Author: Avylinn Winter
Book: Volatile
Publisher: Pride Publishing
Publication date: August 23, 2016
Length: 246 pages
Reviewed by Morningstar
Synopsis
Like a depressed moth drawn to a wild flame, Chris hoped that flame would brighten his life, not burn him alive.
Chris
Sinclair fades into a gray world after losing his mother to cancer.
When forced to attend a concert as a last attempt to coax him out of his
shell, he discovers that life might not be as bleak as he first
thought.
Dante Heron holds the audience between the tips of his
fingers and the delicate bow, playing the violin as if every heart is
his to command. However, something darker brews behind the façade, and
Chris is determined to solve the enigma.
When Chris is offered
the job of traveling around Europe with the famous violinist, he
surprises himself by accepting. With no idea what awaits him, he's
thrown into a world where emotions rule and rules are bent.
They're a perfectly dysfunctional match, but then there's always calm at the heart of the storm.
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Review
Parents are our foundations. They raise us with love,
support, and a knowledge we crave during the tough times, the times we need
some advice that we don’t think anyone can give us. They are the people that
are supposed to be there no matter what happens in our lives. Right there
loving us. Encouraging us to push through. To lose that kind of love and
support at any age is hard but at 17 years old it must be unimaginable pain.
Or maybe never having that type of love and support of our
parents is worse. Living every day with the knowledge that you will never be
good enough to live up to their expectations. That your life is now what they
want it to be and not what you need it to be. Slowly dying inside with every
day we don’t live our truth. Every day we push our heart and desires further
and further away.
Not sure which one is worse but Chris Sinclair and Dante
Heron live these truths every day. Will they be able to find their way out, to
a place that they can be happy and whole once again?
I had heard some really good things about this story before
I started to read it so I was really looking forward to it since Avylinn Winter
is a new to me author. Plus I love, love angsty stories especially when it’s
both MC’s going through some major stuff. The story is told through Chris’s POV
but both characters were thoroughly fleshed out so you never feel like you are
missing a part of Dante for not getting his “side”. I actually feel that having
his POV would’ve made the story too heavy, even more so than it already was.
Chris lost his mother at 17 years old and went to live with his model brother
Ayd. This is when Chris, through an acquaintance of his brothers, is introduced
to the very talented violinists Dante.
It took me a little bit to get used to Avylinn’s writing
style even though it was a little hard for me in the beginning, once again I wouldn’t want the story written
any other way because I think her style was perfect for these characters. This
was in no way an easy read. It had its ups and downs, misunderstandings and
lack of communication, but it also had love. A love hard won and fought for.
Through personal trials and the banishing of old ghosts.
Dante was quite the riddle for Chris to figure out and he
had some time to do it since he will be spending the summer traveling with him
as his assistant during Dante’s concert tour. But figuring out a riddle of
another person, a man that you find yourself attracted to, when you have never
felt this for another guy
Is made more difficult by the distance Chris himself doesn’t
realize he keeps between them. Chris’s journey of self-discovery about his
sexuality, the loss of his mom, and where he goes from here was one of the best
journey’s I’ve been on this year in reading.
Every once in a while and very slowly we get to see glimpses
of the Dante that’s underneath all the arrogance and ill-tempered behavior. And
what we see is a life full of pain and a young man who grew up being a violin
prodigy whose parents wanted more and more from him each day. Living a life that
no 13 year old boy is ever ready for. What draws Chris to Dante is the man he
sees when Dante is up on stage playing his violin with such magic that eh falls
under his spell every time he hears him play. But what he has to work through
is how to get to that man when he is off stage and shuts everyone else out.
I will say again, I loved this story, BUT….yes there is a
but. It took me sometime to figure out what felt off about the end of this
story because how can a HEA feel off? Although it felt a bit rushed and maybe
too easy it was the Dante we see after all the hard times are coming to an end.
This Dante to me did not feel authentic to the one we met through the rest of
the story. There was almost a complete shift in how he acted and one that I couldn’t
understand and felt...fake? I loved the difficult Dante because he deserved to
be that way. His life was super hard for anyone to get through without scars
but he was a child for most of the worst parts. Which meant, of course, those
scars are long lasting. The author, in the way she played out the HEA,
basically erased all of that and it that made the ending feel off. Chris as
well but in a smaller way that could just be my own personal preference.
I wish I could just come out and name the things that were
off specifically since I think it would give a better understanding of my WHY’s
but unfortunately I think you need to read this book to judge for yourself. And
please do because even with my uncertainty about the ending this was truly a
unique, beautiful, and intriguing story that I am so glad I got the chance to
experience.
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