Closer by Kylie Scott

Standalone Novella in the Stage Dive Series

Closer by Kylie Scott is a novella spinoff of her popular Stage Dive series, one of my favorite rock star series, but it can be read alone. Like most 1001 Dark Nights books, it is meant to be a taste of the author’s writing and the series. Bonus points for the fact that the heroine is plus sized!

“I’m not here to get paid, Mae. I’m here because of you.”

Mae is friends with the Stage Dive band and families and lives in a building with them. She is a plus-sized fashion model who now has a creepy stalker. The band takes care of their own, so they hire her a bodyguard. Enter Ziggy. Big, beefy and stoic, Mae wanted to climb him like a tree.

Told 100% from Mae’s POV, I loved being in her head, she was great. I loved how she saw Ziggy, but because he barely spoke and we didn’t get his POV, I never really fully fell for them as a couple, I wanted as bit more connection.

My favorite part was Mae standing up for herself. I loved her confidence!

“I forgive you,” I said. “Most important though, I forgive myself. For letting your bullshit opinions mess with my self-confidence. For putting your lies inside my head. For allowing you to make me feel even an inch like less than the queen that I am. For giving you a second of my precious time during this one wild and precious life.”

I just wish I had more time with them. Closer would have made an amazing full-length novel if we had Ziggy’s POV, but alas, the 1001 Dark Nights books are novellas and I think Kylie Scott did a good job of telling a full story in a small package.

Likes:

Revisiting all my favorite Stage Dive characters. Sigh…Mal…?
Stands alone just fine.
I love a plus sized heroine!
How she didn’t care if she was in ratty sweatpants and no makeup.
Made me want to read the whole Stage Dive Series again.

Dislikes:

Since it was all from her POV, and he was so stoic, I felt like I never connected with him, and didn’t really see how she did.
Some of the dialogue seemed difficult to follow sometimes, like it needed more dialogue tags.

The Down & Dirty:

Closer had such potential to be an amazing book. I really enjoyed it, but I wanted MORE. For a novella, I think Kylie did a great job. But if this were a full-length book I would have been disappointed. Told only from the heroine’s POV, I felt like we really missed getting to know the hero. While I didn’t think all books need dual POV, because Ziggy was so taciturn, I felt like we needed to be in his head a little more. But I must say, I was very impressed with how full a story we got in this novella, and I loved visiting my favorite rock band! Big props to Kylie for another plus-sized heroine!