Genre: Contemporary, Rock ‘n Roll
LGBTQ+ Category: MM Gay
Reviewer: Linda, Paranormal Romance Guild
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About The Book
One street touched a thousand lives and sent two boys in opposite directions.
For Reid Mackenzie, Street of Dreams offers hope for a better life and a chance to share his music with the world. For Jake King, it reinforces his life of crime and the ties to a city that empowers him.
They were two boys, growing up side by side in the same neighborhood, but their lives couldn’t be more different. Mac comes from a humble Scottish family and dreams of the stage and the day he has enough money to escape Chicago’s South Side. Jake knows he’ll never leave. The impoverished city, and his notorious father, have a hold on him that won’t let go.
Circumstances force them to carry on their relationship in private, until it explodes in the worst way. With the will of a warrior, Jake vows he’ll do whatever he has to in order for them to be together, no matter how brutal the consequences.
This is a story of courage, kilts, and second chances.
Street of Dreams is the fourth book in the multi-author Road to Rocktoberfest series. Each book can be read as a standalone, but why not stay and enjoy the whole show? If you like scorching tales of hot rock stars and the men who love them, then you’ll adore the untamed musicians of Rocktoberfest!
The Review
Reid MacKenzie and Jake King grew up on the Southside of Chicago, one dreaming of the day he can get out, and one knowing that he never will.
Reid (Mac) MacKenzie’s parents came from Scotland, bought a pub and are very happy living in Chicago’s Southside. Mac is a musician and songwriter who hopes to one day make it, but now he works part-time at the pub and plays and sings on the Street of Dreams wearing a kilt. The kilt is quite an attention getter, so he does pretty well. It is his best friend Skyler who will be instrumental in his success, handing out flyers, calling clubs and making CDs with Mac’s newest song.
Jake rules the neighborhood, and like the others on the Street of Dreams, Mac pays him for protection. Since they were kids, Jake has always been in Mac’s face, and they have come to blows on more than one occasion, but Mac doesn’t back down.
Jake and his twin brothers are always together, but it is their father Bruce who is the neighborhood gangster and deals in guns. Jake runs numbers and make collections and the last thing he wants is to deal with guns like his father.
When I began reading this book, Jake was not my favorite character. In fact, I did not like him at all. Then we got Jake’s story: a brutal, abusive father; a mom who was an addict and died leaving behind Jake; the twins and little boy Ben. Jake’s sole purpose is to protect his brothers and make sure that eight year old Ben has nothing to do with the family business. I am not going into all the details of his life, but I went from not liking him to loving him.
In spite of how Jake treats him, Mac has always had feelings for him ,but Jake is not someone you just go up to and announce something like that. An alley, a dumpster and a young man is all it would take to start a relationship with Jake and Mac, a relationship that is dangerous if Bruce finds out. But their feelings for each other just grow, and for the first time in his life, Jake has someone he can be himself with and trust.
As I mentioned before, Skyler kept herself busy trying to promote Mac, and she did an absolutely amazing job of it. She got him jobs singing in clubs, and before long, Mac’s dream is becoming a reality. Mac is popular, selling out at each club until people began to recognize him, and before a record producer knows it, he has a money winner. I am leaving out so much of the story because, although his finding success seems great, it comes with a whole load of heartache.
Each of the previous books highlighted a different group and a different front man, and their objective was to make it to Rocktoberfest. In this book, everything revolves around Mac and Jake, and Rocktoberfest was secondary. But of all the books, this was my favorite. The characters had so much to overcome in their lives – the Southside of Chicago is a very dangerous area, and one never knows what violence might break out at any given time. Jake was a part of that violent life, and Mac always saw his life there as temporary.
I can’t recommend this book highly enough – a story of overcoming the odds, a story of never giving up and a story of love. Five stars.
The Reviewer
I am an avid reader the mother of 3 sons and grandmother to seven grandchildren. Since retiring I have been doing more reading while volunteering as a CASA worker. CASA is an organization that works with the family court system to ensure that children are in the best living situation. There are way too many children that get overlooked in the foster care system and I visit homes and make visits to the parents. I was born and raised in New York and my husband of 50 years and I live in Upstate New York.
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