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A review by bookish_notes
Reverb by Anna Zabo
2.0
I’m finally done!! I dearly wished I loved this book more, but it had the same issues for me that the last book, Counterpoint, did. It’s not that I don’t like the characters? Because I love all of them. They’re sweet and all deserve hugs. But I really just don’t like the main tropes and plot points so I just wasn’t having fun reading this book. I read about to the 53% mark and then skimmed the rest.
Trigger warnings include stalking, violence, threatening messages, transmisia, homomisia, misogyny, mentions of a near death experience (from first book), mentions of being in the military and war, mentions of child sexual assault, and mentions of a parent dying from cancer.
Mish is the fourth member of the Twisted Wishes rock band. She plays the bass and has a lovely singing voice. She’s also a very tall 6’1”. I feel like I should mention that because how often do we get tall heroines?? When Mish keeps gets increasingly threatening messages, the team decides to hire a bodyguard to keep an eye out for Mish.
The bodyguard is war vet David. He’s 43 and a trans man who works in security. He comes off as a little jaded and gruff, maybe because of the lonely life he’s accustomed to living, but he soon opens up to Mish and the rest of the rock band that makes up Twisted Wishes.
So, I do love Mish and I do love David?? But I wish the story was just something else entirely when it comes to the actual stalker and bodyguard/security aspect of the book, because those things really made me not enjoy this as much as I wanted to. This is my 4th book with a stalker in the plot in the last two months and I think my 3rd in the same timeframe, and none of these have worked for me.
Like, I do get that in real life a celeb isn’t going to know their stalker and it’s just some random creeper, but also...I do also read a lot of mystery books so the fact that the stalker randomly shows up at the end of the book with no knowledge of who they are beforehand and is “handled” in a page or two and promptly vanishes from the story seems way anticlimactic.
And then for the bodyguard piece of the story. Look. I adore David but he is not good at his job. I like bodyguard stories if the bodyguard in question is actually competent at their jobs. But I also think the band set him up for failure straight off the bat because they should’ve hired a whole team to watch over the band and Mish, not just one guy to watch a rock star in the middle of touring the country. David even forgoes his bodyguard duties when he goes out with the band to hang out!! WHY. If he can’t switch out with someone else, then there shouldn’t be down time for David. Mish gets in danger too many times and over little things that could’ve been prevented if David did his job properly and if he had a team to look out for Mish. That kind of got fixed in the end after all was said and done but way too late.
How am I supposed to believe security is David’s job or that he was a war vet if he shows no sign of either? Is he a guy who just handles security of his own or does he work for a company?? I don’t understand anything about David’s actual role in this book besides as a love interest. I think the book would’ve been more enjoyable if he had been introduced to the band some other way. I just grew more and more frustrated reading this book because the band members kept telling him to not feel so down on himself for doing a bad job, but he was very clearly doing a bad job, the poor guy.
This story goes in hard for the found family and diverse sexualities with all the characters. I feel bad for saying this but it almost seemed too forced at times and the conversations about their band family too repetitive and too stilted. I do love the author’s other books, but ultimately this series is not my favorite from them.
***Thanks to the publisher for approving me for this ARC on NetGalley.***
Trigger warnings include stalking, violence, threatening messages, transmisia, homomisia, misogyny, mentions of a near death experience (from first book), mentions of being in the military and war, mentions of child sexual assault, and mentions of a parent dying from cancer.
Mish is the fourth member of the Twisted Wishes rock band. She plays the bass and has a lovely singing voice. She’s also a very tall 6’1”. I feel like I should mention that because how often do we get tall heroines?? When Mish keeps gets increasingly threatening messages, the team decides to hire a bodyguard to keep an eye out for Mish.
The bodyguard is war vet David. He’s 43 and a trans man who works in security. He comes off as a little jaded and gruff, maybe because of the lonely life he’s accustomed to living, but he soon opens up to Mish and the rest of the rock band that makes up Twisted Wishes.
So, I do love Mish and I do love David?? But I wish the story was just something else entirely when it comes to the actual stalker and bodyguard/security aspect of the book, because those things really made me not enjoy this as much as I wanted to. This is my 4th book with a stalker in the plot in the last two months and I think my 3rd in the same timeframe, and none of these have worked for me.
Like, I do get that in real life a celeb isn’t going to know their stalker and it’s just some random creeper, but also...I do also read a lot of mystery books so the fact that the stalker randomly shows up at the end of the book with no knowledge of who they are beforehand and is “handled” in a page or two and promptly vanishes from the story seems way anticlimactic.
And then for the bodyguard piece of the story. Look. I adore David but he is not good at his job. I like bodyguard stories if the bodyguard in question is actually competent at their jobs. But I also think the band set him up for failure straight off the bat because they should’ve hired a whole team to watch over the band and Mish, not just one guy to watch a rock star in the middle of touring the country. David even forgoes his bodyguard duties when he goes out with the band to hang out!! WHY. If he can’t switch out with someone else, then there shouldn’t be down time for David. Mish gets in danger too many times and over little things that could’ve been prevented if David did his job properly and if he had a team to look out for Mish. That kind of got fixed in the end after all was said and done but way too late.
How am I supposed to believe security is David’s job or that he was a war vet if he shows no sign of either? Is he a guy who just handles security of his own or does he work for a company?? I don’t understand anything about David’s actual role in this book besides as a love interest. I think the book would’ve been more enjoyable if he had been introduced to the band some other way. I just grew more and more frustrated reading this book because the band members kept telling him to not feel so down on himself for doing a bad job, but he was very clearly doing a bad job, the poor guy.
This story goes in hard for the found family and diverse sexualities with all the characters. I feel bad for saying this but it almost seemed too forced at times and the conversations about their band family too repetitive and too stilted. I do love the author’s other books, but ultimately this series is not my favorite from them.
***Thanks to the publisher for approving me for this ARC on NetGalley.***