librobi's review against another edition
4.0
it is virtually a 5 stars though. I started this book on a whim and don't regret a second of the time I spent with Fenix and Jared. the world of the musical theater has a unique appeal to me and here I could almost see the dancers and the lights and hear the misic. but the best thing was the romantic turn of the story, I am an hopless romantic myself so it went straight to my meltig heart! great book, absolutley worth reading!
a___broad's review against another edition
1.0
I wish I could say something nicer but I just disliked every bit of the plot. It seemed amateurish and predictable and over the top. The characters did not seem fully fleshed out. Jared and Fenix's love story did not seem believable and was almost always cringeworthy. It was struggle to see it through to the end tbqh.
jennyreadsromance's review against another edition
5.0
LOVE THIS STORY
This is the story I needed. It was the perfect blend of love, laughter, angst, and lots of sexy time. It is an insta-love but it makes sense and you can feel that the connection between Fenix and Jared went beyond physical attraction. There were some highs and lows in the characters lives and a couple times I caught myself almost yelling at them.
It is well written and you won't want to put it down.
This is the story I needed. It was the perfect blend of love, laughter, angst, and lots of sexy time. It is an insta-love but it makes sense and you can feel that the connection between Fenix and Jared went beyond physical attraction. There were some highs and lows in the characters lives and a couple times I caught myself almost yelling at them.
It is well written and you won't want to put it down.
shile87's review against another edition
No rating 😥
Calling it:
Time of book death at 21% 😔😔
Who is a quiter?
This is Insta , the kind i couldn't get into. I tried but it is Me! not the Book!.
I have nothing against Insta-anything, Lord knows Lucy Lennox has fed me Insta-everything in her books and i ate that shit up plus i did an encore. Here there was something missing, i guess i did not feel the spark between the MC's the moment they met.
I couldn't get into the Audio-book. The narrator's voice sounded the same for all characters. Thank the book gods one can return the audio.
I did not buy:
Day 1: Meet, have hot sex
Day 2: Take loan to renovate house because you have found the one. Move in together
Day 3: you are the one, and it for me i will look no further... I love you.
As Christelle would say the BAM factor!
The book has an average rating of 3.95 so maybe it is Me! and not the book.
The cover is hot!😋🔥
Calling it:
Time of book death at 21% 😔😔
Who is a quiter?
This is Insta , the kind i couldn't get into. I tried but it is Me! not the Book!.
I have nothing against Insta-anything, Lord knows Lucy Lennox has fed me Insta-everything in her books and i ate that shit up plus i did an encore. Here there was something missing, i guess i did not feel the spark between the MC's the moment they met.
I couldn't get into the Audio-book. The narrator's voice sounded the same for all characters. Thank the book gods one can return the audio.
I did not buy:
Day 1: Meet, have hot sex
Day 2: Take loan to renovate house because you have found the one. Move in together
Day 3: you are the one, and it for me i will look no further... I love you.
As Christelle would say the BAM factor!
The book has an average rating of 3.95 so maybe it is Me! and not the book.
The cover is hot!😋🔥
suze_1624's review against another edition
2.0
I so wanted to really like this but I just didn't get into it. I bought it as I had seen some great reviews about it, and the cover is great.
 I just didn't gel with the characters or story. There was nothing wrong with it, the plot points were all there but they almost seemed like a tick list to be included sometimes.
The first section of the book, pre the 'big misundestanding' section didn't get me invested in Jared and Fenix enough, so when they were going through all their trauma I was reading it but not feeling it.
So for me, not a winner. 2.5*
 I just didn't gel with the characters or story. There was nothing wrong with it, the plot points were all there but they almost seemed like a tick list to be included sometimes.
The first section of the book, pre the 'big misundestanding' section didn't get me invested in Jared and Fenix enough, so when they were going through all their trauma I was reading it but not feeling it.
So for me, not a winner. 2.5*
the_novel_approach's review against another edition
4.0
Fenix and Jared are both stage actor/singer/dancers. The triple threat. Jared is performing in a show at Queen Victoria Theater in West London, which he co-wrote with his best friend Adam. Fenix gets the lead role in another musical about a rock band, which will be sharing the theater with Jared’s show. He and Jared will also share a dressing room.
