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kaje_harper's review
4.0
This a sweet wish-fulfillment-fantasy story, about two guys who get picked by a talent scout to be part of a newly forming boy-band. They meet, fall in love, and then find out how much of being a successful icon involves the right kind of publicity - a big part of that is appearing available for fans' fantasies. Dating each other, loving each other, does not meet the terms of their contract.
There is some sweet first-love, some sex that is not too explicit (making this fine for older YA) and a little heart-catching angst, as Elliot and Danny deal with the choices between what feels right and necessary as a couple, and what is dictated by the demands of success and the terms of a signed contract. It's a smooth, fast read, and the general effect is warm.
There is some sweet first-love, some sex that is not too explicit (making this fine for older YA) and a little heart-catching angst, as Elliot and Danny deal with the choices between what feels right and necessary as a couple, and what is dictated by the demands of success and the terms of a signed contract. It's a smooth, fast read, and the general effect is warm.
evil_jj's review
4.0
When I started reading this book, I wasn't too impressed. I thought the writing was mediocre and wasn't sure the behavior of the 5 guys in the group was believable. Then somewhere along the way, I got sucked in and fell in love with Danny and Elliot. I loved the sexual tension and the constant struggle to hide their relationship. My favorite parts were the Delly fangirl tweets because I was feeling pretty fangirly myself!
I'd never heard of One Direction (the RL boy band Catch My Breath is about) before coming across this book, and I decided not to look them up before reading it so I would't know what to expect. After I finished though, I googled Larry Stylinson (Harry Styles + Louis Tomlinson) and watched a few youtube videos of the manlove. I must say, real romance or not, that is the most adorable thing I've ever seen. I've never seen 2 guys act so cuddly with one another, and it just makes me smile! I mean, how often do you get to read a sweet m/m love story then watch it happen with 2 real people? *happy sigh*
Oh and I'm totally convinced the Larry thing is real based on this video:
I'd never heard of One Direction (the RL boy band Catch My Breath is about) before coming across this book, and I decided not to look them up before reading it so I would't know what to expect. After I finished though, I googled Larry Stylinson (Harry Styles + Louis Tomlinson) and watched a few youtube videos of the manlove. I must say, real romance or not, that is the most adorable thing I've ever seen. I've never seen 2 guys act so cuddly with one another, and it just makes me smile! I mean, how often do you get to read a sweet m/m love story then watch it happen with 2 real people? *happy sigh*
Oh and I'm totally convinced the Larry thing is real based on this video:
Spoiler
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIKApzAFb2Ebethersjayne's review
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
suzy76's review
5.0
Two words: Larry Stylinson! If you aren't familiar with those words then you've obviously been living under a rock (as I was until I found this book!) Go google that name....I'll wait.....okay done? Do you see? Do you see?!? *ahem* So anyway, book review not Harold & Lou fangirlathon! I really loved this book! It was so sweet and charming, I read the whole thing with a smile plastered across my face. It's not a book I should love, it's pretty long with limited steam and our boys are YA young which shouldn't work for my m/m reads but it just did. It worked wonderfully :-) And the ending?! HA, suck it Management!
lumoon33's review
2.0
its the second time i try to read this book and the second time i fail. im giving it 2* cause i dont think its a bad book, its just not for me. it doesnt have much of a plot, i know its inspired by one direction, but, since its a published book, i expected more than what i usually find in fanfics. its just kinda boring to me.
_mia_mia_'s review
2.0
I am a big lover of all things cheesy, especially in love stories. And this novel certainly fed my love of cheesy romances. I also really like LGBT stories (though I am aware of the difficulties attached to (straight?) women writing about two gay characters, the fetishization argument etc.), especially LGBT romances. And again, this book totally fed that love.
