Powerful, moving romance - explored many themes!

A high tenor, Trevor Daniels has been taught to be ashamed of his voice and his sexuality by his super judgemental religious family. He’s taking a second gamble on making it big as part of a boy band reality TV show competition, having failed on a similar a capella TV show the year before. Jalen Smith has been talked into the boy band comp by his sister, one of the producers of the show, and he knows he has to grit his teeth and pretend to be Trevor’s boyfriend for the show, but can he deal with Trevor’s special brand of self-loathing and his poorly managed diabetes?

Like the first book in the series (Treble Maker), you have to be patient with the main characters, in this case Trevor and Jalen, as they work through their baggage, especially Trevor. I think I liked this even more than the first book because I found Trevor’s internalised homophobia incredibly powerful and well-written and I cheered as both he and Jalen grew to support and love each other. Once again, we get a satisfying peak behind the scenes of reality TV and all its drama, both real and manufactured. And also like the first book, there’s a high amount of steamy scenes as Jalen helps Trevor throw off his hangups and internalised critics. I liked Brad King’s audio narration a lot and although his voice for Trevor was a little whiny and squeaky, it did suit the character (currently free on the Audible Plus catalogue). I especially liked the song listing at the end and AA’s notes on how the songs fitted the narrative and characters!

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