Review: Ménage with the Muse by Nico Rosso

Format read: ebook provided by NetGalley
Formats available: ebook
Genre: paranormal romance
Series: Demon Rock, #3
Length: 180 pages
Publisher: Carina Press
Date Released: August 4, 2014
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo

What happens when two very different satyr rock stars find their Muse…and discover it’s the same woman?

Musician Mia Dillon’s having the week of her life. Sharing the stage with the world’s biggest acts at a hedonistic festival is a rush, but she discovers new thrills as she frees her sensual side. A brief flirtation with sexy drummer Wolfgang quickly escalates as they lose themselves in wild music and the desert heat.

And then there’s Ethan. Silent, almost samurai-like, he’s the best guitarist she’s ever seen. He’s broken out of his quiet reserve just for her.

But Wolfgang and Ethan share two secrets. One: they’re demons. Two: they’re starving. The ancient rules of demons have shifted and if they don’t feed soon, the lights will go out for good. Mia’s energy has marked her as The One…for both of them.

Mia’s never had two men—let alone two demons—at once. Nobody’s heard of demons sharing a Muse, either. But the three of them make a sexual melody unlike anything else. Mia’s never felt so alive, but with the enemy growing closer by the minute, it will take everything Wolfgang and Ethan have to keep her that way.

My Review:

Read this one with a fan. Or be sure to have the air conditioning on, and yes, I know its supposed to be Fall.

For that matter, read this whole series with a fan for coolth, starting with Heavy Metal Heart (reviewed here), and then straight into Slam Dance with the Devil (review).

Every time I read a book in this series, I can’t help but hear Bob Seger singing “Rock and Roll Never Forgets” both for the beat and for the sentiment, even though, in the case of these rock and roll demons, its they who can’t forget the music.

They try to make sure that the music forgets them, because they’ve been playing forever–since music really was rock; rocks beating against sticks, skins, or even just other rocks.

These musicians are the demons that were created when humankind sang and danced around the first fires, when both the demons and humankind and even the world itself were young.

These rockers are the best in the world, because they’ve had thousands of years of practice. But the party might finally be over.

In this alternate (or perhaps just under the radar) rock opera, there’s a legend of the Muse. The one woman for each demon who can become part of their world, and who can absorb the energy of the crowd just like they can. Or even better.

But there’s a catch (there’s always a catch). Once a demon finds his muse, he can only feed off the energy of the crowd if she’s on stage with him. Once he finds her, he’ll die without her.

Muses were only legends, even myths among these mythological beings, until one demon found his muse. Then another. Their world is changing, and their enemies are trying to prevent that change.

Into the middle of the legend, one woman with a heart of rock and roll comes to a music festival to make her own legend–and steps into the middle of a myth that is older than time. Mia Dillon arrives at the Ocatillo festival intending to share the stage with rock and roll’s finest.

And it so happens. But Mia also finds herself pulled into the arms of two legends; Wolfgang and Ethan. Wolfgang is the drummer for one of the biggest bands in the world, and Ethan is a wanderer who never stays with any group, either of musicians or people. Until Mia binds the three of them together.

But once they’ve found each other, can they work out what they are, together? And can Ethan finally come in from the wandering cold?

Escape Rating B-: In my review of Slam Dance with the Devil, I said that the Demon Rock series was every bit as hot as Olivia Cunning’s Sinners on Tour series, but without the threesomes. I should have said something about just waiting for the threesomes, because here Menage with the Muse delivers an intense one.

The story in this installment of the Demon Rock series is primarily about Wolfgang, Ethan and Mia finding a way that they fit together. There isn’t anything in the muse legend about one woman being the muse for two demons simultaneously. Both Wolfgang and Ethan spend the first part of the book thinking that she must be the other one’s muse, because things don’t quite fit right (and I don’t mean that in the “tab A into slot B” sense, either). They can’t figure out how the relationship works, how one muse can feed two demons..

I’m not saying they fight over her, or that she doesn’t have a choice. It’s ALL Mia’s choice. The two guys keep trying to get out of each other’s way, and it’s up to Mia to knock their heads together and take them both on. What makes it more difficult is that Ethan has always been a wanderer. Not just that he travels, but that he can’t stand to be with people. If there was ever an extremely introverted rock and roller, it’s Ethan.

His adjustment, not so much to being a member of a ménage but of having to reintegrate back into society is almost as difficult as Mia’s adjustment to becoming part of the demon world.

Although Mia has one battle with the evil Philosophers and their minions (mostly the minions) the three of them put the forces of joyless order into flight pretty fast.

Read this one to see a really kick-ass rocker take charge of her life and her men, with lots of hot sex and a “you are there” feeling of a rock festival in a ghost town. And remember what I said about the fan!