I typically love books that have a music theme behind the romance, because music is something that never fails to give rise to strong emotions in me. So as my first exposure to author A.M. Arthur, I had high hopes for Body Rocks. It’s a good story, but in spite of being able to feel the music, I never quite got to the point where I felt the connection between the main characters as strongly as I wanted.

Trey Cooper and his bandmates in Fading Daze are weeks away from competing in a national music competition when the band’s drummer bails on them to join XYZ, a rival band in the competition. So after an amazing up with Dominic Bounds, a phenominal musician who performed at open-mic night in the bar where Trey works, the last place he expected to see Dom again was on stage as the keyboardist for the very same rival band. Winning the competition is important to both men, but for Dom, it’s his last chance to prove that he can make it in the music business before being forced to find a real job. Falling hard for Trey wasn’t part of the plan, and the rivalry makes it an impossible situation. Can they survive keeping their secret relationship from their respective bands and the public, or will circumstances and their pasts prevent them from finding happiness?

I’m going to start by stating that there is a lot of angsty drama in this novel. There are several characters in the book that have major issues, both personal and situational, particularly stemming from physical, emotional, and sexual abuse in their pasts. None of this takes place in the present time in the story, but one character’s past abuse is discussed in a bit of detail, so be forewarned if any of these issues is a trigger for you. I’ll admit that I was concerned that the volume of issues exposed in the book would mean that many of them would be handled in a less-than-satisfying manner for resolution. Fortunately, that didn’t turn out to be a problem.

In fact, the story line as a whole worked pretty well for me, even though I was able to predict most of the big plot points in the last third of the book. The writing was very smooth and never came across as mechanical, and I don’t recall any problems with confusion in whose point-of-view I was reading nor who was speaking in dialogues, including those where many of the bandmates were present. I can’t point to any structural problems at all.

What was problematic for me, though, is the fact that I never felt the intensity of attraction between Trey and Dom. I think a lot of this stemmed from the fact that they hooked up very early in the book, within the first 10%, in fact. Because of this, there was no burn of desire leading up to the initiation of intimacy. In addition to this, there were three separate times in the book where they broke things off for some reason. The first I can say without giving any plot away, since it’s mentioned in the blurb: when Trey realizes Dom is a member of XYZ but had failed to tell him after being informed of Fading Daze’s drummer being swiped by XYZ. So a chunk of the book is spent watching one or the other, or often both, pine over hurting the other. Since they are keeping their relationship secret, and it is a long-distance relationship, the times when they are able to get together happen when their bands are in close proximity. I think the author missed an opportunity here to add some of the missing slow burn during these scenes. The ability for them to arrange secret rendezvous under the noses of their friends was just too easy for it to add any feel of urgency even.

The reason I read romance is that I want to feel the connection between the main characters. Even the cheesiest of plots can be forgiven if the characters’ need for each other is palpable, if the interactions between them spark, and if the sex between them threatens to melt my tablet. Unfortunately, the best I got in Body Rocks was the impression that they wanted each other, but I couldn’t feel it. Too bad, because I’m sure the music was great.