Book 821: Love Me Tenor (Perfect Harmony #2) – Annabeth Albert

Picking up not long after where Treble Maker leaves off we find Trevor (Lucas’ friend and acapella group mate) struggling after coming out to his family and being disowned. A production assistant from the previous show has invited him to be on a new reality TV singing competition made of boy bands and he jumps at the opportunity because it’ll give him housing for a few more months while he tries to figure out his life.

What he didn’t expect was to meet and then fall in love with Jalen, the assistants adopted brother who can sing, but doesn’t have the training of the rest of the group. Jalen has his own anger issues and spends the first half of the book antagonizing Trevor.

The other key crisis of the book is Trevor was recently diagnosed with diabetes and this provides many of the key drama points of the book including the primary crisis and the ultimate showdown with Trevor’s family.

‘Yeah?’ Jalen didn’t bother to hide his skepticism.
‘Scoops of rainbow sherbet. We’ll have you guys all in pastels, but with a twist—you’ll each have a signature color. Every time you’re on camera or could be on camera, you need to have some part of your clothing be your color.’
‘So basically we’re a queer boy band version of the Wiggles?” Jalen asked. Trevor snorted. Nice to know he had a sense of humor.’ (37)

Unlike Treble Maker, Love Me Tenor takes a harder approach to religion and the way religious characters treat their LGBT children. It’s not the most heartbreaking story, but when Trevor’s brother shows up and Trevor has so much hope that he abandons Jalen and the boys in his group it’s heartbreaking.

Obviously, there’s a happily ever after, but it’s one of the problems I had with the epilogue it was only about Trevor and Jalen. We spent the rest of the novel with Carson and Carter (I think), dopplebangers who ALSO had issues throughout the book but we don’t get a resolution for their story. We assume they stick together but don’t really know that until the next book when there’s a brief mention of them.

Jalen silenced Trevor’s objections with a sharp look. Damn. If he ever turned that look on someone with a dirty command . . . ‘Now, it’s probably a diva, but which one do you stan for?’
Trevor sputtered. He was not a stalker fan stanning for anyone.
‘Not someone too old.’ Jalen continued to pull out little pieces of Trevor’s hidden preferences. ‘And not someone too hip . . .’ (48)

Like the first in this series, you can really tell that this is an early Albert book. It’s not as polished or as well written as her later works. The sex scenes were well written as always, especially as they weren’t penetrative right away (similar to book one) and the characters both had to overcome quite a few hang ups before they could really enjoy it. What you can see REALLY well is Albert’s humor starting to come through and its’ one of the best parts about her books in general.

Recommendation: Worth the read. Similar to the first book in the series, it’s not as well written or as polished as her later works, but you can definitely see Albert starting to find her stride and comfort in writing. The characters were great even if I felt there was something missing from the ending/epilogue.

Opening Line: “The heater was broken again.”

Closing Line: “‘That. Absolutely that.’ Jalen laughed and kissed him.” (Whited out to avoid spoilers, highlight to read.)