Review - Drifter by Eden Winters

Killian is riding high as the lead singer of the band Trickster, but things aren’t going so well behind the scenes. Killian’s brother Eliot, the band’s bass guitarist, is involved in an abusive relationship with Rob, the drummer. Rob’s drug addiction sends him off the rails and results in the crash of their tour bus, killing everyone in the band and the driver. Except Killian. The young man is left with serious emotional and physical scars. He decides to let his fans continue to think he’s dead while taking time away from his old life. Killian drifts from town to town, playing in small bars and nightclubs. It’s in one of these gigs that Killian meets Mike, a bass player estranged from his own family and, like Killian, drifting from town to town. Mike inspires Killian to reclaim his old life, but will he still want Mike around once Killian returns to the bright lights of being a rock star?

This author once again takes us into the contemporary music scene with burnt-out rock stars finding romance in the unlikeliest places. There are some similarities to A Matter of When, but they’re only superficial. Mike and Killian both end up as itinerant musicians, but the stories of how they got there are unique and take up most of the first half of the book.

Mike’s story is sadly an all too familiar one. He was raised in a southern Christian family where the worst “sin” is being gay. When Mike is outed before he even gets a chance to kiss a boy, he has no alternative but to leave his family and take to the road. Mike is quite innocent of the world when he leaves, but it doesn’t take him long to become more street-wise. Yet, Mike remains a romantic at heart.

Killian’s journey is also harrowing, although also a bit more fantastical. The celebrity fake death is almost a cliché plot device, but it works very well in this case and is quite believable in the context of the story.

“Drifter” is available from Smashwords or see Bookbub for links to other places where you can buy online.