Book 820: Treble Maker (Perfect Harmony #1) – Annabeth Albert

I grabbed this one when Albert shared an ominous “these might be leaving Kindle Unlimited soon” on her Facebook. This was one of the few series of hers I haven’t read yet (and honestly had been avoiding for some unknown reason). I also grabbed it because we randomly re-watched Pitch Perfect and Pitch Perfect 2 recently.

I’m not 100% sure, but I believe this was her first published series. You can tell she’s definitely grown a lot as an author since it was published. Her writing has matured and her stories and characters are so much richer and more believable.

Treble Maker is the story of Lucas, an out conservative religious midwestern college senior whose parents are professors at the uber conservative Christian college he attends, and Cody, a punk rock/goth/club kid trying to make it in Los Angeles. They meet on the set of the Perfect Harmony acapella reality TV show, where we meet a couple of characters from Love Me Tenor and All Note Long.

Cody was fire. Dangerous and seductive and powerful, his body becoming the music, twirling and flexing and brushing against him. Lucas reveled in the bonfire, soaking up the warmth, risking the sparks and soot because it felt so good. (66)

I really enjoyed the slow burn of this book and Albert’s slowly working up to the sex scenes. She has always done great with those scenes, but she really shows a lot of restraint in this first one because of how hung up Lucas is around “the sin.” She also, I felt, did a great job of critiquing religion and those like Lucas who choose to accept their homosexuality, but live celibate lives. She didn’t do it in a mean or disparaging way and the conversations Lucas and Cody had throughout the book really hit home how well she was navigating such a minefield.

Lucas was more comfortable filling out petitions and passing out rainbow fish stickers than admiring hot guys with his friends. (155)

Lucas was my favorite character and reminded me a lot of myself when I was coming to terms with my sexuality. Don’t get me wrong, I had no religious hang-ups, but I definitely had questions and concerns and spent years reading and studying everything I could about the LGBT individuals, political movements, and human rights campaigns. I never really questioned why or if it was okay/acceptable, but I just wanted to know as much as I could and to be successful on my own before really telling others. So, I never really faced the choice that Lucas really had to face with his family.

That was it. Choice. The idea hit him like a defibrillator burst—spreading out from his chest in hot, sure waves that tore past the indecision and stagnation of the last week. The roar in his head crackled, then calmed, sanity returning like oxygen to his starved Hulk brain. He didn’t have to, but he was choosing to. And maybe that was what was missing from his life—choice. He hadn’t chosen to be gay. Hadn’t chosen to come out to the world. Hadn’t chosen where he’d go to college—free tuition from two professor parents made that a non-discussion. Hadn’t chosen to come here. Hadn’t chosen to stay. But this? He was choosing this, and the freedom made his nerves jangle. (260)

Thankfully, Albert gave them their happy ending and it felt like the family was going to slowly come on board with it even if we didn’t get to see it. The next two books in the series should be interesting.

Recommendation: I’m glad I was introduced to Albert’s later works first. This one was solid, but nowhere near as good as some of her more recent series like Arctic Heat & Out of Uniform. That being said you can definitely catch a glimpse of the awesome writer she has become and it was fun going back to see these. The story was well written and characters believable, she’s just taken it to another level in the years since these were written. (Also, it could use a better copy editor/proofreader. I found numerous errors in this re-release.)

Opening Line: “The bass singer was gay.”

Closing Line: “It didn’t matter where the crazy road of this industry led them, they had each other now, and the future was brighter than any spotlight.” (Whited out to avoid spoilers, highlight to read.)

Additional Quotes from Treble Maker
“Cody didn’t usually go for baby bears, but there was something strangely appealing about a big guy who had a whiff of wide-eyed subby to him.” (32)

“‘I almost had it that time.’ Lucas held up his hands, clearly trying to appease the mean-faced leader, who wasn’t having it. Dude looked like the stuck-up Weasley brother.” (50)

“‘Yeah.’ He wasn’t going to bust Lucas’s bubble, but he was pretty sure sex was the same way—you built up this idea that doing it would change you, make you a different person somehow. Make the person you were with love you more. But in the end, you were still you, no more orgasmic rush than jerking off, same closeted asshole next to you, same stupid town, only stickier and sore in weird places.

Tightening his arms around Lucas, he soaked up some of his warmth. His chest felt cold, even with Lucas’s back pressed against him. He hoped like hell that didn’t happen to him. Lucas deserved reality-shaking fucking—the earth-moving and violins-swelling sex that only happened in chick flicks. For the first time, he wasn’t sure he could be the one—didn’t want that responsibility. It was one thing to drag him to a club, watch his eyes go wide, feel him relax into the awesomeness of being able to dance together, show him the benefits of showing off. But devirginizing him? Cody didn’t write love songs, and he sure as fuck didn’t know the pretty lines someone like Lucas deserved to hear.” (202)