Riven
A Novel
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4.2 • 5 Ratings
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
Two tortured musicians inspire each other to risk their hearts in this edgy and emotional novel.
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY LIBRARY JOURNAL
“Riven is the romance you must read next. You’re welcome.”—Suzanne Brockmann, New York Times bestselling author of Some Kind of Hero
Theo Decker might be the lead singer of Riven, but he hates being a rock star. The paparazzi, the endless tours, being recognized everywhere he goes—it all makes him squirm. The only thing he doesn’t hate is the music. Feeling an audience’s energy as they lose themselves in Riven’s music is a rush unlike anything else . . . until he meets Caleb Blake Whitman. Caleb is rough and damaged, yet his fingers on his guitar are pure poetry. And his hands on Theo? They’re all he can think about. But Caleb’s no groupie—and one night with him won’t be enough.
Just when Caleb is accepting his new life as a loner, Theo Decker slinks into it and turns his world upside-down. Theo’s sexy and brilliant and addictively vulnerable, and all Caleb wants is another hit. And another. That’s how he knows Theo’s trouble. Caleb can’t even handle performing these days. How the hell is he going to survive an affair with a tabloid superstar? But after Caleb sees the man behind the rock star, he begins to wonder if Theo might be his chance at a future he thought he’d lost forever.
Roan Parrish’s pitch-perfect Riven novels can be read together or separately:
RIVEN | REND
Praise for Riven
“[Roan] Parrish may well break readers’ hearts with this deeply felt, perfectly paced contemporary. . . . The author’s sensitive portrait of an addict in recovery adds depth and layers to the story. . . . Generous and tender in all the right ways.”—Publishers Weekly
“Riven has it all: off-the-charts chemistry, heart-wrenching emotion, and a captivating storyline that grabs you from page one.”—Sloane Kennedy, author of The Protectors series
“Roan Parrish turns her signature lyrical prose to the world of rock and roll, and the result is both beautiful and off-the-charts hot.”—Jenny Holiday, USA Today bestselling author of One and Only
This ebook includes an excerpt from another Loveswept title.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Parrish (Small Change) may well break readers' hearts with this deeply felt, perfectly paced contemporary about a reluctant rock star and the recovering addict he falls for. Theo Decker, lead singer for the superhot rock band Riven, is tired of touring. On a break, an exhausted Theo meets washed-up musician Caleb Whitman by (believable) chance in a Brooklyn dive bar, and the chemistry between them is immediate and explosive. But Caleb is just out of his fourth stint in rehab, trying to kick a heroin addiction, and far from sure that he can hold on to his sobriety, especially if he ventures into Theo's rock-and-roll world. The author's sensitive portrait of an addict in recovery adds depth and layers to the story. Caleb's oscillation between drawing Theo closer and pushing him away makes it clear that he believes he has nothing meaningful to give until he realizes that love could be the key to his healing. This contemporary is generous and tender in all the right ways.
Customer Reviews
4.5 "I was used to being looked at, but being seen was something quite different" stars
A reluctant rockstar who rose to fame to prove something to the family that treated him as a burden, a post-rehab musician so afraid to fall back into addiction that he polices his whole life to the detriment of living, music and wonder and hope and learning to love yourself..
That's RIVEN in a nutshell. But the story is so much better, and so much more, than my crappy summary.
This is my third read by Parrish and I've finally found the love for one of her stories that I've only ever glimpsed, or that has always just been out of reach, in those past experiences. Or, maybe that's unfair. I've always loved her writing but either struggled with the POV of an annoying protagonist (IN THE MIDDLE OF SOMEWHERE) or found the narrative interesting but couldn't stay connected when the lack of chemistry between characters failed to keep me engaged (THE REMAKING OF CORBIN WALE). This time? This time it works.
Theo is adorably charming, intense, naive, talented, hopeful. Caleb is afraid, resigned, reluctant, tender, worldly. They were the perfect balance for one another; Theo pushed, Caleb cautioned, and they found something that worked just right.. even when it didn't.
RIVEN is the perfect sweet spot of edgy, sexy, and raw, driven and expressed by Parrish's absolutely magical, unbelievably expressive, lyrical, prose. I'm not sure I've ever read a rockstar romance for the m/m genre but there's more here than just that. There's the struggle about what it means to be tempted, to be an addict; what a person might push themselves to endure to prove something to others; what it means to battle with unhappiness, to bury their wants for the sake of others; and to be overflowing with love for others after receiving so little all their life. And it's also hot as anything.
Is it too early to want to get my hands on REND? Because if it is.. I'm not sorry. I want more.