Aaron McClure’s previous band broke up just as it was on the verge of making it big, mainly due to Aaron’s bitter break up with the guitarist, Jason. Now Aaron is heading back to Seattle to join Schadenfreude, the band his brother and sister are in along with Bastian and Andre Koehler. Aaron’s always had a crush on Andre but it is love at first sight when Bastian walks into the room.
The attraction between Bastian and Aaron intensifies until they both end up breaking the band’s no fraternisation rule. For everyone’s sake, Bastian and Aaron try to keep their relationship a secret but that’s not the only thing they are hiding – neither of them are out. By the time the truth is revealed, both men are completely in love with each other but they face pressure to split from the rest of the band as they are on the verge of signing a major record deal. As tension mounts, the lovers are faced with the choice of saving the band or staying together.
L A Witt has produced another great story in With The Band, and it might just be my favourite of her books to date. I loved Bastian and Aaron, and boy, do they have chemistry! These boys sizzle together, whether they are having sex or not, and the actual sex is so hot I feared for the safety of my Kindle. The initial attraction is based purely on lust but it isn’t long before those three little words are being bandied about in either German or English. However, I can’t believe I’m actually saying this but I did feel there were too many sex scenes and would’ve liked more romantic moments which didn’t necessarily lead to sex. The boys were credible as lovers and my heart hurt for them when things weren’t going well.
While Aaron is out to his sister, no one else knows he is gay or that Bastian is bisexual so this adds another layer of tension since the boys are already having to keep their relationship a secret due to the no fraternisation rules. Aaron has already seen one band fall apart because of a liaison gone wrong and has no wish to repeat the same mistake with Schadenfreude but his love for Bastian is too powerful to ignore. Both boys are afraid they will be rejected by their respective families for being gay which gives them another reason to keep everything quiet.
The other members of the band are all likeable, each having their own quirks, and I loved the banter between them all. As a band they are like family anyway, but the various blood ties adds another layer. Since the story is told from Aaron’s point of view, we learn more about his siblings’ reactions to his feelings for Bastian, yet we don’t learn much about how Andre takes the news of his brother’s bisexuality, other than their arguments about what’s going to happen to the band. At various points, the Koehler brothers simply lapse into German and we are not made privy to the conversation which is a pity.
Towards the end of the book when the truth is out, the atmosphere in the band is tense as hell when communications break down. The pain is palpable and the interactions are in complete contrast to those at that start of the book. With so much at stake, I wanted to bang a few heads together and found myself applauding when Rob, the band manager, spoke his mind.
The suffering Aaron endures when Bastian decides to call it quits is heartbreaking and I just wanted someone to give him a hug. I didn’t have much sympathy for Bastian, however, when he decided to put the band before his love for Aaron, no matter how well intentioned it might have been. It takes a while for Aaron to forgive Bastian and for them to get back together.
In the end, the band do get their record contract and go on tour, with Bastian and Aaron remaining together. The epilogue gives the impression an impasse has been reached as there can be no resolution since no one knows the future and this is entirely fitting. I did feel hope that things would work out well for the band and for the boys though.
Just as a side note, when L A Witt describes how Aaron likes to stage jump, the first person who came into my head was Jared Leto and his band 30 Seconds from Mars. I was amazed to read Lori is a huge fan and actually travelled all the way from Japan to Seattle to see them in concert.
Rating:
Available from Loose ID.
Hi-
Quick request. I’ve recently discovered your blog and am enjoying reading your reviews, which are thorough and interesting, but I would love it if you would set up your RSS feed so the entire review shows up on the feed rather than just a blurb. Having to click through for each review makes me far less likely to read them than I otherwise would – so much comes through my feed reader that I just don’t have time to click and open windows; I just read what’s in the reader. Other big review sites, like Jessewave, put the entire entry in the feed, and I for one would love it if you would consider doing the same.
Thanks!
Done! Let me know if it hasn’t changed.
It has changed – thank you so, so much! I really appreciate it! (Sorry for delay in responding – I was away.)
Thanks for the great review!!
And as for the stage dive, here’s a little known fact: that entire incident was actually inspired by Jared himself stage-diving at the show in Seattle in May 2010. While he was a few feet from where I was standing, he fell, and it was a little hairy until he got back up on top of the crowd. Though Jared was uninjured, it got me thinking about what *could* have happened. When I started working on With the Band again a few months later, I put the two together…and there you go.
So…very astute connecting Jared’s stage-diving with Aaron’s!
L. A. Witt