Upstaged : Opening Act by S.L. Danielson and Cheryl Headford

Amazon


Blurb:
Wannabe singer and band front man Erik Von Nordgren hates snarky brit Asher Berkley with a passion. From the moment he turns up at practice with his twin sister Daisy, who is one of the band the two have hated each other.

Through a series of 'tit for tat' incidents they annoy, frustrate and exasperated each other. The die hard goth with purple eyes and the hard core rocker with dreams of the big time have nothing in common and no need to cross paths. Except to wind each other up.

Until the day that Erik throws Asher in the school pool, when everything begins to change. Erik is so far in closet he's in Narnia and Asher has a dark past and trust issues that stand in the way of any relationship, let alone one with the brash American who hurts him every time they try to get together.

A relationship doomed from the start, or so you'd think.

REVIEW:

First we have Erik, who is in a band.  He and Asher, the new emo kid, instantly hate each other.  And they continually harass each other.

Then we have Erik's best friend Billy.  Billy is in love with Erik, but is constantly hurt by Erik's insistence on remaining closeted.  They had made a pact to keep each other's secret, but Billy wants to be out of the closet now.  And Erik just can't let himself be openly gay.  

The story starts to get complicated as we start meeting some of the other guys.  Don't blink or you might miss one of the couplings of the moment. Seriously, pay attention though.  There is actually a wonderful overall plot to this story.  And the couples that form in the end are super sweet.  

I loved Asher.  My heart freaking broke for him.  He is so darn damaged.  And then Erik repeatedly hurts him.  When they do admit to liking each other, Erik just can't let his feelings show in public.  He constantly denies Asher and damages Asher more.

Honestly, Erik was an ass.  He's likeable because he has his reasons for being an ass.  But, he is an ass.  He is horrible to Asher.  And he repeatedly almost loses Asher.   When it seems like he has finally gone too far, Erik needs some help to win him back.   It actually ends with a very sweet and romantic prom night for all.

This book contained a great story, but sometimes the pace of the story confused me.  I enjoyed it, but I was personally left feeling that the story had so much more potential.  I think it was the writing style was just so fast and jumped around so much.  There were so many people and so much going on.  I think it would have been more enjoyable if the pace was slower and there was a little more "meat" to the story at times.  

The heart of story itself though was really good.  The end was just beautiful.   I would definitely recommend reading this.