Title: Manic Pixie Dream Boy (The Underdogs: Book One)
Author: K.A. Merikan
Publisher: Self-Published/Kindle Unlimited
Length: 143 Pages
Category: Contemporary
At a Glance: I can’t wait to see what comes next for this band, and I’m very excited to see Dusk and Abe make appearances in the next books as an established couple. 5 shiny pink stars!
Reviewed By: Ky
Blurb: You can’t hide the cracks under the spotlight
Dusk. Leader of The Underdogs. Destined for greatness. Lives in the now.
Abe. AKA Lolly. Iridescent. Unicorn.
All Dusk wants out of life is for his band to become world famous. He also wants to have a lot of fun along the way. And to get his rocks off. When he wants something, he goes for it, consequences be damned.
So when he sees a gorgeous pink-haired guy who is the human equivalent of tattooed cotton candy, he can’t help but have a taste. But it’s when Lolly ends up on their tour bus that Dusk knows their meeting was destiny.
Abe is the kind of guy who goes with the flow. He was hitchhiking anyway, so why not spend the week with a hot piece of rocker beefcake, getting smothered by his sexy long hair? And why not play the part of the supportive cutie while he’s at it? It’s not like he’d be sticking around for long anyway.
All plans hit a wall when photos of Abe and Dusk emerge online, suddenly pushing the band into the spotlight. To take advantage of the sudden popularity, the band offers Abe money for staying.
Which means money for being in a fake relationship with Dusk.
Which isn’t even fake.
Or is it?
Review: I’ll start with the one and only thing I didn’t like about this book: the title. I didn’t like it even a little bit, but fortunately, I didn’t let that stop me from reading the book, and I have to say that the amazing cover helped a lot.
So, with the negative out of the way, let’s focus on the awesomeness that is this first book of KA Merikan’s new series. We have a bad-boy rocker falling in love with a pink-haired drifter. Their romance moves along quickly, but with these two characters and in this setting, it worked. Dusk and Abe meet while on the road, and the whole story takes place while they are on the move. We have a rocker and a hitchhiker; they are both living in the now, seeking adrenaline, not thinking of tomorrow. The only thing that matters is the now, or at the most, the next week, so it seemed logical that they would fall so hard and so quickly for each other. They felt a connection and they went for it, without thinking too far ahead, and at some point, it just sucked them in without either of them realizing when it happened.
At first I didn’t like the nickname that Dusk gave to Abe, but as I kept reading it felt weird whenever he was referred to by his real name and not as Lolly. It was a cute name that Dusk gave him the moment he saw him, and in the end, it suited him better that his own name.
The other members of the band were interesting characters, and as the series is called The Underdogs, which is the name of the band, I’m guessing that we’re getting their stories in the future. It’s not clear in the book, but I hope the couples will be Dawn with Mage, and Sid with Stan.
At the beginning of their relationship, or whatever it was then, Dusk was very self-centered, he didn’t pay attention to details, and he didn’t seem to be interested in really getting to know Abe. I think, though, that he was just too excited to have Abe there and to be with someone he liked for so long, for the first time in his life, that he genuinely forgot to ask questions. I’m not excusing him, I’m just saying that there was an explanation for his behaviour. He was a really nice person and wasn’t inconsiderate on purpose. Just too excited to think straight.
I liked all the tropes the authors used, even the split near the end that is so common in romances. Here it wasn’t annoying; it was like something Dusk and Abe needed to go through in order to grow stronger and have a future. They got something out of their time as just friends. It wasn’t there just so there could be some drama in the story. It served a purpose.
I can’t wait to see what comes next for this band, and I’m very excited to see Dusk and Abe make appearances in the next books as an established couple.
5 shiny pink stars!
You can buy Manic Pixie Dream Boy here:
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