Review: Moonlight Becomes You

Title: Moonlight Becomes You
Series: Lucky Moon
Author: Piper Vaughn & M.J. O'Shea
Publisher: Loose Id
Publication Date: 9 August 2011
Reviewed Format: ebook
Length: 139 pages

Rating: 4 out of 5

Blurb:
Eleven years ago Shane Ventura made the biggest mistake of his life when he caved in to pressure from his record label to kick his best friend Jesse Seider out of their band, Luck. Though he had a gorgeous voice, Jesse wasn't beautiful and didn't fit the label's ideal look. But Shane's never wanted anyone else more, and all the sex and alcohol in the world can't fill the void Jesse left behind.

As his thirty-second birthday approaches, Shane's more miserable than ever. Even the prospect of teaming up with Britain's hottest band, Moonlight, for an epic world tour can't get him out of his depressive funk. Until he meets lead singer, Kayden Berlin, and falls into instant lust.

Though Kayden acts like he’s not interested, Shane knows he feels the spark between them. The harder Shane pushes, the more Kayden pulls away. Then one explosive night things finally come to a head and Shane is left nursing a broken heart. That seems to be Shane's lot -- lucky at everything but love. But there's a lesson in store for Shane: when it comes to love, you can’t always leave things to chance.

Review:

Main Characters:
Shane is the quintessential bad boy rocker--well into sex, drugs, and alcohol. As we meet him, he's grown tired of the lifestyle, though, and depressed at how empty his life is. His biggest regret is leaving behind his best friend, Jesse, when the band forced him out as a contract requirement. He's uneven as a narrator, which conveys quite well his confusion and frustration over the situation with Kayden. I do wish that he'd had a backbone and stood up for Jesse when they were signed, rather than rolling over and taking what the others decided without a fight. I did ultimately like his evolution, though, from spoiled, jaded rock star to acknowledging and moving past his failings.

Kayden runs hot and cold, quite literally--one moment he's freezing Shane out, the next heat is flaring between them. When it comes to everyone but Shane and Nick, Shane's younger brother, he's a darling, sweet and funny, which makes his treatment of Shane jarring. He's not afraid to stand up for himself and tell Shane no, even if it is a struggle for him at times. He has a large secret to keep from Shane, though, and the revelation of it... well, although I saw it coming from the beginning, I wish it had gone in a different direction, or at least that the motivations behind it had been different, as the latter made me completely re-evaluate him as a character and ultimately like him less than I had up to that point. Honestly, I read him after the revelation as obsessive to the point of being unhealthy--manipulating the joint tour simply to be able to get revenge for the hurt that Shane caused him all those years before is not the sign of a well-balanced psyche. When I skimmed over the story again, the way that I regarded him had changed completely and left me with a not-quite-pleasant taste in my mouth. Yes, Shane was an asshole. Yes, Shane is still an asshole. That doesn't make it any more palatable.

Chemistry:
There's no denying the attraction between Shane and Kayden, even when Kayden is shooting Shane down. It's nearly halfway through the story before they so much as come close to a kiss, but the tension is intoxicating, and makes their late consummation more than worth it. Although sex does happen in the story, there is comparatively little sexual content, so those looking for more action than tension may be disappointed. I, however, found it to be the perfect balance.

Secondary Characters:
The supporting cast is comprised mostly of the band members of Luck and Moonlight, the latter more than the former (given Shane's point of view). The largest presence is Nick, the other members of Luck fading into the background enough that I can barely remember who Dre is and completely forgot the fourth member's name. (Given that the next story in the series is Nick's, this isn't much of a surprise.) Unfortunately, I didn't particularly like Nick; he was living the rock star lifestyle well before he had the rock star cred and comes across more as a blitzed-out complete waste of oxygen than an interesting character.

Story:
The story follows Shane's evolution as he attempts to get to know Kayden on their shared tour and is interspersed with flashbacks to his relationship with Jesse before it went to shit. Points A and B are fairly transparent from early on, but the path between them is fun, with some nice twists.

Writing:
I particularly enjoyed the writing in this book; it wasn't perfect, but the flow of it was still smooth and light, with just the right touch of detail. It was easy to get lost in it; it wasn't until I had to set it down due to an outside stimulus that I came out of the story, which is a nice change from those stories where I'm constantly checking my current location to see how much I had left.

Overall:
Mostly-appealing characters and a pleasant if transparent story made this book easy to like. Although I'm still torn on the reality of Kayden, I enjoyed my time spent reading it and look forward to spending more time in their world.