Review: Syncopation by Anna Zabo

Title: Syncopation

Series: Twisted Wishes: Book One

Author: Anna Zabo

Length: 295 Pages

Category: Contemporary

At a Glance: I liked the story. It was interesting, had a bit of agony, a bit of mystery, and a lot of likeable characters.

Reviewed By: Ky

Blurb: Twisted Wishes front man Ray Van Zeller is in one hell of a tight spot. After a heated confrontation with his bandmate goes viral, Ray is hit with a PR nightmare the fledgling band so doesn’t need. But his problems only multiply when they snag a talented new drummer—insufferably sexy Zavier Demos, the high school crush Ray barely survived.

Zavier’s kept a casual eye on Twisted Wishes for years, and lately, he likes what he sees. What he doesn’t like is how out of control Ray seems—something Zavier’s aching to correct after their first pulse-pounding encounter. If Ray’s up for the challenge.

Despite the prospect of a glorious sexual encore, Ray is reluctant to trust Zavier with his band—or his heart. And Zavier has always had big dreams; this gig was supposed to be temporary. But touring together has opened their eyes to new passions and new possibilities, making them rethink their commitments, both to the band and to each other.

Review: Syncopation is a tough book to label. It’s a friends-to-lovers story but not really. It’s an enemies-to-lovers story. No. Not really. It’s a second chance romance. Nope. It’s not that either. It’s the story of a rock band. Yes, that’s it! It’s the story of a rock band’s first steps toward stardom…

Ray and Zavier knew each other in high school—hence the second chance—but they were neither friends nor did they interact much. Their only conversation was Zavier turning down Ray’s invitation to join his band. The next time they meet, Ray has formed his band, has released a few albums, and is in need of a drummer while Zavier is in need of a job. It worked out great since each had what the other needed.

They start a tentative friendship after Ray decides to put the past behind him, and they settle into a friends-with-benefits arrangement. While the beginning of their relationship was slow and took the necessary time for their connection to grow and strengthen, from that point onward everything happened very fast. I would have liked a slower pace, but it didn’t affect my opinion of the book much.

I liked both MCs as well as the other two members of the band. I don’t know if this is supposed to be the first book in a series, but if it is, I’m very interested to know more about Dom. Plus, it would be nice to see Ray and Zavier again!

What made this particular book stand out in the midst of all the other rock band books is the fact that one of our MC identifies as aromantic. It was my first read with a character of this particular identity, and I found it very interesting and very informative. I don’t know if the author handled it well or realistically—I’ll leave that to the people who have more knowledge on the subject than me to judge it—but no matter what, it made me think about the complexities of a relationship between a romantic and an aromantic person. I believed in their HEA, and a huge part in that played to the fact that they talked about Zavier’s aromanticism and Ray was open to it and understanding from the start. Zavier was honest from the start that there would be no romance between them, even if he held off on putting a name to the reason behind his declaration until things started to get more serious.

To tell you the truth, at some point I got a bit confused as to how their relationship was going to work with only one of them having romantic feelings for the other. But then I thought that every relationship is different anyway. Every connection has something unique that is only for the people involved to understand. The important thing is that they found a balance that worked for them and they were happy with it. The rest don’t matter and neither does whether I understand the workings of their relationship or not.

And in the middle of all those positives I have got to mention Carl… What a frustrating character! No, more than that. What a frustrating situation! I can’t believe that nobody interfered effectively before things got so out of hand. What we had in this story is a case of pure psychological abuse. The fact that the people involved didn’t have any kind of relationship except a working one doesn’t make what Carl was doing any less abusive. He hit Ray with his words, making him doubt himself and his self-worth. He twisted the reality and made Ray believe his words. He had a strange kind of power over Ray that evolved through time and constant degradation. He had managed to make Ray stop believing in himself, not have any confidence. He had conditioned him so well that Ray was physically and mentally shrinking every time he had to deal with Carl. I got angry that nothing was changing and that Carl managed to get in Ray’s head and affect him so negatively and so much. Carl was the evil character that I could have done without. I would have preferred for him to be just mean and a troublemaker for the band rather than this over the top character who stopped at nothing and nobody.

Other than that, I liked the story. It was interesting, had a bit of agony about what would happen with Carl, a bit of mystery about why he was doing all those things (though the answer wasn’t a very satisfying one), and a lot of likeable characters.

You can buy Syncopation here:
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