Lauren Sattersby - Rock N Soul

I’m Tyler Lindsey, and until recently, I had an okay apartment, an okay girlfriend, and an okay job as a bellboy at a respectable Boston hotel. Then rock star Chris Raiden died right before I brought his room service—stiffing me on the tip, by the way—and my life went to hell. My fifteen minutes of fame was more like five seconds, and my girlfriend left me in disgust.
But even worse—Chris is haunting me. Not the room where he died, like a normal ghost. No, somehow he’s stuck to me and is insisting on taking care of a bunch of unfinished business in California. So now I have to traipse across the country with the world’s most narcissistic ghost.
But . . . I keep having these weird thoughts. Thoughts about how much I like the way he makes me laugh. Thoughts where I kind of want to kiss the emo-narcissist, even though he’s a ghost and an asshole and I can’t touch him anyway. And even if I could, what will happen when he finishes his business and nothing’s keeping him here anymore?

Comment: I think I got interested in this book when I saw someone recommend it for those who wanted to read a story where one the main characters wasn't gay but he still fell in love with the person, not the gender. Added, the second main character was a ghost and I was quite curious to see how the author would play this out.

In this book we meet Tyler Lindsey, a young man who works as a bell boy in a Boston hotel. We learn he feels down since his girlfriend broke up with him but things got to that point since he was the first person to discover the body of dead rock star Chris Raiden.

After some time, Tyler discovers a ring Christ owned while doing some maintenance and by trying it, he suddenly could see Chris' ghost. What follows is a mutual journey, because Chris needs Tyler to talk and act for him in regards to his unfinished business and while doing this, Tyler re-learns some things about himself and his own goals.

At the same time things progress and Chris' time is running out, the feelings they have for one another increase until it gets to the point where Tyler can't help feeling lost if Chris disappears. But would there be any solution for this dilemma?

This story is told from Tyler's POV and I'll start by saying that while his voice was cool and easy to sympathize with, I'd still have preferred to have Chris' thoughts too.

I say this because some details do end up looking very one sided, even if we see Christ interacting and all the dialogues they have. But, you know, it can be complicated when one of them is a ghost only the other one sees!

This was also the first book by this author I try and I think that in general, this was a well achieved story. I liked the writing style as a whole, despite my personal preferences, and I think the tone was such that it was easy to keep reading.

I also liked how the book has plenty of emotional passages, so my connection to it was increased. This is not mushy nor sugary but the little things that made me think twice on what the characters were experiencing made it worth the reading for me.

Yes, one could say some of the topics of conversation between Chris and Tyler were a little unlikely, others a little repetitive... but overall, I liked the dynamics.

Basically, then, this is a story whose focus is on how Chris solves his issues so he can "move on". In the meantime, he and Tyler fall in love and this part of the novel was both cute and a little frustrating. I liked how they are both bisexual but they don't make such a big deal out of it and, in fact, much of the initial conversation was on their relationships with women. The fun and sexy part, of course, is how the little things in their forced proximity make them aware of one another and that, combined with the already expected emotional connection, makes them see the other as more than a "task".

I liked to see how they evolved from sudden buddies to an everlasting love.

However, it was also a bit frustrating because we see all this with the knowledge Chris is a ghost and he won't be near Tyler forever. Besides, there are many scenes that (I assume) were done to convey jealousy and probably how far along in love they were and I confess I didn't enjoy reading through some of the scenes the author included.

Still, the conversations they have, the things they share about themselves and even one or two secondary characters made this book be worth the read for certain. Even though some details felt like they could have been thought of better, it was still a good and romantic story to read about.

Then, the end comes and I kept thinking: "humm, not that many pages left, things got to this emotional peak of heartbreak, how can this be solved?"

Well, let me say I did not like how the story ended. I knew it had to be something weird, even with the whole ghost content that had already made this paranormal story a little unbelievable but since it's fantasy, I was curious to see how the author would solve the dead end the plot marched on to during the story.

I think it was extremely unfair and inadequate. I say this not just because the two guys deserve a HEA after their shared path and emotional connection. I say this mostly because it was to be expected some sort of solution could be presented. Sure, things had a "happy" finale but was it the best one possible? I don't think so and feel a little let down that the guys didn't have the same opportunity to a more fair HEA as they would if they were both alive.

Still, I liked getting to know about these two, about their flaws and how they became better people by being together and, often, that is all a HEA is about but it could have certainly been solved better.

Grade: 7/10