Reviewed by Kat

 

 

TITLE: Loose Strings

SERIES: The Swarm Duology (Book 2) (The Road to Rocktoberfest 2023)

AUTHOR: Christie Gordon

PUBLISHER: Self Published

LENGTH: 252 pages

RELEASE DATE: November 7, 2023

BLURB:

A playboy rocker running from commitment fears he might lose the sweet cinnamon roll he’s been dating. When an ex comes around pointing out flaws, can the rocker change his tune?

 

Noah Harris

I love a rockstar. It’s not easy, but most of the time he makes it worth it.

After all, I was the one who agreed to a semi-open relationship when he’s on the road without me.

As the band gets more and more popular, it’s impossible to ignore the images of him with groupies on social media.

When my ex meets up with me to apologize and points out Wells’ indiscretions, how can I continue to deny the commitment I need?

Wells Tollefson

Commitment means one thing, or maybe two—loss of freedom and complication.

I don’t want either.

I saw what it did to my mother when my jerk of a father tried to dominate her life.

Noah wants me to meet his parents. But with our current situation, what will they think of me?

Now his ex wants to see him, and I have to let him go. My friends tell me I might lose him, and it hurts.

So, I try to open up to him. At the same time, I’m caught in a family crisis and I need Noah by my side.

Is it time to face the music and let my heart lead the way?

Loose Strings is part of the multi-author The Road to Rocktoberfest 2023 series and is a sequel to the novel, Not Alone. Each book can be read as a standalone, but why not read them all and see who hits the stage next? Hot rockstars and the men who love them, what more could you ask for? Kick back, load up your kindle and enjoy the men of Rocktoberfest!

Trigger warning: This book contains the past death of a parent and talk of a partially-open relationship(not on page).

REVIEW:

Can a commitment-phobic rock star and a strictly relationship kind a guy make a go of it or are they just Loose Strings that need to be tied up?

Noah is so excited that Wells is finally back from touring with his band, the rising stars The Swarm. He’s so excited that he took the week off work so it can be just them 24/7. He has known that it was Wells for him since the first night he met him. He also knows that, in order to keep him, he has had to agree with him being with groupies out on the road…but only girls! But this has been a bitter pill to swallow with all the media hype about the rockstar playboy. The more popular the band becomes the more it is literally thrown in his face in the media. But he agreed to these terms and now he has to live with it. Wells struggles with any kind of relationship. The closest he had ever gotten to it before was with his best friend/bandmate Ash and their best friends-with-benefits agreement. But now that he’s back in his boy’s arms he realizes exactly how hard it has been on Noah. So now he has to make some tough choices and maybe grow up a bit like Ash did!

Wells was literally the little boy who refused to grow up. His younger years were plagued with hardships and fights between his parents. Why would anyone want something like that was his philosophy and he stuck to it. Thankfully sweet, cute Noah wormed his way into his heart. And Ash and Micah helped steer him into opening his eyes and allowing love to reach him. Unfortunately it took his mother’s medical crisis for him to finally breakthrough everything and realize that loosing Noah was a real possibility that he couldn’t let happen. Noah had become his everything!

One of the unique things about this foursome is that Ash and Wells had been bed partners and Micah, Ash’s boyfriend, used to date and sleep with Noah. I wasn’t sure how Ash was going to react when Wells decided that Noah was the one and was willing to give his heart away finally. I know it must of hurt deep inside even though he was in a committed and forever relationship with Micah. We all know that Ash loved Wells but Wells never saw that. Thankfully Ash did find Micah (you can read their story in Not Alone) and had his love so it wasn’t as much a burn as it could have been.

This book was a well written journey into what parent’s relationships can do to traumatize a young person and all that has to be done to change. Wells journey was hard but Noah was the one that I worried about. He was giving up so much of his true self to accommodate Well’s commitment issues. Thankfully Wells started to open his eyes, with some not so subtle nudges from Ash and Micah to help him along.

I know in the prequel book The Swarm it calls this book part of The Swarm duology but I was really hoping that we might also figure out what was up with their other band members Dolan and Justin but I don’t think that’s going to happen. I would though highly recommend that you read Not Alone first. It had been awhile since it released but it is the start of Wells and Noah’s story besides it being Ash and Micah’s. These four men’s lives are so intertwined that you need to read this as a set. I can guarantee that you won’t be sorry that you did. I actually reread it before starting this just to catch back up because it flows right into this book.

RATING:

BUY LINKS:

Amazon