Oh, I loved this and absolutely cannot wait to dive into the second installment and conclusion to Dylan and Kai's love story.
This truly was an enemies-to-lovers romance as, several years after the seemingly accidental (or maybe suicidal, who knows) death of his older sister, Ava, Dylan hates Kai, who was the lead singer of the band Ava was in.
He was apparently with Ava the night she died, on a bridge, and he fell (or jumped?) in the water too, but he survived, where Ava didn't.
Dylan has never really gotten answers on what exactly happened that night, and so it's let his hate fester over time.
Thing is, before Ava died, Dylan had a big crush on Kai. He never really spoke to him, but he saw him once or so and he became enamored.
But once his sister died, and Kai was there and apparently didn't do anything to save her, Dylan has hated him with a burning passion.
There is still a part of him obsessed with Kai in that way, but it has a darker edge now, and the hate consumes Dylan so much that he berates himself for focusing on Kai's hands or eyes or lips when he looks him up on Instagram.
But to Dylan, Kai still seemingly caused her death - as she had drugs in her system that night, too - and Kai was drunk, and why did he live when Ava didn't?
And when it becomes known that Ava and Kai's band - with two of the original members still there, but also two new ones - and one who has replaced Ava as the bassist - has been picked up by a pretty big record company two and a half years after her death, Dylan becomes obsessed with finding Kai talking to him.
Asking him all the questions he hasn't gotten to before, to get answers for what exactly happened that night Ava died.
So a few months after he learns about the band, Iodine, hitting it big, when they're in Seattle at a venue performing, Dylan goes there, and after the show finds Kai with the band and others in the back of the building in the alley and all he gets out is something along the lines of "how does it feel being alive when she isn't?" and Kai is all "what do you expect me to say?"
And to that, Dylan just runs away. He wasn't ready, it was all too much.
And so, several months after that, he's thinks he's more prepared, and even gets backstage passes.
But he's not so prepared, and he and Kai get into it, and he ends up punch Kai and breaking his nose - and that gets filmed and put on the internet.
Not good, because Dylan has a politician for a father. A pretty shitty father all around, who pretends he's a loving father and family man for the cameras. As a majority of politicians, especially republicans, tend to do.
Now, his dad is a republican, but a senator for Washington State, which...just isn't realistic. But as it's fiction, I did my best to let that fact go lol.
But anyway, his dad is a republican with outdated values and he is definitely a bigoted homophobe. He found out about Dylan being gay when he found him with his childhood friend in bed, and it's the only time in his life he'd been physical with Dylan, punching him a few times and pulling his hair, and then threatening to kill Dylan if he ever was with a guy again.
Safe to say, Dylan's been sufficiently cowed by the man. Which, completely understandable, especially when Dylan was only 17 at the time.
So when everything happens with Kai with the video, his father wants him to do anything he can to make it go away, because of course what Dylan did is not good for his image.
Kai doesn't press charges, but he doesn't want a settlement and for Dylan to take anger management classes.
He even gets a (temporary) restraining order put on Dylan when Dylan messages him on instagram after the whole incident.
So, after all that, almost a year goes by before they talk again, because Kai sends Dylan Ava's old bass guitar, and also there are poems or lyrics in the guitar case as well that are pretty deep, and dark, and Dylan can't tell if they're Ava's or not.
This opens up the start of change between these two. Things are still not good, and there is still animosity, but Kai agree to talk to Dylan, and once they go, things change irrevocably between the two. Especially when the night leads to a kiss between the two.
As sexual things start to happen between the two over the next few months - Kai is away at gigs a lot, or touring, so there are only a few times here or there he's in Seattle for a few days - things start to slowly change between these two.
Dylan, by the end of this, doesn't hate Kai at all, even if he still doesn't 100% have the answers he needs about Ava.
But now that the hate and animosity has left, the falling in love can begin, yes? ;) It kind of already did near the very end of this, but they're just at the very start of it, I think.
But at the end of this, there's a wrench thrown between these two as Dylan is still in the closet, and something happened with Kai that's going to take a lot of his mental time and energy over however many months coming up, and Kai asks to put their...thing, whatever it may be, on pause.
Ah, I'm so excited to dive into the next one. I just couldn't put this book down, only when I to did I do that.
I really liked Dylan and Kai's chemistry, it was so good. We didn't get to full on sex in this, but we did get some good kissing, as well as blowjobs and they were so good ;).
Definitely, this book is worth a read. Two MASSIVE thumbs up from me!
I gotta go run to read the next book in this duet pronto! 🏃🏼♀️