Reviewed by Stephen K
TITLE: The Drumbeat of His Heart
AUTHOR: M.C. Roth
PUBLISHER: Pride Publishing
LENGTH: 246 Pages
RELEASE DATE: July 20th 2021
BLURB:
A brush with death delivers Ian into Trent’s life, but there’s more to Ian than he shares—a hidden life, a hidden career and secrets that may tear them apart.
When Trent is almost hit by a swerving Corvette, he has no idea that the driver will change his life forever.
Freezing cold and soaked, Trent pulls the strikingly attractive Ian from the wreckage. Ian is everything Trent has been looking for in a man—beautiful, sexy—and he needs a place to stay for the weekend.
Trent is out and proud, and he prays he can keep his hands to himself with the gorgeous man under his roof. But Ian is the one who follows Trent into the shower, shows him things that Trent never imagined and takes the final thread of Trent’s virginity.
After a weekend of passion, Trent finds himself falling for Ian, even though they live a country apart. But there is more to Ian than what he says. A hidden life, a hidden career and more lies than Trent can imagine.
Ian’s secrets may tear their hearts to pieces—or transform their desires into something more.
Reader advisory: This book contains scenes involving drug use and homophobia. There are references to an alcohol problem, public sex and voyeurism.
REVIEW:
Trent is a bit of a loser. He’s a techno-nerd of sorts that lives in a rural town in Ontario, owns a tiny teacup of a house, three chickens and works as a tech support guy at a local company. He’s also the kind of guy that wears sandals outside on cold days and gets drenched when a speeding car barrels through a puddle too near him. That car proceeds to wipe out and Trent is soon rescuing a 6’6” guy from the car, inviting him home until the guy’s car can be repaired and ends up sharing a shower with the guy.
After four days of pretty well detailed sex, Trent’s fireball of a mother invades their little hideaway and makes them breakfast. Thereafter, Trent’s romance and (for me at least) this book falls apart. Ian discovers one of his band’s CDs in Trent’s possession, assumes he’s a rabid groupie who’s lied to him and storms out.
The Canadian techno-nerd meet rock musician story had me intrigued. But, I didn’t feel the chemistry beyond their first meeting. We didn’t get enough of a backstory on either guy to really care all that much about their relationship. We didn’t see any more of the incredible zany mother. Heck we even saw very little of the too-precious chickens.
My skepticism about a successful rock drummer being worried about coming out of the closet in this day and age made connecting with this story difficult. Also, Ian’s impoverished circumstances were touched on several times but never really explained. It seems to me that someone who’s employed full time (even if its only tech support) wouldn’t be living as limited a life as Trent appeared to be. Their reunion at a concert didn’t seem all that inspired to me, and the paparazzi-fueled fight that breaks out over an untrue story just felt contrived.
This is an m/m romance. The guys do end up together in what’s at least a HFN ending. But by that point, they’d lost me. I kinda felt that both guys might have done better with somebody else. This story wasn’t terrible. There were none of my hot button pet peeves present. But I can’t give this book any more than a middle of the road rating.
RATING: 
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