middle of the book. That part was getting further into the relationship which was nice but didn’t make for great reading. It also had Linc working on playing the QChord which is an instrument that apparently sounds like a guitar but has no vibrations. It brought music back into Linc’s life which was fabulous but the practicing, etc. was sort of mundane.
Anyway, while I would consider this an ok book I didn’t feel it lived up to book one and that was a bit disappointing.
Rating: 2.5/3 out of 5
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