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
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
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.
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.
Excerpt
My
problem with Faron was that he was stunning.
He was tall and taut, with broad
shoulders and an elegant neck. His tawny brown skin was flawless and he had
dreamy, gray-brown eyes that always seemed to focus on something in a plane
beyond this one. His riot of corkscrew curls was sometimes loose, but today was
caught up in a topknot. It had been bleached nearly white when I first met him
and was now growing out. His cheekbones were high and broad, casting shadows
that made him look like he was candlelit from every angle. His mouth was lush
and full, and his rare smiles turned his chiseled beauty to a warmth so
engaging that you didn’t ever want him to look away from you.
His beauty was a problem because it made
me want him and I hated wanting anything. Desire was the beginning of
disappointment.
It wasn’t just his looks, though. I
could’ve handled that. I’d known a lot of beautiful people.
No, it was everything.
He was graceful and forceful at the same
time. His focus was intense, whether it was on the things that only he saw or
on whoever he was listening to. And he made me feel calm—as if he held the
whole world in his hands and slowed it down or sped it up to whatever speed I
was going.
It was intoxicating: a promise of peace
as long as I was in his presence.
A hope.
And hope was
even worse than desire.
Jude Lucen was introduced in Small Change, the first book in this series. Invitation to the Blues explores just what is going on in his life in more detail, and it isn't easy. Please see the content warning for this book.
Jude has some serious mental health issues -- depression and anxiety -- and Roan Parrish does an amazing job of showing how isolating and debilitating these illnesses can be. Jude meets Faron at the tattoo shop, and is instantly smitten, but then his mind tells himself lies that have him pushing Faron away.
Faron is very patient with Jude and seems to know exactly what it is that Jude needs and when he needs it, which makes their relationship work. That and the scorchin hot chemistry they have when they are together! Faron's sensitivity and insight into Jude's state of mind was key to this romance, and it was what made me fall in love with these characters too.
The story is told entirely in Jude's point of view, which I really liked because it made me contemplate Faron from a different perspective than if I had his point of view as well. One point of view just really worked for me in this story.
What I love about this series -- it's about making choices, something everyone can relate to. Sometimes those choices come with high stakes like personal happiness and Roan Parrish captures the highs and lows of these situation beautifully. There are some writers that just speak to your soul, and Roan Parrish does that for me.
Invitation to the Blues works as a standalone, but I recommend Small Change, book 1 in the series too so you may as well start at the beginning.
An ARC was provided for review.
What I thought about Invitation to the Blues
Jude Lucen was introduced in Small Change, the first book in this series. Invitation to the Blues explores just what is going on in his life in more detail, and it isn't easy. Please see the content warning for this book.
Jude has some serious mental health issues -- depression and anxiety -- and Roan Parrish does an amazing job of showing how isolating and debilitating these illnesses can be. Jude meets Faron at the tattoo shop, and is instantly smitten, but then his mind tells himself lies that have him pushing Faron away.
Faron is very patient with Jude and seems to know exactly what it is that Jude needs and when he needs it, which makes their relationship work. That and the scorchin hot chemistry they have when they are together! Faron's sensitivity and insight into Jude's state of mind was key to this romance, and it was what made me fall in love with these characters too.
The story is told entirely in Jude's point of view, which I really liked because it made me contemplate Faron from a different perspective than if I had his point of view as well. One point of view just really worked for me in this story.
What I love about this series -- it's about making choices, something everyone can relate to. Sometimes those choices come with high stakes like personal happiness and Roan Parrish captures the highs and lows of these situation beautifully. There are some writers that just speak to your soul, and Roan Parrish does that for me.
Invitation to the Blues works as a standalone, but I recommend Small Change, book 1 in the series too so you may as well start at the beginning.
An ARC was provided for review.
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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