Counterpoint

Twisted Wishes, Book 2

By: Anna Zabo

Narrated by: Greg Boudreaux

Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's Summary

Twisted Wishes lead-guitarist Dominic "Domino" Bradley is an animal onstage. But behind his tight leather pants and skull-crusher boots lies a different man entirely, one who needs his stage persona not only to perform, but to have the anonymity he craves. A self-imposed exile makes it impossible to get close to anyone outside the band, so he's forced to get his sexual fix through a few hot nights with a stranger.

When computer programmer Adrian Doran meets Dominic, he's drawn to the other man's quiet voice and shy smile. But after a few dirty, demanding nights exploring Dominic's need to be dominated, Adrian wants more than a casual distraction. He has no idea he's fallen for Domino Grinder - the outlandish, larger-than-life rock god.

Dominic is reluctant to trust Adrian with his true identity. But when the truth is revealed prematurely, Dominic is forced to reevaluate both his need for Adrian and everything he believes about himself.

Contains mature themes.

©2018 Anna Zabo (P)2020 Tantor

Good series, a more private installment than the first.

An enjoyable continuation of the series. The first half of Counterpoint was excellent. The second half felt rushed. Dom & Adrian work well together. And while they had a hefty dose of insta-love driving their initial encounters, I think it played too much into the rush. Solid writing, solid characters, good friends who have each other’s backs. All that is here. It’s a fairly low angst book since most of the pacing is from internal worries that are entirely understandable and mostly reasonable.

Dom wasn’t ready to trust Adrian with his alter ego right away and that was smart. Adrian was actually pretty chill about it. It was Dom’s equal desire to start fessing up after the second date while never wanting to reveal Domino to Adrian, and thus Dominic to the public, that drove Dom’s guilt. I get that probably someone who will tie you up & who you think will let you go on command seems like they could also be trusted with other truths but… Private sex and public dining are different levels of secrets. People outside the relationship expect and allow for sex secrets. They don’t leave as much leeway for basic facts about where you spend most of your down time. Two dates is way too soon to initiate major public upheaval. The relationship should be solid in private, not still nascent, before dropping it into public chaos. And while the secret didn’t blow up until later, Dom’s super angst about it started after date 2, and I felt bad for him between date 2 and the reveal because he felt he should’ve trusted a near stranger. The reader understands that Adrian will let Dom out of an uncomfortable sex scene, but we never really see that tested on page. It didn’t need the same level of validation as characters in an earlier book (different series), but I would have felt reassured to have Adrian at least untie Dom on demand rather than just trusting he will do so since trust on demand *in a charged situation* is the necessary precondition for him learning Dom’s lifechanging secret.

While major details get wrapped up super quickly in the last 25 minutes of the book, unlike book one, we get no major on stage performances. The first book was so rich and fun with the shows, I was at least expecting the pre-album show. Maybe we’ll get details in the next book, but I think it was a lack here, not seeing a big performance through Dom’s POV. Especially when his literal panic about performing is the main driver of the relationship conflict. We get a couple nice scenes of Dom playing in private, and a few at practice, but there was set up enough to give him a small or mid sized performance in a novel venue that never materialized. It wasn’t required but as a reader I expected more to happen, thought it could help with performance anxiety plot (either badly or helpfully) and didn’t get it. We do get a brief update on Adrian’s bff Jackson, but unless he’s getting his own book, I wanted to see more of him on page here, maybe another workout, maybe meeting the band. And where does the artsy photo wind up? Little stuff like that would have made the second half feel less rushed and more complete.

Both the “I hate exercise but like the results and can tolerate it by working out with a friend” and the “I guess I like my job well enough” are moods I understand to my bones. And I liked seeing those moods/experiences come through so real on page.

Steam: Hot. M/M bondage kink on page. Fully dressed teasing happens in public, and might be hotter than some of the naked times. I appreciated the non/low pain aspect of the bondage play.

Narration: Again, excellent narrator & narration. I like GB’s twink voice. Worth a listen.

Hot and Sweet

An excellent continuation to the series. We get to know Domino and get glimpses of Xavier and Ray. Greg Boudreaux rocked the narration. I loved it.

wow

That was the hottest romance novel ever. Scotchgard your sofa in advance and dig in.

Get a therapist and stop whining

There's very little plot here with too much needless anxiety. I like sex scenes but not so much meaningless repetition. It's an easily predictable conclusion. I'm not sure why I read the whole thing. And I wanted to ask, why would a celebrity who's afraid of the media use public transportation? Can't you afford car service? It was sweet, I guess but the characters made life much more difficult than it needed to be. I just didn't have any sympathy. Dominic/Domino was such a wimp and way too much trouble. Greg Boudreaux is a fine narrator and deserves better material. The first book of the series was so much better.

The other side

Can a person have two opposite sides? How to make them coexist? And how will it go when love happens? These are the questions... A really good story and an excellent narration. A bit too much sex for my taste in the first half of the book. All in all, very good!

Guitar duet

Intimacy and restraint are two important aspects of this book, second in a three novel series. We see very little of Twisted Wishes on stage, their fans, or the tour bus. Instead, the author focuses on Dominic / Domino, the band's guitarist. Outside of the band, Dom is a different man. He lives a normal-ish life which he loves just as much as when he makes music. Dom's inner conflict and turmoil which come from him trying to balance the two iterations of himself as he falls in love, are the main drivers of the plot.

This inevitably means a lot of internal dialogue and some angst. But also love and kink. Any queer person who has ever compartmentalised their life will be able to identify to some degree with Dom's troubles.

I found the change of pace and focus after the first novel just as engaging. A quieter, but still sexy, interlude before story no. 3.