Conquest by S.J. Frost

[reviews_and_ramblings]

Conquest is one of those books that you like despite yourself. Personally I didn't like nor Jesse or Evan, the two main characters, but this is exactly the reason why I liked their story. Jesse and Evan are two young rock star, Jesse still a struggling one, but he is only 20 year old, so he has time to succeed, and Evan is a burnt star, he started when he was only 17 years old and now at 27 he seems to have lost the passion for it. They are moody, hot tempered and arrogant, in few word they are the perfect rock star.

Jesse is young and full of life, he has not supporting parents, they kicked him out when he told them he was gay, but his brother Brandon is playing the role of perfect older brother-substitute father. And so at 20 years old, Jesse only real trouble is how to find the money to produce his first album, his love life is still like he was a teenager, no really life burnt there, and Brandon is trying his best to protect him from the big bad world. I think Jesse is not yet a fully man, he has not really had bad, he is spoilt and too much self-conscious, but in a way, I like that in him: why someone has to suffer to be a good character? Jesse is lucky enough to have someone who takes care of him, and when he meets Evan, he only changes protector, from his brother Brandon to his lover Evan, and again, he didn't suffer in the shift.

Evan on the other hand is a full arrogant piece of... man. And as he said he was arrogant even before being a rock star, so his behavior only worsen in the change. He went in a self-imposed exile after a very bad experience, but again the experience was mostly his own fault. Evan has no one to blame if not himself, and to add badder to bad, it's not that the exile changed him so much. Basically he is a temper tantrum artist, and you have not to be on his path. But if you are on his right side, than Evan could be the perfect best and boy friend. In comparison to Jesse, maybe Evan had some trouble while growing up and also during his career, but again, I don't feel like he is a fully grown man, I still see him like an overgrown child playing with fast cars but still needing the comfortable embrace of a loving family, something he has lost and still miss. So when he finds Jesse, and his brother Brandon, Evan thinks to have found it all, and doesn't think twice to make them his own makeshift family... and here again, in a way, he is behaving more as a selfish man than a really caring lover.

I'm too harsh with them? I don't think so. See for example the little details, the safe sex issue. Jesse is a virgin, and his brother Brandon is always pestering him about being safe when he finally will do that. Jesse always replies like he is having that "boring" lessons, but you think, he, at least once, listened to that? And then, first time he has sex with Evan, he forgets it all. And Evan? he is older, wiser, responsible? No. Maybe, you think, he knows he is safe, but what lesson he is teaching to Jesse? They met that same night, I don't think they could play the exclusive card, and so? That is only a little detail that made me look at them more as child than really adult men.

Anyway, the story is one I like, I have always loved the show business setting and despite their fault, Evan and Jesse are cute, it felt more like I was reading about boys playing with their parents clothes, but still, they were sweet. Both are not macho men, they tend to be very emotional, and there is also a lot of sex, but again, I think it's in their characters. At the end of the book there is sneak peek on the sequel, so maybe Evan and Jesse will have the chance to grow in their second book.

http://www.mlrbooks.com/ShowBook.php?book=CONQUEST

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