REVIEW by Amber
TITLE: Fret
SERIES: The Rock #1
AUTHOR: Sandrine Gasq-Dion
PUBLISHER: Self Pub
LENGTH: 232 pages
BLURB:
Former Navy SEAL Axel Blaze lives a solitary life. He doesn’t do emotions, and he doesn’t do babysitting. Used to being on his own, his job consists of Wetwork (a charming term coined by the KGB) for his former Master Chief, Mac. When an out-of-the-ordinary job lands on his doorstep, Axel heads down a path that includes a famous heavy metal rock band and one quiet, vulnerable, guitar-shredding virtuoso named Gareth Wolf.
Gareth Wolf’s life changed in an instant when a car he was a passenger in crashed, hurting his brother’s best friend and the band’s lead guitarist. They created the band, Skull Blasters, as kids. Gareth had always been happy in the background, playing roadie. With the lead guitarist’s injury, Gareth is suddenly thrust into the limelight and into a frenzied life he never imagined for himself. Finally fed up with living a lie, Gareth comes out as gay in a newspaper interview and finds himself in the bulls-eye of a crazed stalker. Somebody wants Gareth hurt – or worse – and Mac has been hired to be sure that doesn’t happen. Babysitting duty is NOT Axel’s strong suit, but Mac won’t be budged.
Enter Axel Blaze. Against his better judgment, the big man takes the job to protect the shy musician. The more time he spends with Gareth Wolf, the more he admires the man. Where’s a simple assassination when you need one? The situation becomes more volatile for each man as the attempts on Gareth escalate just as Axel finds himself falling for the quiet lead guitarist.
Strong, funny, smart-ass — and kinda sweet Axel is everything Gareth has ever wanted in a man. Too bad he’s off limits. As the stalker grows bolder, Gareth and Axel move closer emotionally – but is it too late? All Axel knows is that they don’t stand a chance if he can’t find the maniac trying to kill the man he’s come to care about. A lot.
Everyone knows that relationships that begin in pressured or volatile situations eventually fizzle out. Or do they?
REVIEW:
This one was a little cheesy for me. Everything seemed a little too overdone, if you know what I mean. For instance, the characters names: Axel Blaze, Ransom Fox, Jinx Jett, Harley Payne, Rebel Stryker??? It kind of made you want to roll your eyes. Even though the reasoning behind the names is valid, it still made it all seem a but silly. Another thing that was a bit of a letdown was the predictability of the story. You know exactly how the romance is going to develop and you can pretty much pinpoint the bad guy from a mile away. Another thing that kept taking me out of the story was the editing and writing. This was surprising because I’ve read other stories by this author and never really had an issue.
But with that said, I didn’t hate the story. Yes, it was cheesy and predictable but I thought it was an ok read. I liked it because it delivered what it said it would. We have a muscle bound ex-military/assassin who is crabby and cold who falls for a quiet, seemingly sweet/innocent accidental rock star. These two are hot together the sexual tension and build up is almost better than the actual sex. Their anger and irritation of each other basically turns into this explosive passion that is a turn on to read, but there could have been more of those scenes, for sure.
This is a mystery so I don’t want to give too much away but like I said, overall this one was ok for me. I didn’t hate it and I definitely didn’t love it. I don’t know if I’d be interested in any more of the books in the series.
RATING: 
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