Guest Reviewed by Morgan
Title: Intervention
Author: Mia Kerick
Narrator: Tristan Wright
Heroes: Kai Manter/Jamie Arlotta
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: Book – 231 Pages / Audio – 6 Hours, 36 Minutes
Publisher: Harmony Ink Press
Release Date: Book – October 10, 2013 / Audio – August 25, 2014
Available at: Dreamspinner Press, Amazon, Audible and iTunes
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads
Blurb: As a musician at the popular college café Coed Joe’s, high school senior Kai Manter is never lacking for male attention. Out, proud, free-spirited, and sexually aware, Kai sets his sights on his darkly Gothic and undeniably bad-tempered coworker, Jamie Arlotta, a freshman at the local arts university. Sporting long hair and alluring hippie style, Kai expects his interest will be reciprocated, with satisfying sex as the end goal. That’s what usually happens. But Jamie’s lessons in life have been harsher. Having been sexually abused by his older stepbrother for several years, Jamie has grown an impenetrable outer shell meant to keep the world at a safe distance.
Kai is angry at first when he takes the brunt of Jamie’s bad temper, but after Kai accidentally discovers the abuse Jamie has suffered, he wants to fix things. Kai’s plan is based on what he knows best—music—and he stages a “musical intervention” to let Jamie know he’s not alone and things can get better. When Jamie’s perspective changes and he emerges from his shell, Kai changes, too, gaining a whole new understanding of what sex can be when love is there too.
Review (Book):
Kai is a high school senior who plays music at a local coffee shop when not in school. He’s planning on going to the local university for musical theory and is incredibly talented. He meets Jamie, a waiter at the coffee house and a college freshman, and is instantly attracted to the snarky, solitary boy.
Over several weeks, Kai is rebuffed by Jamie time and again, and just when he thinks he’s finally going to give up on Jamie, he saves Jamie from a beating by Jamie’s older brother, Evan.
It turns out that Evan has been doing a hell of lot more than just beating Jamie, and it has caused Jamie to be the surly, reclusive boy that he is.
Kai, with the help of his way-cool older brother, Chuck, devise a plan to help Jamie “recover” by conducting a “musical intervention”. In other words, Kai plays set-lists each night that tell Jamie it’s ok to hurt, ok to be angry, ok to need help, ok to find new love and ok to stand up and tell the truth.
Over time, Kai wins Jamie’s trust and the two get romantically involved. With Kai’s and Chuck’s help, they even convince Jamie to confront his family with the awful truth and help Jamie to move out and away from the horror.
**
First, all hail the awesome cover. It is really eye catching and tells its own story. Awesome.
Now understand, this is a YA book, so it has some features that separate it from an “adult” book. (That sounds creepier than it is, but you know what I mean.) First, though Kai is very sexually active, the boys only have what is essentially hinted-at sex. Almost fade to black, but not quite that pristine.
Also, the audience is clearly not adults. Kai calls Jamie Dude, or Buddy, or Bud, ad-nauseam, to the point that, for a grown-up reader, it can be really distracting, and feels detached or unemotional.
Also, the music referenced is fairly modern, and without knowledge of the lyrics, some of the meaning to be found in the “intervention” is lost. Mia does a fairly good job of summing up the lyrics for the reader, but I think if you know the songs, the book has more meaning.
Another issue I ran into was the “slang”. I’m not sure if it was done intentionally or not, but regardless, it is used frequently. Not just in dialog, spoken by the teens, but in the paragraphs of explanation that is not dialog. This is a pet-peeve of mine, and it definitely brought me out of the story.
There were times when I felt like the horror Jamie experienced was a little down-played, but it’s hard to know whether that was intentional or not. Was it just the way a “boy” would deal with this (meaning Kai), or was it a way to make the story a little more palatable? I’m not sure. It was a great topic to face for the YA audience, and in a way, I can understand the “lessening of the blow” to ease the reader into the topic.
I also can’t say I agreed with the way Evan’s confession and subsequent “compromise” was handled – you’ll have to read it to see what I mean – but I think that when someone confesses to crimes this heinous, jail time is deserved, family or not. I know Jamie was concerned for his father’s health, but really?
I loved Kai’s internal dialog, funny, smart and sincere. I also loved Chuck and the rest of Kai’s family, how they helped to support Kai, and in turn, showed Jamie what a healthy family looked like.
The relationship between Jamie and Kai was also a strong point in favor of the story. I appreciated what each brought to the relationship. Kai grew a lot, and his high self esteem, great family, and glowing optimism for the future was exactly what someone with Jamie’s past needed to heal.
I think, in the end, if you have suffered from abuse/know someone who has, you will be interested in this story. If you are a young adult, you will find something in this story for you. If you love music, and current music especially, there’s something in this story for you. All in all, I was pleased with the book, and if I had been (ahem) several years (dare I say decades) younger, I would probably have really loved this book.
Review (Audio):
Tristan Wright was the “right” guy for this narration. (See what I did there?) He did an excellent job. He had several different voices he used to great effect, and even his female voices were good. The sound quality was excellent and the teen-speak was perfect.
I had enjoyed Tristan Wright’s narration of Superhero by Eli Easton and would look for him in the future as a good narrator, especially for youngish guys.
I give the book a 3.5 of 5 stars, the narration a 5 of 5 stars for an overall of 4.5 of 5 stars.
Overall Impression: I loved it!
*I purchased my own, personal copy of this book for review but also received a copy of this audiobook from the publisher in return for a fair and honest review.*
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