Genre: Historical
LGBTQ+ Category: Bisexual
Reviewer: Jay
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About The Book
Philadelphia, 1972: All Luke wants is to share his music with the world. When an imposing, slightly older trumpet player called Emmett joins his band, Luke is fascinated – and a lifelong friendship is born. Love and loyalty are forged in the slow burn of tours, shows and recording sessions. Over the years, Luke’s curiosity and Emmett’s indulgence slowly push the two of them into complicated new territory. Emmett tries to keep them safe – but Luke wants it all.
In this monumental romance spanning more than twenty years, there are no heroes and no villains – just people doing their best in a messed up world.
Content Notes:
• Open relationships
• Period-realistic racism
• References to AIDS and period-realistic homophobia
• Mild Dom/sub power dynamics
• No use of slurs, no sexual violence, no cheating
The Review
This novel would appeal to readers who enjoy series like the Rocktoberfest series, although it is not actually connected to those. It deals with the gradual evolution of a rock band and a relationship over a period of about twenty five years, and then there is an epilogue set twenty years after the ending of the main narrative.
The details of the music, the production issues, and the general make-up of the band are well researched and interesting. Other topics are well dealt with too, including racism, because one of the main characters is a person of colour and there are other minor characters too. The story takes place in USA starting in 1972 and finishing in 1995, so it covers a period of gradual liberalization of attitudes on race whilst at the same time reflecting the AIDs epidemic and associated problems both for the music industry in general and for the main characters in particular.
Luke, coming from a working class background, starts a band and invites Emmett, an educated and slightly older musician, to join him. Their relationship is rocky but eventually highly satisfying.
The work is well written and has no typos or other errors to detract from the flow. The plot is interesting and keeps the reader engaged. The romance is gradual and realistic, and has long-running effects on El, Em, and the band. However, because this very long story is condensed into one novel, it can at times read rather like a biography rather than a romance.
I never quite lost myself in the affairs of the main protagonists, though I wished them well, and salute the author’s meticulous recounting of events which, whilst fictitious, must mirror the lives of various musicians and other artists from the period.
The Reviewer
I’ve been doing book reviews on my website, crossposted or linked to various social media, for a few years. I read a number of genres but I really enjoy all kinds of speculative fiction so thought I’d like to share my views with you. I love sci fi and other speculative fiction because of the way it can, at its best, make us see ourselves in a new light. Quite apart from the exciting stories, of course! I used to be an English teacher, and I’m a writer (fantasy) so I can be quite critical about style etc. but I hope I can also appreciate properly some books that don’t appeal to me personally but might be simply perfect for others. I have, obviously, read widely, and continue to do so.
