Reviewed by Vicki
TITLE: Beneath the Stain Part 5
AUTHOR: Amy Lane
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 95 pages
BLURB:
Mackey is great at taking a leap of faith into a crowd—but taking one into a relationship and a future is a totally different animal. When he and Trav decide to take a risk that Mackey’s healing can hold up to them together, they know it’s going to be a long, difficult road. Mackey proves he can handle the stress of performing on his own, but when it comes to the demons that broke him in the first place, that’s a whole other song. The first time Mackey tries to go home, it sends him into a palm-sweating, stomach-heaving anxiety attack, and Trav has to concede that Mackey is still on loan from the things that almost wrecked him when he was still a kid. When news arrives that affects the entire band, Mackey can either go home and face his demons, or let them haunt them forever.
REVIEW:
Holy crap. There we go…. This is what I come to expect from Amy Lane. Drama and trauma.
This part starts of fairly innocent, things are going well for Mackey and Trav on a personal level. Mackey and Blake have managed to stay clean and sober, the whole band has supported them. They have all settled in to their home together, Mackey sneaking his way in to Trav’s room even. Cohabitating, calm, easy. They are getting their collective shit together, putting out a new CD, doing a practice run for a festival, and getting ready for a tour. Some chaos occurs around the show, Trav is gone and Mackey just about loses his way, but he keeps it together and is fine. They get past some Christmas excitement and another near miss, and Trav puts the horrible little shit Cheever in his place. We also get a fantastic new character, a girl! Briony is a great addition to this bizarre little family. If you know Amy at all, she closely resembles Amy’s older daughter….
But not all is good in Outbreak Monkey Land.
I really really want to say what happens, but I won’t! Big bad shit happens, it’s awful, it may well destroy Mackey. And the extra part at the end about broke my heart. I so wanted to be mad at the person in it, but I can’t hate him now. Dammit.
I was getting complacent after the last part, the first couple had some good drama, then part 4 was calmer. Still good, don’t get me wrong, but it was the calm before the storm, I was suspecting we would see an increase in the angst-o-meter, and we got a red line with this one. Oh, and one of the hottest sex scenes I’ve read in a while. Woof! Mackey and Trav, I get so wound up in there drama that I forget they are damn fine together in the bedroom. Or dressing room.
If you aren’t reading this book, you are making a huge mistake. Go back and get the first parts and catch up.
Here are my reviews of the first four parts:
RATING: 
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