Review of Vespertine by Leta Blake and Indra Vaughn

by Leta Blake and Indra Vaughn

4.5 Stars

Can a priest and a rock star obey love's call?

Seventeen years ago, Jasper Hendricks and Nicholas Blumfeld's childhood friendship turned into a secret, blissful love affair. They spent several idyllic months together until Jasper's calling to the Catholic priesthood became impossible to ignore. Left floundering, Nicky followed his own trajectory into rock stardom, but he never stopped looking back.

Today, Jasper pushes boundaries as an out, gay priest, working hard to help vulnerable LGBTQ youth. He's determined to bring change to the church and the world. Respected, admired, and settled in his skin, Jasper has long ignored his loneliness.

As Nico Blue, guitarist and songwriter for the band Vespertine, Nicky owns the hearts of millions. He and his bandmates have toured the world, lighting their fans on fire with their music. Numbed by drugs and fueled by simmering anger, Nicky feels completely alone. When Vespertine is forced to get sober, Nicky returns home to where it all started.

Jasper and Nicky's careers have ruled their lives since they parted as teens. When they come face to face again, they must choose between the past's lingering ghosts or the promise of a new future.

Vespertine was one of those books that kept slipping on our TBR list, something would always come up before we started reading it.  But, we persevered and we are so glad, this is a gem of a book and shining love story and we loved this fresh idea of a romance between a Catholic Priest and a fallen Rock Star.

What we loved?

- Well written:  Vespertine is beautifully written.  It is full of angst, it is emotional, gripping heartbreaking, sweet, schmoopy, redeeming, moving, gratifying, and so emotional. 

- Tropes:  There is a lot going on here; Childhood sweethearts, opposites attract, slow burn, addiction, coming-out, and a few more thrown in for good measure.  But they all work so well together without competing or falling apart.

- Characters: We loved Nicky and Jasper so much as men.  Nicky is struggling so much, pushing against the past, pushing against his talent and pushing against everyone interfering in his life. And Jasper is fine to put his head in the sand and live his life on the path that he believes God has chosen for him.  They are both such strong characters and amazing in their own ways.

What we wished was different?

- Slow Burn:  So love or hate this trope, Vespertine is a study in slow burn.  But, really with a Catholic Priest struggling with his feelings and his vows what do you expect.  But, sometimes we wished it would have moved a teeny tiny bit faster.  We were desperate for these men to acknowledge that they both aren’t as unaffected as they want to believe. 

Vespertine is one of those rare stories that we’ve come across; it is a gorgeous book full of longing and love.  It is hard to imagine a place for a happy-ever-after between a Rock Star and a Catholic Priest but Vespertine delivers that and SO much more.

Review of Clickbait by Garett Groves

by Garett Groves

3 Stars

A frustrated journalist. An abrasive internet sensation. Desire even enemies can’t deny.
 
Jeff Taylor is a cable news juggernaut with an ax to grind—particularly with the media industry that made him. After a tough interview with Kile Avery, online troll extraordinaire, Jeff melts down on air and tells the world just what he thinks of the media machine.
 
He’s swiftly fired and blacklisted by every major media organization… except one. NewSpin—the same fluff media company that Jeff most blames for the current state of journalism—wants to hire him to do a piece on Avery.
 
“Avery’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing. I’d sooner live under a bridge than work with him.”

Kile Avery is a viral blogger who thinks love and traditional media are dead. He’s built an online empire quickly by posting scathing video takedowns. So when Kile’s approached by NewSpin for a documentary series on his meteoric rise to fame, he can’t say no… even if Jeff Taylor is the reporter assigned to the project.
 
“When we started this, I wanted to destroy Taylor. Now I just want to sleep with him.”
 
The two have nothing in common save for their mutual hatred, but they quickly discover they share real chemistry on and off camera—chemistry neither of them wants to admit to, privately or publicly.
 
Can they set aside their differences and come together to make a ratings hit? Or is their story destined to become yet another clickbait headline?

We had so many high hopes for Clickbait, but man, we struggled to finish this story.  We usually really enjoy everything by Garett Groves, but Clickbait just didn’t come together for us.

So let us start with what we liked!  Kyle and Jeff are enemies, they essentially hate each other, and what the pother stand for and believes in.  There is a sexual tension that is palpable; they truly are enemies-to-lovers.  There are some serious sparks between Kyle and Jeff and it one of the few reasons that we kept us from not finishing this book.  Along with them being enemies, there is also a huge age difference between them, and that whole opposites attract is super sexy.

Even with all these good tropes, there is so much that made us scratch our head.  Honestly, the story doesn’t make sense.  Jeff is fired from his million dollar job, and has to take the first available position – really?  Kyle runs an anti-love blog, we think, didn’t really understand the blog idea.  And really the point of the project that they were working on together; following Kyle’s rise to fame, but they only went to his office once? There was confusion about what day it was, and on and on.  As you can see we were confused for most the story.  Clickbait is about 375 pages, not the longest book we have read, but it just felt like it dragged, and got caught up around other characters, mis-communication and co-workers plotting.  It was too much.

We so wanted to love this book; May-December, enemies-to-friends, opposites attract, how could we not?  But there was so much going on in this book that it left us feeling confused and unfortunately not invested in the actual romance.