But overall I was not too big a fan of the story, the characters and the narration. Here are some things that bothered me:
The novel is the story of two musicians who fall in love and have to hide their relationship for the sake of their careers (something which, unfortunately, seems to still be happening to artists in real life in this day and age - I recommend Lance Bass' biography "Out of Sync", which touches on this topic). But music plays such a small role in the overall story. I think this is mainly because the focus of the story is the romance and the narration skips over a lot of the music-related things in the protagonists' lives. But if you want to make me believe that I am reading the love story between two musicians, I am gonna need more than that. I wanted to read about how they see the world through a musician's perspective, what they liked and hated about certain songs, which music they loved to listen to and so on. It seemed so strange to read so little about the actual music that was supposed to be such a big thing for them.
Also, and this relates to my first point, Elliot hadn't really sung anywhere but his shower before he was discovered at a talent show (that his best friend dragged him to). For the crazy success that his band had shortly after and the way his voice and sining abilities were described, that seemed kind of hard to believe. It just kind of made it harder to believe.
Dannie's (ex) girlfriend Katie only appeared when she was needed, when she was a convenient character for him to talk to about his problems and his love for Elliot. We never really learned much about her personality, her life, her dreams, her goals etc. outside of how she related to Dannie. That made her a really weak character and bugged me throughout the entire book. I think she deserved better.
The same goes for Elliott's best friend Sarah. Again, we learn next to nothing about her. And what bothered me most was that she gives him advice and listens to him and supports him through everything and he NEVER asks her about her day, her life etc. What a shitty thing to do! It made their friendship seem so one-sided and strange and made me dislike Elliot as a character.
Dannie was really isolated, his parents are distant and always absent, we learn nothing about them aside from this fact and the fact that they are really rich. Aside from his ex-girlfriend there seemed to be absolutely nobody in his life before he became part of the band. That made him kind of a flat character.
The whole formation of the band seemed kind of unrealistic. I don't know much about the music industry, so maybe that is just me being ignorant, but I felt like everything fell in place just a little too quickly and conveniently.
I think insta-love stories can happen and are fine, I am usually not bothered by it, but it seemed awfully fast and hard to believe here.
The cheesiness got a little too much at times, even for me. Oh dear, the way these boys declared their feelings for each other again and again, was a little cringe-y at times. But maybe I am just not really the demographic for this kind of love story anymore.
Some things were repeated again and again, as if to make the reader believe it, but that didn't help.
Elliot's character seemed to change from scene to scene at times, he just felt a little inconsistent to me.
Do these boys in the band EVER argue? They were five strangers who were thrown together under intense stress and pressure and they spent so much time together in close quarters. Surely there would have been some more tensions?
The big manager-music company boss was so clichéd, he was so very bad without any redeeming characteristics at all that he read more like a stock character than an actual person.
The fact that Danny and Elliot didn't just walk away seemed a little strange to me, but then again they were young and it was a difficult situation. I guess after reading Lance Bass' biography I now appreciate that their situation was, in fact, a really tough one to get out of.
The ending seemed a little too convenient to me. I mean, I understand that this is a HEA romance novel, but still... after the entire book tried to convince me that Elliot and Danny didn't have any other way than to go along with the label's and the PR firms plans, it was all a little too easily resolved in the end. That kind of undermined the entire central conflict of the novel for me.
So all in all I liked the love story, even though it was extremely cheesy. I liked the way the relationship between Danny and Elliot progressed and how they tried to deal with everything as best they could. There were some really believable fights between them and some believable bumps on their road. I liked that part of their relationship dynamic a lot, it seemed quite realistic and well-executed to me. But there were just too many things that
Side note: Omg, is the music industry really this terrible?! Are PR firms really this involved and crazy good at covering stuff up and constructing a public image? If it is, that is really really scary.
But overall I was not too big a fan of the story, the characters and the narration. Here are some things that bothered me:
The novel is the story of two musicians who fall in love and have to hide their relationship for the sake of their careers (something which, unfortunately, seems to still be happening to artists in real life in this day and age - I recommend Lance Bass' biography "Out of Sync", which touches on this topic). But music plays such a small role in the overall story. I think this is mainly because the focus of the story is the romance and the narration skips over a lot of the music-related things in the protagonists' lives. But if you want to make me believe that I am reading the love story between two musicians, I am gonna need more than that. I wanted to read about how they see the world through a musician's perspective, what they liked and hated about certain songs, which music they loved to listen to and so on. It seemed so strange to read so little about the actual music that was supposed to be such a big thing for them.
