Reviewed by Sadonna

TITLE:  String Theory

AUTHORS:  Ashlyn Kane and Morgan James

PUBLISHER:  Dreamspinner Press

LENGTH:  307 pages

RELEASE DATE:  June 29, 2021

BLURB:

For Jax Hall, all-but-dissertation in mathematics, slinging drinks and serenading patrons at a piano bar is the perfect remedy for months of pandemic anxiety. He doesn’t expect to end up improvising on stage with pop violinist Aria Darvish, but the attraction that sparks between them? That’s a mathematical certainty. If he can get Ari to act on it, even better.

Ari hasn’t written a note, and his album deadline is looming. Then he meets Jax, and suddenly he can’t stop the music. But Ari doesn’t know how to interpret Jax’s flirting—is making him a drink called Sex with the Bartender a serious overture?

Jax jumps in with both feet, the only way he knows how. Ari is wonderful, and Jax loves having a partner who’s on the same page. But Ari’s struggles with his parents’ expectations, and Jax’s with the wounds of his past, threaten to unbalance an otherwise perfect equation. Can they prove their double act has merit, or does it only work in theory?

REVIEW:

Jax Hall is a PhD candidate-cum-bartender who enjoys his job and is ignoring the elephant in the room – namely defending his dissertation.  COVID derailed his finishing his education when he had to return to Canada.  The difficulties and losses of COVID has further pushed him away from finishing.  He’s happy working at a bar as a bartender and also playing with the “house band” as it were, entertaining the patrons of the bar.  He’s also dealing with a fairly recent ADHD diagnosis and taking his meds and not drinking, so there’s that.  But one night, a pretty famous musician, Ari Darvish, is scheduled to play and the piano player for his group has food poisoning.  The backup player is stuck on the highway because of an accident, so Jax agrees to fill in.  And thus begins the dance 😉

Ari is quite surprised by Jax.  He’s definitely not his usual “type” but the chemistry is definitely there.  And when Ari comes back to the bar to watch Jax in action with the band, Jax is most definitely making drinks and eyes at Ari.  He’s certainly aiming his not inconsiderable charm and charisma at Ari while playing with the band.  Eventually they can’t let the spark between them flicker out, so they get together.  There is a bit of a misunderstanding on Ari’s part for sometime about Jax, but thankfully he’s set straight fairly quickly.

Jax is dealing with pressure from MIT to get back and defend his dissertation or suffer the very expensive consequences.  Ari is dealing with the pressures of being behind on getting his new album finished.  They are both dealing with family things.  Jax is thrilled with his sister and her family moving to London and he’s taking on some babysitting duties for his toddler niece (which he’s thrilled to do after the isolation of the virus) but he’s still avoiding his mother – a university math professor herself.  Ari is dealing with his parents pushing him to marry a nice Persian doctor and stop with the touring and settle down and stay home near them.  Needless to say, these pressures do not contribute to a smooth romance.  But Air’s relationship with Jax is definitely causing his creative juices to flow and he’s finally on the way to getting his album written.

But the course of true love definitely does not run smooth for these two.  Lies of omission and lack of communication as well as some unfortunate chance meetings lead to mistrust on Jax’s part.  Ari has his own battles with his controlling parents and when he finally is pushed into sharing Jax with his family, it’s a explosion of epic proportions.  Neither man is happy about the consequences, but what’s done is done and it doesn’t seem like there is a path forward.  Until there is.  Both men have to figure out what it is that they want and how they will need to treat each other in order to be together.

Embarrassingly, it’s been years since I’ve read an Ashlyn Kane book.  I really enjoyed this book co-written by Morgan James.  Ari and Jax are two really vivid characters.  Their passions are dissimilar in many ways, but they also have a lot in common.  Both are at a difficult juncture – Jax with dealing with COVID, the loss of someone dear to him, his ADHD, and lots of other little things – and Ari with writer’s block and some overbearing parents.  Their romance inside their own bubble goes swimmingly well.  But when Jax suspects and then knows that Ari is hiding their relationship from his family, well let’s just say that doesn’t go down well.  Ari is torn between trying to protect Jax from what he knows might be a very unpleasant encounter with his parents, but the way he handles it doesn’t really help the situation.   While Jax has his own faults and certainly didn’t help the situation, it’s up to Ari to decide what it is he wants out of life and to figure out a way to deal with his parents not being onboard with his choices.

Jax is an amazing character and I absolutely ADORED him.  The dinner with Ari’s colleagues and former professors?  Jax’s handling of the condescension was so PERFECT 😀  I laughed so hard while reading that whole scene.  It was brilliant.  I wanted to shake Ari repeatedly!  But luckily he figured out what he wanted with the help of his supportive sister.  Loved Afra as well.

I really likes the way things evolved with all the relationships in this story.  I have a family member that s VERY unhappy with her daughter’s choice of husband but I’ve never seen ANYONE so excited to be married ever.  It’s sad because the mother is going to miss out on so much and the daughter is definitely sad about it.  BTW, there is NOTHING wrong with her husband.  The mother’s complaint?  “He’s not ambitious enough.”   UGH!  I don’t have time for that.  If he’s a good man, works hard and loves her daughter, that should be enough.  Luckily, in the end of this story, the right people come around.

RATING: 

BUY LINKS:

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