{Release Day Review} Riven by Roan Parrish (@RoanParrish @ReadLoveSwept)

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.

Caleb Blake Whitman is holding on.  His music career ended abruptly when his addiction took over.  Now he’s laying low, playing dive bars and trying to forget.
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Until the night when a mysteriously gorgeous man reignites both his music and his soul.

To open my grandfather’s door on Theo Decker had given me the blur like I hadn’t had in more than a year. All this time, I’d thought the house, the land, the trees, those ugly fucking sunflowers, had a clarity to them that my life before had lacked. But they all stood dimmed and fuzzy in comparison to the sharp edges of the man before me. He was the most in-focus thing I’d ever seen.
 
And I…I let him in. Opened the door and let him slip inside as sharp and sweet as a needle. I let him in because the idea of turning him away was more than I could bear. The quiet isolation of this place had been a necessary precaution; then a balm, when my every nerve was raw and each sensation felt like an amp turned to 10. It took Theo standing there, silver-snap eyes hopeful and sheepish, all sharp angles and messy hair and bitten lips, to let me feel. Really feel. And what I felt was a wave of longing so strong it nearly knocked me on my ass. 
 
Longing like that isn’t born of lust, it’s born of loneliness. It’s born of lack. It’s born of knowing the depths inside yourself that can gape wide enough to lose yourself in forever. And it’s about the hope that maybe, somehow, something has come along that makes you want to turn away from the abyss and face the light.

​As the lead singer for band Riven, Theo Decker is known for his passionate performances.  His androgynous beauty and emotive music skyrocketed them to fame in the blink of an eye.  The world is his for the taking, but he can’t shake the feeling that there’s something missing.
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In Caleb, he finds the intimate connection that he’s always longed for.  It gives him the courage to spread his artistic wings and shine all on his own.
 
But his stardom and Caleb’s past may prove to be monsters that they are just unable to slay.

With Riven, I’d had so much to hide behind. This…I wanted this to reveal something. 
 
The track sounded different than the others, since it wasn’t produced. You could hear the bellows of the pedals as they were pressed and released, hear the slide of my fingers and the echo of the keys. As my voice came in, I saw Caleb’s eyes widen. I turned to him and watched him listen to the song I’d written for him. The song that had gathered inside me, that I’d held tight all these months and finally unspooled for him in the early morning light. The song that told him all the things he already knew, but in the language we both felt deeper than words.

​In Riven, Roan Parrish paints a haunting landscape of fame, addiction and love.  Her characters are tragic in their weakness and stunning in their strength. It takes the story to an unexpected level and creates a kind of longing that becomes an actual ache in your chest. 
 
Theo and Caleb’s story will break your heart and then restore your faith. And that alone is worth the price of admission…

For Theo & Caleb ~ 

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