Also, and this relates to my first point, Elliot hadn't really sung anywhere but his shower before he was discovered at a talent show (that his best friend dragged him to). For the crazy success that his band had shortly after and the way his voice and sining abilities were described, that seemed kind of hard to believe. It just kind of made it harder to believe.
Dannie's (ex) girlfriend Katie only appeared when she was needed, when she was a convenient character for him to talk to about his problems and his love for Elliot. We never really learned much about her personality, her life, her dreams, her goals etc. outside of how she related to Dannie. That made her a really weak character and bugged me throughout the entire book. I think she deserved better.
The same goes for Elliott's best friend Sarah. Again, we learn next to nothing about her. And what bothered me most was that she gives him advice and listens to him and supports him through everything and he NEVER asks her about her day, her life etc. What a shitty thing to do! It made their friendship seem so one-sided and strange and made me dislike Elliot as a character.
Dannie was really isolated, his parents are distant and always absent, we learn nothing about them aside from this fact and the fact that they are really rich. Aside from his ex-girlfriend there seemed to be absolutely nobody in his life before he became part of the band. That made him kind of a flat character.
The whole formation of the band seemed kind of unrealistic. I don't know much about the music industry, so maybe that is just me being ignorant, but I felt like everything fell in place just a little too quickly and conveniently.
I think insta-love stories can happen and are fine, I am usually not bothered by it, but it seemed awfully fast and hard to believe here.
The cheesiness got a little too much at times, even for me. Oh dear, the way these boys declared their feelings for each other again and again, was a little cringe-y at times. But maybe I am just not really the demographic for this kind of love story anymore.
Some things were repeated again and again, as if to make the reader believe it, but that didn't help.
Elliot's character seemed to change from scene to scene at times, he just felt a little inconsistent to me.
Do these boys in the band EVER argue? They were five strangers who were thrown together under intense stress and pressure and they spent so much time together in close quarters. Surely there would have been some more tensions?
The big manager-music company boss was so clichéd, he was so very bad without any redeeming characteristics at all that he read more like a stock character than an actual person.
The fact that Danny and Elliot didn't just walk away seemed a little strange to me, but then again they were young and it was a difficult situation. I guess after reading Lance Bass' biography I now appreciate that their situation was, in fact, a really tough one to get out of.
The ending seemed a little too convenient to me. I mean, I understand that this is a HEA romance novel, but still... after the entire book tried to convince me that Elliot and Danny didn't have any other way than to go along with the label's and the PR firms plans, it was all a little too easily resolved in the end. That kind of undermined the entire central conflict of the novel for me.
So all in all I liked the love story, even though it was extremely cheesy. I liked the way the relationship between Danny and Elliot progressed and how they tried to deal with everything as best they could. There were some really believable fights between them and some believable bumps on their road. I liked that part of their relationship dynamic a lot, it seemed quite realistic and well-executed to me. But there were just too many things that
Side note: Omg, is the music industry really this terrible?! Are PR firms really this involved and crazy good at covering stuff up and constructing a public image? If it is, that is really really scary.
rissa53's review
4.0
I thought I was going to have to break something lol! I feel for Danny and Elliot. My gosh, showbiz is tough. I like how all aspects were shown. The good and the bad. It was awesome that both guys had three other guys who supported them without question. I know I read some reviews about something with fanfiction. I came from fanfiction and that led me to this genre. So I embrace it. I really don't read that much anymore because I'm so in love with this genre now! Lol but hey if I read a story and enjoy it, that's it. I enjoyed this story! ♥
foksha_1996's review
2.0
sigh...another book I DNF. AT the beginning it was sooo good and couldn't stop reading and now it's turned childish with too much giggling..
tankytoon's review
emotional
slow-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5