This one goes up to 11!

Sex on Fire by Kings of Leon is perhaps too obvious a choice of theme song for a review of a romance novel involving a rock star who has lost his band to a tragic traffic accident and a cop who is such a cliche that it almost hurts, but who cares? It’s a great song by a great band. I’m leaving it in.

Sinner’s Gin is the first in a series by Rhys Ford about the remnants of rock band and a family of cops that becomes ridiculously entwined with it. Miki became the lead singer of Sinner’s Gin by accident. A product of a horrific childhood in the foster care system, he was discovered by Damien, the band’s guitarist, purely by accident. He has zero social graces and is made intensely uncomfortable by physical displays of affection. He subsists mostly on ramen and cereal.

Miki has a dog named Dude that he won’t admit is his because he’s afraid the dog will leave him, just like everyone else. Dude happens to be a thief with a habit of storing his treasures in the garage where Miki keeps Damien’s classic muscle car. I’m sure you can see where this is going.

The meet cute happens when Kane chases Dude back to his lair in the vain hope of getting the very expensive Koa wood that Dude filched. Unfortunately, Kane also finds a dead body in the GTO.
The body turns out to someone from Miki’s past that had abused him. And then other things start happening to the people in Miki’s past. Kane has to wonder, is his new love interest a psycho, or is a psycho coming after his new love interest?

Miki and Kane spend so much time thinking about each other’s butts (and how amazing they are, both in and out of a pair of jeans) that you start to wonder if it’s 1984 and people are obsessed with The Boss again. Not that that is EVER a bad thing.

What, did you think I was going to put the CapAss gif there? I think this is much more fitting for a rock and roll story. Oh, who am I kidding? I can’t deny myself the pleasure.

Kane and Miki really are much more interesting characters than I’ve managed to make them seem here. There are a couple of wrenches thrown into their relationship, of course, and the thriller portion is nice and twisty. You should give it a try, and it’s only $1 on kindle right now.