Reviewed by Kimberley
TITLE: Country Soul
AUTHOR: Remmy Duchene
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 133 pages
RELEASE DATE: February 17, 2016
BLURB:
Jackson Rawlings loves music; in fact, making music has been something he’s always wanted to do. After his confession to homosexuality, his record label forced him out and after his latest world tour, he decided to give it all up. It breaks his heart to think of never doing music again but he just feels so broken.
Marques Lopez is a music exec who knows a good thing and a good man when he hears and sees them; and boy is Jackson Rawlings a good thing. But how is he supposed to put Jackson together again when he’s been broken so many times?
REVIEW:
Jackson Rawlings, a country music artist pushed out of his record label for being gay, felt that he had to give up his love, his passion, which is music. Instead of fighting for what he loves, what has driven him all of his life, he decides to bow out and go home. This is where Marquez Lopez finds him.
Marquez Lopez, a music executive with his own recording label, decides to find him and make him fight for what he wants. At first it appears that he’s doing it because of the money, but as you continue with the story you realize that Marquez truly believes in Jackson and he’s pissed off that someone as talented as Jackson Rawlings was dropped from his record label because of his sexuality. Marquez tracks Jackson down and pushes him back into the industry that he loves. He felt that Jackson was way too talented to just quit. It’s this determination that I admired about Marquez’s character. He was determined to show Jackson’s old record label how their homophobia cost them a major talent in the music industry. His strength gave Jackson the strength he needed to really fight back against his old record label and to get him back into the music game.
I liked how the story played out. The author always manage to have the perfect balance of angst and romance. There would be some who complain about the story having too much sweet but when you’re writing romance, that’s what it supposed to be about. I happen to like the fact that she doesn’t draw out the angst or have too much drama in her books. Drama and angst is good to a point but I lose interest when it’s long and drawn out.
Duchene’s books are simply about men who meet and fall in love. Yes, there are issues between these men, but they’re recognized, worked through and resolved quickly. This allows the rest of the story to concentrate on the couple developing their relationship into something that’s lasting.
As always, I enjoy reading her books because I feel that she is one of the very few authors who go out of her way to feature characters of color in ALL of her work. I like the fact that she has this drive to include and represent all colors of the LGBT community in her books and I wish that more authors in this particular genre would do this. Everyone wants to see themselves represented and to have their stories told.
Duchene has decided to step up and do that for us.
RATING: 
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