Reviewed by Annika
TITLE: Beat of their Own Drum 
SERIES: Replay #3
AUTHOR: K.M. Neuhold
NARRATOR: Kenneth Obi
PUBLISHER: Self-Published
RELEASE DATE: April 3, 2019
LENGTH: 8 hours, 32 minutes
BLURB:
Jude
Every rock band needs their bad boy, right? That’s me. Hookers, drugs, DUIs— been there, done that. I’m in a Downward Spiral and proud of it (see what I did there?). When the band manager, Archer, hires Bennett to keep me from screwing up while the band is on hiatus, I may have finally met someone who won’t take my attitude lying down. With the three of us cooped up together for weeks on end, I have a feeling things might get interesting.
Archer
Downward Spiral is my baby. Not only am I the band manager, I discovered them ten years ago when they were nothing but a bunch of high school kids playing in a hole in the wall bar on the weekends. But it’s obvious I haven’t done a great job because they’re falling apart. If the lead singer isn’t trying to kill himself, it’s the bass player telling me he can’t write any new songs. And no one gets under my skin more than Jude, who seems determined to snort and drink himself into an early grave. There’s only one man I can think of who might be able to get Jude back on the right track, Bennett Schmitt. Unfortunately, he’s also the man I let get away sixteen years ago and haven’t gotten over since.
Bennett
If there’s one thing I know how to do, it’s taking control of a situation. In fact, control is kind of my thing. Which is probably why I’m the best in the business when it comes to getting out of control celebrities back on track. When my ex calls and tells me he’s desperate for my help, I can’t turn him down. Between the infuriatingly sexy drummer with no idea what kind of trouble he’s asking for, and my ex looking better than ever, there’s no way this isn’t about to get messy.
REVIEW:
I’m a fan of the Replay series and I’ve been wanting to read this story since I listened to the first book. I love a well written polyamorous book, the navigation of a poly-relationship fascinates me. But I’m also picky about the kind of poly relationship I enjoy reading about. I need the participants to be equals in that relationship, equally important, equally loved, all being seen, no one left out. So I just had to know how Jude, Archer and Bennett would make it all work.
On the one hand I really liked this story – at least on the surface. I enjoyed how Bennett “handled” Jude, that he got him and what he needed. That Bennett and Archer finally was together again. How they all worked together as a whole, completing each other. That they all had their place and part in the relationship.
But looking more deeply there are quite a few things that are lacking for me. It all felt a bit too easy to believable, but that’s also something I can easily live with. What I had a harder time with was that I felt like Jude’s drug addiction was more of a plot device rather than part of who he was. In the beginning of the book Jude was tripping, desperate for one more hit, nose bleeding, not caring about anyone or anything – least of all himself. In short he was a mess. Then, enter Bennett and addiction and craving was magically gone, barely any mention what so ever – only to reappear to cause some minor drama in the end of the book.
And for those of you that like a little kink in your reads, this book will surely make you happy. It’s much dirtier than the others, and not only because of the D/S relationship between Ben and Jude, or the daddy kink, but also the amount of hot and heavy sex scenes. It wasn’t my cup of tea, but I know that it will speak to many readers with much dirtier hearts than mine 😉
That’s also another thing that didn’t quite work for me. I felt like the relationship, the feelings between the three men were shoved aside for sex. More than once they said they would talk about how their relationship would work, the next step. They made such a big deal about honesty and sharing their thoughts etc, but the next minute they were in the living room fucking. Not really the productive kind of talk I was looking for. For me it made their relationship lack depth.
My favourite part of this book might just be Kenneth Obi’s narration (Colour me shocked). He narrated the hell out of this book. He captured all three of our main characters perfectly, the gruff and bossy Bennett, the gentler, but still controlling Archer and the out of control Jude. They have all distinct voices and Obi clearly shows that. Jude’s playfulness and insecurities comes out clearly. I loved the accent for Archer. I also loved the feelings Obi added to the situations, he made you feel – in a good way and I would gladly have listened to him for many more hours.
RATING: 
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