REVIEW: Broken Chorus – Road to Rocktoberfest 2024 – Layla Dorine

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Change has never come easy for Aaron, even when it’s been for his own good. He avoids it when he can, rebelling against anything the least bit uncomfortable. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do to prevent the implosion of his band. Now he must decide how to deal with the fallout.

Quit?

Or help his best friend and former bandmate build something new?

He wished the choice was easy, but there are too many triggers buried in his head and old memories dredged up when ghosts from his past reach out to him.

~~~

Hawk loved making music. A life of travel and performing was the only one he’d ever pictured for himself. When an accident left him the guardian of his brother’s three children, he was forced to make some tough decisions. The ripples sent shockwaves through his band and decimated friendships in the process.

His choice gave him an instant family.

But does it have to cost him the man he loves?

Hawk might be on his way to the grocery store while Aaron heads for the desert, but there are many roads to Rocktoberfest and many ways of uniting a family.

When two members of their band left Aaron was convinced that it was the end of the road but his best friend Kelly and the man that he loves Hawk kept insisting it was just a new beginning.

It wasn’t only two members of the band that left it was also Hawk, the frontman for the band and the one Aaron counted on. Hawk’s brother and sister-in-law died leaving him the guardian for their three small children, Liam, Ella and Dani, the oldest one seven and the youngest four. Hawk took his job seriously, but he had no clue what he was doing. Usually when you have a child you have nine months to prepare, he had hours.

Aaron visited Hawk and the children often and he loved them as much as they loved him. He wanted to live with them, set up a life with Hawk but Hawk kept turning him done knowing that he was not ready to leave music behind. He didn’t want Aaron tied down to the early mornings, the chaos, no time for himself and no time for music.

Kelly is ready to start a new band and has hired a new guitarist and drummer to take the place of the two that left. Unfortunately, Aaron is not happy with the picks and walked away. Micah the guitarist is Amish, so Aaron wants nothing to do with him and his religious beliefs and Declan the drummer is in a wheelchair and Aaron can’t be near him.

All of Aaron’s anxiety over the new men comes from his upbringing with his zealot grandparents who put him down constantly and his grandfather running him over with his wheelchair. His childhood was the thing of nightmares and has had a serious effect on his life.

All Aaron wants is to live with Hawk and the children, but Hawk won’t let him give up. Hawk was the frontman and now Kelly wants him to take over his place something he can’t possibly consider doing. Aaron’s scars, the kind you don’t see, have made him question himself always expecting to do the wrong thing. His confidence is as low as possible, and it would take pressure from Kelly and Hawk to make him move forward. Rocktoberfest is coming up and Aaron doesn’t think they will be ready.

A beautiful story of overcoming abuse and learning to rise above it. The children are precious, especially four-year-old Dani who can go from happy to screaming in a matter of minutes. She loves Aaron and he will do anything for her.

Loss and starting over is something many of us have faced in our lives and that is the crux of the story, a new beginning.