Genre: Contemporary, Rock ‘n Roll
LGBTQ+ Category: Gay
Reviewer: Ulysses, Paranormal Romance Guild
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About The Book
‘Pretending to be a straight man was bad enough. Pretending to be a straight man pretending to be gay was doing my head in…’
Rock star Jed Lemmon is having a bit of a mid-life crisis. He can’t write new songs, his record sales are down, and his overly-controlling manager Hinchcliffe is convinced his career is on the rocks. On top of that, he’s gay, but has never dared tell his manager. With only best friend Suzy for company, he’s lonely, depressed, and drinking and smoking too much. And then Hinchcliffe comes up with a bombshell – Jed needs to pretend he’s gay to target the pink pound.
Enter Simon, a gorgeous lead singer Hinchcliffe has found to escort Jed around town, to get the rumour mills buzzing and generate more record sales. No problem, right? Wrong! Simon may be Jed’s idea of the perfect man, but the course of true love has rarely run less smooth.
For starters, Jed has no idea if Simon is gay. Second, he isn’t at all sure he’s ready to come out anyway. Coming third in a lookalike contest of himself doesn’t exactly help. Then Suzy is hurt in a fire at his palatial home, and Simon’s stranded on route to a gig after someone steals his car. Over-awed by his manager, Jed perseveres with the plan, but Simon’s clearly hiding something. Is Hinchcliffe orchestrating the whole thing for his own ends? Who, if anyone, should Jed trust?
Throughout the chaos Jed struggles to rediscover his musical creativity while clinging onto his sanity. In the end, though, his greatest challenge is learning how to stop being a famous rock star long enough to just be himself. For that, he and Simon are going to have to set aside their differences and discover how to trust each other again.
The Review
A charming and funny novella, expanded from a short story, and a good thing, too. Fiona Glass builds the characters of Jed Lemmon and Simon Hudson up carefully, and while she doesn’t waste time triggering their relationship, she does take great pains to let the reader understand the feelings involved and where they come from.
Jed is a forty-five-year-old rock star, rather introverted for such a profession. Dragged out of a rough life at seventeen by manager Michael Hinchecliffe, Jed has let the older man pretty much run things the whole time. Hinchecliffe has made Jed rich and famous, which pretty much leaves Jed to live his life the way he wants to. This involves quite a lot of drinking and plenty of cigarettes. His only fast friend is his childhood pal Suzy.
Worried by Jed’s slumping numbers and sales, Hinchecliffe devises a plan to have Jed pretend to be gay, thus drawing a whole new audience—gay men. The irony here is that Jed is gay, and has just been in the closet his entire career. The idea of intentionally doing what he’s been afraid to do all these years is—no surprise—disquieting.
What makes his manager’s plan more palatable is Simon, the young man presented to Jed as his pretend boyfriend. Now this is a familiar ploy from other m/m romances, but in this case Simon is both eager and willing, having been a fan of Jed’s for a good long time. Right away, we know Simon is a good guy.
So, the obvious question is: what could possibly go wrong? Well, one major thing goes wrong; but generally speaking, things actually seem to be working. What the author does to make this oddly straightforward story emotionally powerful is to focus on Jed’s own emotional turmoil. Jed’s psyche seems to be mostly rooted in his unhappy childhood, which haunts him more than he thinks it does. Add to that his general lack of interest in the realities of his own career (when he’s on stage, he’s all there, but otherwise he’s happy to be alone), and you have a story of personal awakening that is surprisingly satisfying.
Jed’s not a hot mess. He just doesn’t want trouble. Of course, trouble comes for you if you’re not paying attention. As Jed figures out, Simon Hudson is the blessing in disguise he didn’t realize he needed, and vice versa.
5 Stars.
The Reviewer
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