Reviewed by Sarina
TITLE: Purgatory
SERIES: Heaven Sent #2
AUTHOR: Jet Mykles
PUBLISHER: Loose Id
LENGTH: 141 pages
RELEASE DATE: July 25, 2006
BLURB:
Lucas Sloane defines beautiful for Reese. Tall and sleek with gorgeous red hair and deep, dark eyes to drown in, it’s no wonder that the famous bass player is the hero of many a starry-eyed teenager’s dreams. Reese used to be one of those teens. Back when Heaven Sent was no more than the house band for the local club, Purgatory. Back then, it was easy to get to know Luc. To become friends with him. Somehow, Reese found the courage to take heart in hand and confess his love to Luc… only to be soundly rejected. Luc wasn’t gay. Not long after, Heaven Sent left town and skyrocketed into rock and roll stardom. Now, six years later, Luc is back in town for a visit and more gorgeous than ever. Surprisingly, he not only apologizes for his treatment of Reese years ago, he comes onto him. Seems Luc’s discovered the pleasures of being with a man and wants to know what it’d be like between the two of them. But Reese can’t. He just can’t. He lives the straight and narrow. He teaches high school. He’s got a girlfriend. He has a normal life. He can’t be gay. Of course, it’s really very hard to deny the man who’s defined everything beautiful in Reese’s artistic mind. Okay. No one has to know about it, right?
REVIEW:
Luc and Reese used to be friends but that was before. Before Heaven Sent made it big and became famous and before Reese made the mistake of telling Luc that he loved him. Now, six years later, Reese’s sister is getting married and the members of Heaven Sent are in town attending as guests. Reese is less than thrilled to see Luc again after their last disastrous meeting but when Luc surprisingly apologizes and then makes a pass at his former friend, well, things go from confusing to complicated in a heartbeat. Despite being in love with Luc, however, Reese doesn’t feel he belongs with the rock star and if Luc is serious about wanting to be with Reese, he’ll have to do more than show him how good he is in bed.
I have a fondness for books that feature musicians and while there was less actual band stuff featured in this book, I still enjoyed it. It took a lot of guts for Reese to confess his feelings for Luc and I felt horrible when things went wrong. I really liked the fact that Luc actually apologized for his actions instead of pretending the entire mess never happened and it was nice to see him pursuing Reese instead of Reese continuing with the one sided attraction. It was also interesting to see how Reese went from saying he was gay to claiming he wasn’t while Luc went from claiming he was straight and then coming to grips with being bisexual. I do wish I could’ve gotten Luc’s perspective on things instead of the entire thing being from Reese’s point of view, however, as it would’ve given a better balance to the book, I think.
Events did move fairly quickly but the pacing was pretty on point for a book of this size so I was okay with that. There was one part of the book I didn’t care for and that was near the end where Luc was trying to convince Reese to quit his job and come with him. I can understand Luc’s motivations and why he did what he did but things were handled badly and, even when Reese forgives him, it felt as though things were left unfinished. I like that Luc still came back for Reese when all was said and done but I don’t have the same sense of closure with this book as I did with the first of the series. This was still a nice afternoon’s diversion and I’ll most likely continue with the rest of the series. If you enjoy books featuring musicians and would like a fairly low angst read, you might want to check this one out.
RATING: 
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