Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Invitation To The Blues by Roan Parrish - Review and Release Day Blitz!


Invitation to the Blues (Small Change #2)

Publisher: Monster Press

Release Date (Print & Ebook): March 28th, 2018

Length (Print & Ebook): About 81,000 words

Subgenre: Contemporary romance

Content warning: depression, suicide, thoughts of worthlessness, food issues

Links:

Barnes & noble: http://bit.ly/2C9aiJP
Angus & robinson: http://bit.ly/2Cudrzz



Book blurb:

Eight months ago Jude Lucen fled his partner, his career, and a hospital in Boston after a suicide attempt. Now back in Philadelphia, he feels like a complete failure. Piano has always been his passion and his only escape. Without it, he has nothing. Well, nothing except a pathetic crush on the most gorgeous man he’s ever seen.

Faron Locklear came to Philly looking for a fresh start and has thrown himself into tattooing at Small Change. He’s only met Jude a few times, but something about the red-haired man with the haunted eyes calls to him. Faron is blown away by Jude’s talent. What he isn’t expecting is the electricity he feels the first time they kiss—and the way Jude’s needs in bed speak directly to his own deepest desires.

Jude and Faron fall fast and hard, but Jude has spent a lifetime learning that he can’t be what the people he loves need. So when the opportunity arises to renew his career in Boston, he thinks he has to choose: music, or Faron? Only by taking a huge risk—and finally believing he’s worthy of love just as he is—can he have the chance for both.

The Small Change series is set in the Middle of Somewhere universe and features crossover characters from that series. Each book can be read on its own.

Content warning: This book contains explicit discussion of depression, anxiety, attempted suicide, and feelings of worthlessness.


Review:

* * * * *

After reading Small Change I absolutely knew that Jude’s story was going to be difficult for me to read.  In the end I was surprisingly incorrect.  Don’t get me wrong.  It’s not all rainbows and unicorns.  Quite the contrary.  Jude suffers from severe depression.  End stop.  There is no magic dick in this story.  There is no magic cure at all.  Because that doesn’t exist in real life.  But that’s what makes this story extra special and extra beautiful.  


Watching Jude struggle with his self-worth and starting all over again in the cutthroat world of classical music was heartbreaking but never uncomfortable.  It just….was.  He is who he is and his struggles will always be there.  Somedays they will be better, other days they will be worse, but they will always be there.

I said there is no magic dick but it sure helps to have someone in your corner.  Jude has a lot of people who love him and support him 100%.  His brother, Chris.  Ginger.  His parents.  But Faron is the one that understands him.  The one that lets him be Jude.   Who hears what Jude needs and then makes it happen.  THAT is what makes Faron magic. 

 I hate saying sex scenes are hot when I review a book.  Simply because everyone has different ideas of what they think is hot.  But Roan Parrish writes erotic scenes like no one else.  I noticed this in Small Change as well.   Her books show readers just how diverse pleasure can be.  It’s truly beautiful.

This review is a bit choppy but I’m still recovering from all the emotions after reading this one.   It was beautiful and I can’t recommend it enough.   Guaranteed that it will be on the re-read list in the near future.

Nat


Excerpt:

“Hold this,” Faron murmured into my hair, and handed me the sketchbook. I held it so he could draw with his right hand as his left continued to explore my torso. He sketched our feet, his elegant and high-arched, and mine, bony and slender; his dark, mine pale. And all the while, his fingers sketched other shapes against my skin. He dipped into my navel and ran along my ribs, sending shivers down my spine. When he skimmed a fingertip over my nipple I gasped and tensed against him.

He traced my nipple until it was a hard peak, then squeezed it, and my hips jerked, making the sketchbook jump in my hand. Faron’s breath went rough and he nuzzled into my hair.

My heart was pounding and I knew he could feel it. I squirmed to try and take my shirt off, but I couldn’t quite get it. Faron stripped it off of me and ran sure fingers along my ribs. Then he traced the blue veins visible beneath my skin from my heart to where they disappeared under my waistband.

With my oversized shirt out of the way, the bulge of my erection in my jeans was obvious.

I drew my knee up, resting it against the back of the couch. He slid a hand up the inside of my thigh so slowly I held my breath, but he didn’t touch my hard cock and I shuddered with arousal.


“Jude,” Faron breathed, and I let the sketchbook fall between us as I went for the button on my jeans. I felt like I was made of pounding heart, flushed skin, raging need, and it felt like nothing I’d ever experienced. It didn’t even feel like sex; it felt like desire. It felt like what I knew sex was supposed to feel like but rarely had for me.



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About Roan Parrish:
Roan Parrish lives in Philadelphia, where she is gradually attempting to write love stories in every genre.
When not writing, she can usually be found cutting her friends’ hair, meandering through whatever city she’s in while listening to torch songs and melodic death metal, or cooking overly elaborate meals. She loves bonfires, winter beaches, minor chord harmonies, and self-tattooing. One time she may or may not have baked a six-layer chocolate cake and then thrown it out the window in a fit of pique.

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