Complex characters and a great narrator

I know Brina Brady has written a special book when there is a main character I immediately find it hard to like. Jace is that character for me here. He's had a horrible family life and when he was younger, Nico helped him get off the streets and they formed the band Sacred Fire together. It's clear Nico loves Jace and Jace professes to love Nico, but he continually makes choices like drinking too much and sleeping around promiscuously that make it impossible for Nico to trust in his professions of love and risk his heart. Jace also is occasionally unreliable as a band member, further straining his relationship with Nico. I honestly wondered a few times why Nico didn't wash his hands of him. However, every once in a while, we'd get a glimpse inside Jace's mind and emotions and it would indicate there was something deeper going on with him. Brady does a magnificent job of walking that line with Jace's character. Everything changes for Nico and Jace as a couple when Nico finally figures out what it is that Jace really needs and how to give that to him. I won't spoil that revelation here because for the reader, just like for both Jace and Nico watching Jace finally be able to relax and find some peace is startling and wonderful to behold. I found myself releasing tension I'd been holding throughout the story as I watched Jace get his act together and the two of them find their way to their HEA. The other two members of the band, Mark and Sammie are well developed characters in their own right and have interesting and complicated relationships with Jace. There was just the right amount of music in this one for me as Sacred Fire makes its way to Rocktoberfest playing a few warm-up gigs along the way. Wonderful, three dimensional characters here and a great entry in the Road to Rocktoberfest series. Daniel Downs did a wonderful job with the characters here. He got Jace and Nico just right. Nico's frustration with Jace comes through loud and clear as does how much he wants their relationship to work. We hear Jace change from the man unable to keep a promise at the beginning of the story through a transformational encounter with Nico to a man they both understand much better. Downs captures those changes superbly.

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