Review: Defintely a Different Kind of Story
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 02 6, 2014
There has been an awful lot of hype surrounding this book, which, I’ll be honest, is the main reason I decided to give it a go.  I don’t think I found any reviews helpful to really understanding what this story was about, which was a bit disappointing.  I truly wanted to know something about what made it such a fantastic and crazy ride.To start with, the writing itself blew me away, although not always in a good way.  The descriptions are amazing and beautiful, but I often struggled to keep up with what was actually going on.  Often I felt as though I missed the important details because I got lost in the descriptive wording.  So, while it was beautiful and poetic, it left me feeling confused at times.As for the story, we have Johnny Gellis, a man somewhat on the run from his life as a gynecologist, abruptly leaving everything behind but his beat up classic car and his guitars.  He heads to LA to be a rock star because he has this amazing talent and incredible look.  Right from the beginning I was longing for the details behind these events.  He is staunchly straight, and quite the lady killer (maybe that’s closer to the truth than I realize?  I don’t know).  Anyway, he ends up learning about retired record mogul Norman Dimond and where he can be found, at his raunchy gay club.Being desperate to become a rock star, he seeks Dimond, knowing full well what may be in store.  I was very excited for their interactions, and longed to finally have some dialog to sink my teeth into.  While we did get some of that, I was a little disappointed in the long run.  The more I learned about Norman Dimond, the more he creeped me out, to the point that there was very little about him that I liked.  Thankfully, Johnny doesn’t just bend over for Norman, but the whole situation was just creepy and strange.  Speaking of creepy and strange, Norman’s manservant, Cullum, was a bit of a mystery.  First I thought he was alright, but then his actions spoke quite differently.  And then there is poor Drew, Norman’s current boy toy.  I felt so bad for the poor guy throughout this entire story.So basically, Johnny is an extremely hot package (which Dimond constantly tells Johnny in more ways than one), and Norman wants him, in a bad way.  They finally come to an agreement which is again quite odd, but they seem to finally be somewhat on the same page.  Norman is trying to find out the background on Johnny, as Johnny isn’t giving anything up in this area either.  Now, just when I thought things were ironing themselves out, Johnny does a 180.This last part of the book was the best part for me.  It became less wordy with more action.  I was still left with so many questions, though I truly wondered if I had missed some of the answers earlier on.  There is a sequel that just came out, and I will probably read it just to find out what happened next.  Unfortunately, this story is going to be told over quite a few books, so I’m not sure if I’ll be able to hang on for the entire ride.I really believe this may be a case of it’s not you, it’s me, so if you’re looking for something different, without any real romance or relationship, but with a lot of mystery and shadiness going on, please give this a try, because I’m definitely in the minority on this one.  The writing is fabulous, but the story was just too wordy and confusing for my total enjoyment.