Fenix’s goal has always been to star in a Broadway show. His mother did it but was injured in a suspicious accident many years ago, which cut her career short and left her in a wheelchair. Fenix sees the show in West London as a stepping-stone to his ultimate goal. He plans to make Poison a success and make himself indispensible so that when the show is offered a spot on Broadway, he will go along with it. He makes it clear to everyone, including Jared that this is his plan.
Fenix doesn’t count on the immediate and undeniable need to be with Jared. Not just sexually. But every minute of every day. They fall very quickly into a serious relationship, both seeming to forget that this is only a stopover on Fenix’s ride to the top. The first months of their relationship happen very quickly but takes up a large portion of the book. There is so much sex, it is almost too much. Instead of developing a relationship through spending time together doing things for fun, talking, learning each other’s likes and dislikes, Fenix and Jared have sex. Sometimes they talk, too. Mostly just the sex, though. The first half of the book is made up of approximately the first eight months of their relationship.
When it looks like Fenix’s dreams are coming true, their idyllic world seems to fall apart around them. It’s unclear if either of them will survive without the other. They both take different paths to deal with their loneliness and sorrow, but they are both terribly bereft and sad. They have no contact for two years. This doesn’t really make sense to me. If they loved each other, I would have expected them to have most likely at least spoken or e-mailed to keep up with each other’s careers, if nothing else.
It is now about two-thirds of the way through the book. The pacing felt off to me. The first half covered eight months, then a small portion contained events of over two years, which were skimmed over by the author and given very little detail.
The initial insta-love caused a little eye rolling, as did the ease with which they parted ways when Broadway came calling. They were so miserable without each other that it seemed implausible to me that one of them wouldn’t have reached out to the other. Then, when Fenix had reached his goal, he realized it wasn’t enough. The ease with which he undid the previous two years was again, implausible. By this time, I wanted Jared and Fenix back together so badly I would have believed almost anything to see it happen!
I loved the characters and really wanted them to have everything they wanted. The supporting cast was engaging, too. Ms. Kostova described the dancing and scenes from both plays very well; I could practically smell the sweat.
I really did enjoy this book. I admittedly skimmed over a large portion of the sex just because there was so, so much of it. I loved the last third of the book, even if, again, things happened too fast to feel real. By that point in time, it was what I expected from Jared and Fenix. The end and epilogue were deeply satisfying, but left Jared’s best friend Adam hanging there, ripe for his sequel… I look forward to it.
Fenix’s goal has always been to star in a Broadway show. His mother did it but was injured in a suspicious accident many years ago, which cut her career short and left her in a wheelchair. Fenix sees the show in West London as a stepping-stone to his ultimate goal. He plans to make Poison a success and make himself indispensible so that when the show is offered a spot on Broadway, he will go along with it. He makes it clear to everyone, including Jared that this is his plan.
Fenix doesn’t count on the immediate and undeniable need to be with Jared. Not just sexually. But every minute of every day. They fall very quickly into a serious relationship, both seeming to forget that this is only a stopover on Fenix’s ride to the top. The first months of their relationship happen very quickly but takes up a large portion of the book. There is so much sex, it is almost too much. Instead of developing a relationship through spending time together doing things for fun, talking, learning each other’s likes and dislikes, Fenix and Jared have sex. Sometimes they talk, too. Mostly just the sex, though. The first half of the book is made up of approximately the first eight months of their relationship.
When it looks like Fenix’s dreams are coming true, their idyllic world seems to fall apart around them. It’s unclear if either of them will survive without the other. They both take different paths to deal with their loneliness and sorrow, but they are both terribly bereft and sad. They have no contact for two years. This doesn’t really make sense to me. If they loved each other, I would have expected them to have most likely at least spoken or e-mailed to keep up with each other’s careers, if nothing else.
It is now about two-thirds of the way through the book. The pacing felt off to me. The first half covered eight months, then a small portion contained events of over two years, which were skimmed over by the author and given very little detail.
The initial insta-love caused a little eye rolling, as did the ease with which they parted ways when Broadway came calling. They were so miserable without each other that it seemed implausible to me that one of them wouldn’t have reached out to the other. Then, when Fenix had reached his goal, he realized it wasn’t enough. The ease with which he undid the previous two years was again, implausible. By this time, I wanted Jared and Fenix back together so badly I would have believed almost anything to see it happen!
