Duet

Duet, the first in Julie Kriss’ Road Kings series, has a sweetheart of a smokin’ hot rock star improbably named Denver who spends much of this slight tale trying to convince Callie, a prickly piano teacher, that he’s the guy for her. If you’re looking for a flawless, gorgeous, brilliant hero who keeps laying his heart on the line for a woman who has trust issues, you’ll love Duet.

It’s a rainy Thursday night in Portland and Callie, playing a jazz gig in a tiny club, spots a guy at the bar listening with his back to the band. She decides he’s rude and, when she’s finished the show, decides to call him out. But, shocker, he turns out not to be an ass and, whoa, is he sexy. Within the hour, she’s taken him home and he’s given her the best sex of her 35-year-old life. In the morning, he leaves his number, because he instantly is IN TO HER. But then Callie consults Google and discovers Denver is the lead singer of a massively famous rock band, the Road Kings. And because musician, in her personal lexicon, means a man to be avoided at all costs, she panics instead of swoons. Denver, though, is respectfully undeterred. He’s 37, been retired for the past five years, and suddenly all he really wants in life is to hang out with and bang Callie.

Denver is the rare rock star (who was abandoned as a child) who doesn’t do drugs, doesn’t much drink, eschews groupies, and is lovely to cats and humans alike. Callie is a loner who clings hard to her small, safe life and, again and again, mistakes fear for wisdom. She is defensive in often hurtful ways that feel unfair given how consistently decent Denver is. And when she learns that the Road Kings have been coaxed to go on tour, well, she just knows very bad things will happen. That’s the plot and not one thing about it is surprising.

Still, the book, for much of it, is a good time. Kriss’ writing is funny, the band banter is a blast, and the sex scenes are great. I was happily coasting along on those modest pleasures—great hero, fizzy chemistry, easy reading—until the story simply… stopped. Like stopped in a wtf way that made me wonder if my copy was missing pages. And while there’s technically an HFN, it’s so abrupt it barely lands.

It’s clear the story continues in the next Road Kings book, which follows a different couple, and, man, does that kind of series engineering irk me. If you’re selling me a book as its own thing, you have to finish the story you’re telling. I felt cheated by Duet’s ending and I’m not happy about it.

That said, if you go in treating Duet as part one of a multi-book romance, and you love dreamboat heroes, prickly women, and snarky male camaraderie, you’ll have a good time. The romance has its charms—but just know you’re signing up for chapter one, not the whole story.