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A review by jugglingpup
Riven by Roan Parrish
4.0
To see more reviews check out MI Book Reviews.
I got an ARC of this book.
I don’t go for the bad boy, rock star, or rich guy romance novels. I find them boring. I find them predictable. There has to be something large to draw me to them. The broken Caleb and the cover did me in on this one. I wanted to see how this played out. I am all about hurt/comfort.
Theo is a rock star, but doesn’t really understand what that means. He is the lead singer of a wildly popular rock band. He doesn’t understand that it means that people will recognize him in public, that his life is now living on a tour bus/planes, he doesn’t understand that all of his life is under the microscope. He hides from the fans, he hates touring, and he feels awkward with his band. The back story that he is given is magical. I loved how much pain and sadness Theo carried inside. I loved how much it bled out into his actions before it was revealed. It allowed me to experience his pain, instead of being told it existed. It was amazing writing and character building that led me to liking Theo.
Caleb is a recovering addict. His drug of choice seemed to be alcohol and heroin or meth. There are references to heroin and cocaine throughout the book, but I’m not sure if it is ever solidified as to which one he was doing. There is mostly needle references. I am also very much not into drug addicts, in recovery or not. I literally moved out of my hometown partially because you had two options: be a heroin addict or work with heroin addicts. So that twist on broken Caleb took some forcing myself to sit through at first. Then I realized that Caleb’s pain came from him punishing himself for the people he hurt and trying to stay sober through that pain, instead of just a desire to use again. It was a complex issue instead of a sensationalized one. Again, I have to give kudos for great writing and character development. Caleb’s sponsor is even a character that has lines, he is called, he is real. It made the whole thing feel more substantial and believable to me. It made it easier.
The romance was very up and down because of Caleb’s recovery and Theo’s childhood trauma. It was an amazing ride. The sex was generally hot, though I had the same issues I have with so many romance novels. The boys engage in oral sex without a condom repeatedly, but always use a condom for anal sex. This book goes a step further and a has a “conversation” about not using a condom for sex. It is like grunting, I didn’t really get the meaning until there was no condom. Then went “oh, that totally wasn’t enough communication and was totally not the right time to discuss it”. The author was pretty good about the use of lube outside of two scenes. One discussed using spit as lube, which in the right context can be super hot and possible so that scene doesn’t really count. The other scene it just wasn’t discussed at all for some reason which felt off considering how well Parrish did in all the other scenes. If there had been condoms for oral sex in the beginning then I would be praising this book as the best sex I have ever read in a M/M romance. Not all of the sex was penetrative. There was such range and fluidity that it was always a treat to get a sex scene instead of just a chore. I am impressed.
I got an ARC of this book.
I don’t go for the bad boy, rock star, or rich guy romance novels. I find them boring. I find them predictable. There has to be something large to draw me to them. The broken Caleb and the cover did me in on this one. I wanted to see how this played out. I am all about hurt/comfort.
Theo is a rock star, but doesn’t really understand what that means. He is the lead singer of a wildly popular rock band. He doesn’t understand that it means that people will recognize him in public, that his life is now living on a tour bus/planes, he doesn’t understand that all of his life is under the microscope. He hides from the fans, he hates touring, and he feels awkward with his band. The back story that he is given is magical. I loved how much pain and sadness Theo carried inside. I loved how much it bled out into his actions before it was revealed. It allowed me to experience his pain, instead of being told it existed. It was amazing writing and character building that led me to liking Theo.
Caleb is a recovering addict. His drug of choice seemed to be alcohol and heroin or meth. There are references to heroin and cocaine throughout the book, but I’m not sure if it is ever solidified as to which one he was doing. There is mostly needle references. I am also very much not into drug addicts, in recovery or not. I literally moved out of my hometown partially because you had two options: be a heroin addict or work with heroin addicts. So that twist on broken Caleb took some forcing myself to sit through at first. Then I realized that Caleb’s pain came from him punishing himself for the people he hurt and trying to stay sober through that pain, instead of just a desire to use again. It was a complex issue instead of a sensationalized one. Again, I have to give kudos for great writing and character development. Caleb’s sponsor is even a character that has lines, he is called, he is real. It made the whole thing feel more substantial and believable to me. It made it easier.
The romance was very up and down because of Caleb’s recovery and Theo’s childhood trauma. It was an amazing ride. The sex was generally hot, though I had the same issues I have with so many romance novels. The boys engage in oral sex without a condom repeatedly, but always use a condom for anal sex. This book goes a step further and a has a “conversation” about not using a condom for sex. It is like grunting, I didn’t really get the meaning until there was no condom. Then went “oh, that totally wasn’t enough communication and was totally not the right time to discuss it”. The author was pretty good about the use of lube outside of two scenes. One discussed using spit as lube, which in the right context can be super hot and possible so that scene doesn’t really count. The other scene it just wasn’t discussed at all for some reason which felt off considering how well Parrish did in all the other scenes. If there had been condoms for oral sex in the beginning then I would be praising this book as the best sex I have ever read in a M/M romance. Not all of the sex was penetrative. There was such range and fluidity that it was always a treat to get a sex scene instead of just a chore. I am impressed.