I loved the characters and really wanted them to have everything they wanted. The supporting cast was engaging, too. Ms. Kostova described the dancing and scenes from both plays very well; I could practically smell the sweat.
I really did enjoy this book. I admittedly skimmed over a large portion of the sex just because there was so, so much of it. I loved the last third of the book, even if, again, things happened too fast to feel real. By that point in time, it was what I expected from Jared and Fenix. The end and epilogue were deeply satisfying, but left Jared’s best friend Adam hanging there, ripe for his sequel… I look forward to it.
proppiz's review against another edition
3.0
I really liked the love, the angst and the setting.
I could have lived without the way the story was drawn out and the factual inaccuracies regarding Sweden which would have been so easy to look up.
I would have liked to know more about the friends and family of the two MCs.
I could have lived without the way the story was drawn out and the factual inaccuracies regarding Sweden which would have been so easy to look up.
I would have liked to know more about the friends and family of the two MCs.
thebroadsheets's review against another edition
1.0
I wish I could say something nicer but I just disliked every bit of the plot. It seemed amateurish and predictable and over the top. The characters did not seem fully fleshed out. Jared and Fenix's love story did not seem believable and was almost always cringeworthy. It was struggle to see it through to the end tbqh.
isalaur's review against another edition
3.0
I was initially intrigued by this book because the setting was so different...musical theatre is not something I often see as a setting in m/m romance books. Additionally, the two top places for musical theater, London and NYC are the centers of the action.
The story revolves around Fenix, the start of a musical called Poison, and Jared, the creator and star of a children's musical. When their shows end up sharing a theatre and they end up sharing a dressing room their attraction is immediate. This is one of those we're all in within days romances. I generally find these romances to be of the "willing suspension of disbelief" variety. It's fiction, go with it. However that did not extend to fatal flaws (for me) the resulted in my lowering of the star count.
While I enjoyed the MCs and the development of their relationship there isn't as much musical theatre as I had been hoping...similar to a sports romance that doesn't really have much action on the field/ice. And of the parts the did directly address theatre there is so much wrong I could not concentrate given my annoyance. Poor or lazy research is a pet peeve of mine. All of the things wrong with the storyline could have been easily remedied with ten minutes on the internet. This was made even worse when I read the author note that declares the author a big musical theatre fan. I don't see how that's possible with the mistakes made here. Additionally, there is also a huge error in NY criminal law that revolves around the crisis moment near the end of the book. Something that also would have been easily remedied with some basic research. While the author is primarily responsible for this I'm wondering where the editor was?
Now, I will say that I am a NYer, a retired public policy teacher, who is a huge theatre fan so other readers may not notice or care about the errors. However it is huge to me and it really impacted my ability to immerse myself in the story and enjoy the book.
The story revolves around Fenix, the start of a musical called Poison, and Jared, the creator and star of a children's musical. When their shows end up sharing a theatre and they end up sharing a dressing room their attraction is immediate. This is one of those we're all in within days romances. I generally find these romances to be of the "willing suspension of disbelief" variety. It's fiction, go with it. However that did not extend to fatal flaws (for me) the resulted in my lowering of the star count.
While I enjoyed the MCs and the development of their relationship there isn't as much musical theatre as I had been hoping...similar to a sports romance that doesn't really have much action on the field/ice. And of the parts the did directly address theatre there is so much wrong I could not concentrate given my annoyance. Poor or lazy research is a pet peeve of mine. All of the things wrong with the storyline could have been easily remedied with ten minutes on the internet. This was made even worse when I read the author note that declares the author a big musical theatre fan. I don't see how that's possible with the mistakes made here. Additionally, there is also a huge error in NY criminal law that revolves around the crisis moment near the end of the book. Something that also would have been easily remedied with some basic research. While the author is primarily responsible for this I'm wondering where the editor was?
Now, I will say that I am a NYer, a retired public policy teacher, who is a huge theatre fan so other readers may not notice or care about the errors. However it is huge to me and it really impacted my ability to immerse myself in the story and enjoy the book.
cadiva's review against another edition
4.0
3.5* Another one I read during my internet less summer.
Great debut novel, as a musical theatre devotee, I thoroughly enjoyed this West End set story of two beautifully flawed men finding each other.
Great debut novel, as a musical theatre devotee, I thoroughly enjoyed this West End set story of two beautifully flawed men finding each other.