I like JM Snyder's work and I love a story about boys in a band so I felt like a pig in mud when I opened this story.

I disliked Adam from the first page - I'm pretty sure I was supposed to so all is going to plan so far. He's lazy, arrogant, rude, disrespectful... I could go on and on. Basically, he's a prick. A prick with a dream. He's going to be a rockstar and there is no one - including his family and band mates - he won't step on to get there.

Paol is a talent agent who falls in lust at first sight with Adam and happens to believe he's talented as well. The electricity between the two is zinging from the first time Paol gropes Adam at the bar (before he introduces himself) and remains hot as they head for Adam's car.

Severe case of blue balls for Adam because Paol apparently isn't the kind of guy who picks up blokes who are ten years younger than him at clubs and takes them back to their cars and rubs his mouth all over their cocks then leaves without explanation. Except he is. So, after than introduction, it's hard to buy Paol as anything other than a bit of a sleazebag.

Adam continues to antagonize everyone around him except for Paol, who is blinded by Adam's cock. At the half way point, I realised I was only continuing to read because I wanted to see Adam taken down a peg or two. I wanted to see him get the smackdown he deserved because by now, my feelings for him went far beyond dislike.

So he finally does get taken down a peg or two but instead of him getting the message the secondary characters have been trying to get through his thick skull and humbly going off to lick his wounds and take in their critique, he is turned into a victim of an evil protagonist who is hurting him to get back at Paol. Self-realisation comes as he, Paol, and Lewis turn an abrupt 180 in character that makes my head spin.

Lewis, Paol's partner at the record company, is a tough guy. Paol says he and Adam are two peas in a pod. I don't see it, myself, but if it were true, Lewis has worked for everything he's achieved and has earned the right to be arrogant. Adam - 23, living at home with his mum, unemployed, no friends except his band members who don't seem to like him much half the time - hasn't.

But I digress. I liked Lewis until close to the end where he goes from a tough guy who isn't sure he wants to sign an egomaniacal ass to his label to spiteful and vindictive. His behaviour made little sense, even once it was explained. He was cutting off his nose to spite his face and it didn't really fit with his character.

I did like the secondary characters - Trace and Mike. They were funny and quite sweet which was a nice contrast to Adam's ego and Paol's lack of professionalism.

My dislike of the MCs made this story tough going for me, though. There was too much asshole and not enough vulnerability to make Adam a likable rogue and the drama of his 'redemption' wasn't believable. And Paol was just a fool. He made no attempt to be anything like professional until 76% of the way through the story and Adam had driven everyone else off.

This wasn't a badly written story. I just didn't like the characters or the mecurial nature of their personalities. It was generally a decent plot and flowed nicely (although I think I would have liked to have seen those long conversations between Adam and Paol instead of being told that they happened).
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Adam Blue is a little rockstar in the progress, he has not still the fame of a rockstar but for sure he has all the attitude. And he is not even so young, 23 years old are almost too much to still play of being an adult, but well, Adam is so cute that you forgive him almost everything.

One thing for sure, even if he is not yet famous, Adam is convinced that success is right there, around the corner, and that he will reach it sooner than later. It’s almost cute to read him, 23 years old still living at home, who steals petty money from his mother’s change jar, and yet he has an ego that is bigger than an house. It probably helps to his ego that Adam, even if he tries to conceal his cute look with a shaved head, it’s not quite able to hide it all. And another thing that goes with his ego is his self-consciousness: Adam is gay and if someone as something against it, well, it’s not his problem.

When Adam meets older Paol, the reader probably is expecting for Paol to be the leader in the relationship, he is older, successful, he is the one that probably will manage to rein Adam. But the reader has not taken in account that Paol is not a man driven by the need to be in command. You have already a prove knowing that Paol decided to sell half of his production company to Lewis, probably since, while he likes to find new talents, he has no probably the strength to lead a company all alone.

And so the first impression the reader has of Paol, a bit of a latin lover, maybe even a little bit of a teaser, it’s soon corrected: Paol is a real romantic, he still believes in true love, he is not at all a macho man, on the contrary, he is even a little scared when men are too pushing with him. In a way, Adam and Paol are perfect together, since Paol not being a prima donna allows Adam to be always in centre stage in the relationship, but being Paol also older, and with a bit more experience on his shoulder, he is a good balance for Adam and his rollercoast mood.

Rockstar is more sweet than expected; even the sex, that by the way happens later in the story than what I thought at first, is not so graphic or detailed. Adam and Paol are not so young, but all in all, when facing their love relationship, they seem younger, not quite “virgins” but almost. It’s like if they were newbie at love if not in life.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1449971334/?tag=elimyrevandra-20