Prelude (Get Your Rocks Off)

I am HEAD OVER HEELS in love with Dmitri and Eric – I’m talking hard-core invested in their sweet friendship skirting around feelings they’re both too afraid to name. Dmitri entered Eric’s life with an easy smile and has been his constant since that open mic night – they’re inseparable. But now, Eric is noticing things he never did before, and he’s questioning everything he thought he knew about himself… Dmitri has had feelings for Eric since freshman year, hearing the song Eric played at open mic night was all it took. Yet, Dmitri buried those feelings because Eric was straight, and he let himself believe that being best friends was enough. Now? Lines are blurring and Dmitri needs to decide if he’s brave enough to take the leap… If you’re wondering if I’m okay, the short answer is…no haha. I was so excited about the slow-burn filled with all the tension and yearning, and then, bam! Emotional damage. Eric and Dmitri’s friendship is beautiful – filled with bonding over their love of music, platonic cuddles, and moments where the world fades away and only they exist, together. The mutual pining was everything I could have hoped for, and then something happens; I can’t even spoil it for you because I literally have no idea what happened. What do I know? That I need my babies to be together, so, the good thing is I can IMMEDIATELY jump into First Verse to get that second chance at happiness.

This one hurt. Here, we're circling back to the origin of the MMCs in the first book of the Get Your Rocks Off series, First Verse. From reading that story, we know Eric and Dmitri have a rocky past and this finally fills in some of those details. We learn the sweet origin story of these two only to end heartbroken. Yes, you read that right. THIS IS NOT AN HEA. It's not even an HFN. This book ends on a cliffhanger for Eric and Dmitri's relationship. I want to make that clear. CLIFFHANGER! THIS ENDS ON A CLIFFHANGER!!! Now, I'm not saying have a problem with that. I just want y'all to be aware. The good news? First Verse is already out. This book immediately leads in to First Verse so, even though your heart may hurt, trust that it doesn't have to hurt for long (unless you want it to). As always, G's patented banter and snark are present throughout and, while it's light on the spice and heavy on the yearn, just know we turn that up come book one. Big thanks to G for the beta and ARC opportunities on this one!

Fair warning, the HEA for these two does not come until you read the official book 1 of the series. This novella is exactly what it's titled… A prelude to First Verse that gives you the full scope of the history between Eric and Dimitri. It's emotionally brutal. You will fall in love with their friendship, their personalities, and watch as miscommunications and unknown circumstances shatter the beauty of who they were together. You'll cry, you'll want to scream, and you'll want First Verse handy to immediately dive in to the rest of the story so you aren't left broken and curled into the fetal position in the aftermath. Eilsel wrote so much emotion into such a short novella, but that's not at all surprising from her. She's set the expectations bar high for her books at this point, and still never fails to deliver. This review is from an advance copy of this book, but all opinions are entirely my own.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ 🌶️🌶️ (ARC) This book was cute. I have yet to read the rest of the books in this series so im intrested to see if knowing the backstory between Dimitri and Eric will help me to understand them and their dynamic more in the actual trilogy. Story-wise, this one was fine; i liked the relationship between these two a lot, but honestly im really hoping their full-length book makes me truly fall in love with them as characters. This was a good intro to the series, though, and i can't wait to dive into the rest.

ARC Review Best friends to lovers is one of my favorite tropes. I loved seeing Eric and Dmitri’s friendship evolve while Eric was shifting through what he was truly feeling and Dmitri tried to keep his feelings under wraps. This is a prequel novella for Eric and Dmitri’s story in First Verse. I haven’t read First Verse yet so I was going into the completely unaware of any part of their story. I’m immediately going to read it now because I need more of them, their HEA, and a clarification on what I hope is just the most EPIC miscommunication to ever miscommunicate. I have a feeling if you have already read First Verse you’ll be happy to see Eric and Dmitri meet, and if you haven’t read it this will make you want to pick it up immediately like it did for me. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.