Reviewed by Vicki

 

TITLE: Fever Pitch

SERIES: Love Lessons #2

AUTHOR: Heidi Cullinan

PUBLISHER: Samhain Publishing

LENGTH: estimated 339 pages

BLURB:

Sometimes you have to play love by ear.

 

Aaron Seavers is a pathetic mess, and he knows it. He lives in terror of incurring his father’s wrath and disappointing his mother, and he can’t stop dithering about where to go to college—with fall term only weeks away. Ditched by a friend at a miserable summer farewell party, all he can do is get drunk in the laundry room and regret he was ever born. Until a geeky-cute classmate lifts his spirits, leaving him confident of two things: his sexual orientation, and where he’s headed to school.

 

Giles Mulder can’t wait to get the hell out of Oak Grove, Minnesota, and off to college, where he plans to play his violin and figure out what he wants to be when he grows up. But when Aaron appears on campus, memories of hometown hazing threaten what he’d hoped would be his haven. As the semester wears on, their attraction crescendos from double-cautious to a rich, swelling chord. But if more than one set of controlling parents have their way, the music of their love could come to a shattering end.

 

Warning: Contains showmances, bad parenting, Walter Lucas, and a cappella.

 

REVIEW:

Holy crap, these boys are driving me nuts! I review as I read, I’m 1/3 of the way through this book and I want to shake them! Actually I want to lock them in a room and force them to talk. I find so often that characters in books just need to talk, and everything would be solved. Of course the book would have been over after five chapters and I do NOT want that. Cause it is amazing!

 

Heidi’s blurb gives a good description of Giles and Aaron. They are both creative, sweet, confused, wierd, somewhat geeky boys that are perfect for each other. Unfortunately it’s taking them forever to figure that out. They have a rough start, a bit of a one night stand, and it sets off a life changing chain of events. They end up at the same college together. Aaron hasn’t picked a school yet, by late June when they have their encounter and Giles mentions where he’s going. After his post sex freak out is over, Aaron decides to go to the same college so he can reconnect with Giles, instead of putting on his big boy panties and contacting him via Facebook before just showing up. Giles is not as excited to see Aaron as Aaron expects, and assumes Aaron is going to be an ass and treat him badly. Giles is struggling to settle in to college life after having had a crappy high school experience, only to have it be the same. Of course it isn’t, it’s really all his attitude and interpretation that is off.

So they ignore each other for a loooong time. They are stupid boys! But each is having an interesting college experience. Aaron is struggling between doing what he thinks will make his dad happy, and doing what will make him happy. Giles knows what he wants to do, but also acknowledges that a music degree won’t get him a paycheck. They both need music but can’t see how to make it work. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your perspective, they are both involved in the music department and are circling closer and closer. They are both drawn to the same project, creating a women’s chorale group.

 

There is a lot going on in this book. There is the romance that eventually starts up between Giles and Aaron, it is lovely to watch. They go through quite a process before the end. It’s not just the two of them, but a whole community within the school, namely the music department. I am not in to this type of music, choirs, chorales, orchestras, I do love music but I am a rock and roll girl. I don’t care for Glee, and I don’t get musicals. This book has lots about the music program in a college, there is lots of spontaneous singing and playing. Just about the point I was getting tired of it, I got it. I got the love these kids have for music, for performing, the sense of community, creativity and enjoyment they get from it. I mean, in theory I get it, but I can’t totally since I’m not there. Not sure that makes any sense or not! So lots of music, but it creates this awesome family for these boys. Just when they needed it most. Back to the plot. There is the romance, but there is this whole nasty drama thing with Aarons crappy parents that absolutely broke my heart. Close your eyes, here’s a little bit of a spoiler, but I do NOT understand how any parent could throw away a child. I don’t get it. It hurt me to read. But Aaron gets a whole new family. Holy crap does he. I loved it. Adding to this mess is Elijah, Aarons asshole roommate, who turns out to have bigger parental issues than Aaron. I’d love to see his whole story.

 

Then we have Walter and Kelly from Love Lessons. At first Walter just appears, at the law firm Aaron’s father works at, and makes Aaron work at. Oh, there’s Walter, he chats up Aaron a bit, then he’s gone. But he is SOOOO not gone. He’s a hero later on. He plays a huge part in this story, and the scene at the end that is all about Walter and Kelly made me cry and laugh. So damn sweet! My initial thought was that Heidi just popped him in there to tie the two books together, I am ashamed I didn’t trust that she had a purpose for him!

 

I have been reading gay romance for a while now, and I have sub genres I like and don’t like. I have read a bunch of college age stories, or New Adult as it seems to be called now, with mixed opinions. They are fun, but I find they tend to be repetitive and shallow. Boys being boys, sex, instant love, blah blah blah, happily ever after. I like them, but I got bored and have been staying away for the last couple of years. Until I read Love Lessons when it came out. Every author that wants to write a book about college age boys should read Love Lessons and Fever Pitch. This is how you do it. Longer stories, deep characters, real issues, drama and pain. With love and a happy ending. I am not a gay college student, I barely went to a local community college so have nothing to base my opinion on, but these books seem realistic to me. I can see these stories happening. I can see young men away from home for the first time having these experiences. Dealing with budding sexuality, hormones, and questions, loneliness, and friendships. Learning how to live with a room mate who is very different from you, or even very similar. Add in the stress of trying to gain an education with the hope for a job at the end, and you have the potential for drama. This book has the fun fluffy part, the love and the sex exploration between two young men, but it has so much more. It is a bad-ass, strong, incredible, dramatic, angsty, heartbreaking, inspirational, amazing, story, that happens to have two college students in it.

 

After finishing Fever Pitch I don’t think I’ll ever read a New Adult book by anyone but Heidi Cullinan. Her writing is perfection.

 

Here is my review of Love Lessons, the first book in this series:

 

RATING:

 

BUY LINKS:

Samhain publishing

Amazon

Amazon.uk