Title: Mood Indigo
Series: N/A
Author: Ken Bachtold
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Length: 129 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (March 2, 2016)
Heat Level: Moderate
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥ 2 1/2 – 3 Hearts
Blurb: What happens when a powerful connection forms between two damaged strangers?
Found injured by the side of a road, Bill Ward suffers from retrograde amnesia. Having no recollection of his past, he feels like a nobody. Romance is definitely not an option for a nobody. Jazz singer and piano player Johnny Desmond, on the other hand, is emotionally dead from the ultimate betrayal.
But from the moment their eyes meet, there’s no fighting it, and with their friends’ encouragement, Bill and Johnny decide to get to know each other.
Bill’s memories are hovering at the edge of his mind, tormenting him with fear and doubts about what he has to offer. Johnny also has a past—one that could endanger his life.
It might have been love at first sight, but it will take courage and commitment to see it through to love that lasts forever.
ISBN: 978-1-63477-091-0
Product Link: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=7490
Reviewer: Lisa & Aerin
Lisa’s Review: ♥♥♥ 3 Hearts
First off let me just say that this is the first book by this author that I have had a chance to read. So I wasn’t really sure what to expect from it. The title was not what I would call an eye catcher. It made me think of colors and music yes but also a bit dull. I was a bit leery reading it at first. It doesn’t catch my attention like it should have. I am afraid to say I was a bit bored with it.
Now the blurb made the story seem a bit better than it really was. I was expecting something more I suppose. The story has great potential but the follow through was not very hot. Bill and Johnny come off a bit like brothers to me. They were quite interesting in the beginning of the story but then they just sort of fell short.
It just comes off a bit odd and not really realistic to me. The way they interacted with each other was bored and stiff. I felt like this was being written with no heart put into it, as if the author was rushing to get through it and a few other items as well.
It doesn’t seem like it really has a true plot to it as well. The guys didn’t really communicate through most of the story. It just didn’t have a flare to it at all. Like I said above it has great potential but for me it just didn’t work out the way it should.
The guys both have issues that they are having trouble dealing with. I mean Bill has no real clue who he is where as Johnny was cheated on with an idiot ex. The supporting characters had more flare to them then these two did.
Now the story did pick up close to the end which made it a bit better however I was just not pleased with it.
The problem was it took me longer to get past the first paragraph then it should have. I am sorry to say that this story was not for me. It was a very slow-paced story with no true heat to it. It comes off older than anything.
I would recommend it, but only if you are into those types of stories. I am sorry to say that I was a bit disappointed in it.
Aerin’s Review: ♥♥ 2 Hearts
This is my very first Ken Bachtold book and will probably be my last. As sad as I am to say this, there was no enjoyment for me to be found in this story. The blurb sounded intriguing and I remember previously reading a book with a similar story line that I enjoyed, so this book had a lot of potential. Unfortunately there were so many things that went wrong…. here’s a few of them.
The main characters were interesting and intriguing at the beginning, but quickly became cheesy and hard to connect with. There is nothing realistic in their interactions and the conversations were stilted and boring. The writing felt wooden, stiff, with absolutely no flow or reason.
Let me address the realistic issue; there is absolutely no instant in my life or life in general where I’ve heard people talking to each other the way Bill and Johnny did. It took 1/3 of the book for Johnny and Bill to even say hi to each other and let me tell you it was awkward as hell. They saw each other three times before, when Bill would go into the Jazz bar Johnny was playing music at; each time they had some significant (for them at least, for me was kind of confusing) staring contest after which Johnny would launch into a play of Mood Indigo ( and neither of them knew why Johnny played this song), which would make Bill run away. The fourth time Bill came in Johnny was determined to talk to Bill, and so he chased after him when Bill ran away again. This is the first conversation they’ve ever had (all of the quotation marks are a small part of their first conversation):
“What’s your name?”
“I have no real name, I call myself Bill Ward.”
“I don’t understand.”
“They told me I must have been in an accident. When they found me I was like road kill.”
Say what? Who tells that to a complete stranger the very first time they have any kind of conversation? I mean do people blurt things out like that? Because if they do, I must live on another planet since I’ve never heard any conversation like that in my life! And this is 100% insta-love; you know insta-love can be sort of cute when done right, but these guys decide quite cheesily that they have a crazy chemistry and need to try a serious relationship. It kind of went like this (this happened 2 minutes after they introduced each other):
“I looked up and saw your very blue eyes, and I kind of shuddered. I felt some kind of connection. Scared the hell out of me. It was the first time I didn’t feel isolated. And there you were, the handsome perfect stranger. Right out of a book.” —–> Bill
“I know. I looked up and you were gone. I had this weird sense of loss, and I thought I’d probably never see you again.” —–> Johnny
During the first conversation they’ve ever had Johnny also tells Bill about his cheater ex boyfriend and the terrible time after they split up. As much as I wanted to, I simply couldn’t believe, never mind buy into their relationship. They had no chemistry at all and they were so very boring together. Needless to say the topics of their conversations came and went without any sense. It was like some weird butchered dialog that was pretty much just vomited on page without any editing to make sense of it.
The plot is….well…. wait, what plot? I’m pretty sure I must have missed the plot, because most of the book Johnny and Bill spent their time being all cute and completely unsexy, Bill’s housemates, a trio of older people who acted like meddling kids, stuck their nose into Bill’s personal life and were constantly plotting things. I’ve just finished a book in which the grandmother was pretty much my favorite character because she was a hoot, but I can’t say the same thing about these ones. They seemed a bit creepy to me, or maybe I should blame that on the blocky dialog and bad writing. And I get the feeling there was supposed to be some form of suspense given Bill’s accident and the recovery of his memory but it was mostly a case of stating the obvious.
I usually find things to enjoy or like in a book regardless whether the books I read gets a high rating or not; I tried to think of what I liked and couldn’t come up with anything! Not the characters, not the story, and certainly not the writing. I am being very generous giving this book 2 Hearts.
* I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review through http://mmgoodbookreviews.wordpress.com *