Reviewed by: Taylor
Series: Boston Boys #3
Author: Erica Pike
Publisher: MLR Press
Pages: 259
Blurb:
Twenty-three year old Jasper Jones fell in love with Dean McQueen at fourteen, but after a disastrous relationship, Jazz would like nothing better than to see the rock star choke on his own vomit.
After a catastrophic reunion, Dean seems bent on destroying Jazz’s life. It all started when an impromptu bar performance ended up on YouTube and Jazz became an internet sensation overnight. The name “Jazdean” keeps popping up in headlines and the paparazzi stalk his every move. To make matters worse, Jazz is about to end up on the streets for the second time in his life.
In a desperate attempt to keep his home, Jazz signs a deal with Dean’s band, Black Hurricane, to perform at a couple of concerts. It feels like one of Dean’s feeble attempts to get Jazz back, but painted into a corner like he is, Jazz has no choice.
Note: Can be read as a standalone
Review:
This book totally surprised me, in the best ways possible. OK, so I love books where on some level the two characters are enemies. I usually like musician stories as long as there is some grit or edge to the story. I love reunited lovers, especially when there are remembered high school sweet moments. I’m a sucker for some well-placed manipulation on my feelings. Annnnnd, this book had it all! Woot!
Jasper Jones is a beautiful 23 yr old bartender sleeping indiscriminately and never going beyond one night stands except in very rare cases to move them up to ‘fuck buddies’. He’s been in love with Dean McQueen since he was just a teenage boy when his heart was shattered so badly he barely recovered. Dean has moved far away from their high-school fling and is now the front man for the band, Black Hurricane. It’s been somewhere around 10 years since they’ve seen each other, and old resentments and formed ideas of the past resurface once reunited.
Why worked for me is that Jasper and Dean had such different ideas of what was happening between them as teenagers. The reader only gets Jasper’s POV and I felt so much emotion for him as he remembered moments between them. The flowers, the orange candy, their first time. I might be a sap to some degree as I tried to deny I was sniffling a bit. Jasper feels used and worn out after they parted and between them lots of mistrust and miscommunication issues regularly surface when the two are in the same room, or even just thinking about what to do on the present situation. The reader also struggles like Jasper as to whether there is some manipulation going on in the ways Dean tries to woo Jasper back. He comes across so perfect, so determined that you want to melt in a puddle of goo, but you hope you can trust him.
The tension is HOT. Gahhhhh, stupid hot. Right from the beginning I felt the chemistry, but the moment I really felt like the author wrote two beautiful, believable characters is in the hotel and Jasper looks down at Dean. That indecisiveness and flood of emotion both felt was pretty mind-blowing and that’s fairly early on in the book! So many teases, so much lust, so much anger and pain when they interact and I wanted to spray myself with water like Blanche Devereaux in Golden Girls LOL.
Also, throughout the book, the author wrote a ton of cute moments that showed how Jasper and Dean connected but moved the plot on smoothly. From a duet sing off at a bar, to concerts and music videos together; the reader experiences everything right along with Jasper and his friends.
Such a FUN book with two characters I ADORE. I love, love, love these two and feel almost protective of them, especially my bb Jasper. I still can’t think of those high school memories without a few happy smiles mixed with a few sad tears for him.
Highly recommended!!! Side note: I think this book is by far the best in the series, but I enjoyed the other ones as well.