Title: Want Me
Author: Rowan McBride
Genre: Paranormal, Fantasy
Length: Novel (237pgs)
Publisher: Loose Id (2nd April 2013)
Heat Level: Moderate
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥5Hearts
Reviewer: Pixie
Blurb: Joel Beckett is blessed. He’s popular with the ladies, a star on the football field, and worshiped by everyone on campus.
Including Walker Cain.
Only Walker’s worship has crossed the line, driving him to invoke ancient magic that binds them together in an inescapable downward spiral. Now reality is shifting, and with each new life Joel is forced to watch Walker steal away another of the blessings he’d always taken for granted.
It’s never enough. Cursed blood runs hot, and with every turn of the spiral, Walker breathes the seductive words that Joel can’t resist. The words that could drag them both into hell.
Want me.
Note: This book was previously released by another publisher. It has been revised and reedited since that publication.
Purchase Link: http://www.loose-id.com/want-me.html
Review: Joel is the king of campus. Everyone loves him and wants to be with him and he loves every second of it. But, when he catches the attention of his roommate, Walker, he discovers that being the one that everyone wants just might be a curse. Walker has cursed blood running through his veins and he wants Joel to want him. Invoking ancient magic he plunges himself and Joel into a spiral of shifting realities and bit by bit takes everything that made Joel popular. With each murmur of the words Want Me plunging them into a new spiral. Driving them both to the edge, Joel has to find a way to break the curse that is haunting them both.
Want Me is a story that brings out the creep factor in major quantities and has you wondering why you can’t put the book down no matter how much you cringe. Joel wants for nothing, he is the football star, women throw themselves at him and everyone loves him. But, when Walker, his roommate, invokes a spell, everything changes and his life spirals out of control. Walker just wants Joel to want him, but it never works. With each new life spiral, mistakes happen, resentment seethes and adjustments have to be made. But, the only hope he has is that the next spiral will be the right one, the one where Joel wants him.
When this story was offered for review I jumped at the chance, squealing in joy. Thommie, my fellow reviewer, said ‘it sounds kinda creepy’ and I replied (thinking she was nuts) ‘of course it is, it’s by Rowan McBride’ and we settled the fact that this story is creepy, mega creepy. Rowan McBride has a way of writing stories that are creepy. But, somehow brings the characters together so they fall in love in a setting you would never envisage love conquering. This story is really well written. The storyline is strong and creepy, the characters are beautifully written and although you feel sorry for Joel and what he is going through, you can’t help the small nugget of pity that you feel for Walker. because all he really wants is for Joel to want him of his own free will… even though he goes about it the completely wrong way. You might loath Walker for what he does, but that pity lingers, no matter how hard you try to push it to the side.
This story is from Joel’s perspective and you see how his character develops and changes with each spiral. You only get brief flashes through Joel of how Walker alters and grows, but it is enough to understand what drives him. The storyline itself is fascinating, because each life spiral runs parallel to the original with only Joel and Walker really changing, and the secondary characters reacting to the change each time as though it has always been normal. There’s some forced sex, but this story carries it well, weaving it into the storyline as pivotal to the plot. The ending is brilliant and don’t stop reading after the epilogue. Because, after the authors note, there is an alternative epilogue showing us that there was an infinite amount of endings that could have been written.
I have to recommend this to those who love creepy stories, obsession, want, need, a slow developing love, understanding, changing lives and a surprising happy ending.