A Story from the Enhanced UniverseDeaf since childhood, Sebastian Armitage had a promising musical future until his dreams were shattered when he transformed at twelve years old. In a world where enhanced humans are terrorized and imprisoned, his life shrinks around him even more as he suffers the torment of his father’s experimental research to enable him to hear.Gray Darling—struggling with the … hear.
Gray Darling—struggling with the scars left by his experience in Afghanistan—agrees to provide short-term personal protection when anonymous threats escalate into assault on those closest to Seb.
As the lines between protection and attraction blur, Gray and Seb can’t ignore the intense feelings drawing them together. But secrets and betrayals might prove deadly, unless Gray is willing to risk it all. And Seb must find the strength to make his own future and sing his own song….
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If you haven’t discovered Victoria Sue’s Enhanced series, Guarding His Melody is going to win you over big time. A perfect standalone novel, Victoria Sue gives us just enough background information about the Enhanced, without it being overwhelming. It’s easy to grasp the important nuances, and you won’t feel like you’re missing something or playing catch up. I enjoyed Guarding His Melody so much that I sincerely hope this spinoff is the start of something new and wonderful!
I’m a sucker for an age-gap romance, and this one has all my favorite bells and whistles. Young, deaf, tormented musician, meet your hot as hell (and equally damaged) new bodyguard. The chemistry between these two, along with all the naughty and forbidden reasons they shouldn’t be together, is guaranteed to work.
Only twenty years old, and deaf since childhood, Sebastian is a truly gifted musician. Always a bit of a recluse, transforming at age twelve didn’t help matters. It’s common knowledge that each Enhanced human has special abilities, and strangely Sebastian’s haven’t emerged yet… at least he’s not disclosing them if they have.
Sebastian isn’t the only one with secrets, Gray has quite a few he’s not sharing either. Survivor guilt and PTSD are just the tip of the iceberg for this poor tormented soul, and his dark and vivid flashback scenes are not for the faint of heart.
Alas, this is a romance after all, and Victoria Sue sets up this kind of connection like no one else. Watching these two men fall in love as they find comfort in each other made me so happy.
I’ve really been enjoying the unique blend of urban fantasy and science fiction Victoria Sue has created in the Enhanced World series. Though I will say, no matter the genre, this talented author always draws me in from the very first scene. Ms. Sue sets up such intriguing stories with loads of action and intensely complex and interesting characters. Plus she writes some of the most glorious sex scenes I’ve ever read. I know I can always count on Victoria Sue for a great book every time and Guarding His Melody is no exception.
Independent reviewer for Divine Magazine, I was gifted my copy of this book.
This is billed as book 1 in the Enhanced World Standalones series, but you don’t need to have red the 3 books in the main series, before this one. I have listened to book one, Five More Minutes, and am currently part way through book two, Who We Truly are and will get to Beneath This Mask after that. Mild spoilers, is all. and a hint at what I have to come.
After getting meningitis as a child, Seb is left deaf. Throw in mark of the Enhanced that appeared when he was 12, and life has thrown him a double whammy. When there are death threats, Seb hires Gray as a bodyguard. But the Threat is getting worse, after the death of his previous bodyguard and that of his music teacher. If Seb could shake these crippling headaches, and just play his piano, he’ll be happy.
I’m really enjoying these books! They are different and different is always good in my book!
Seb is pretty much housebound, but the first thing Gray does, is drag him out of bed at stoopid o’clock to do Tia-Chi in the garden. Helped him, so gotta be worth a try, right?? And that there, is what I particularly LOVED about this book.
The HINTS at what Gray suffered. You don’t get the FULL story, not at all, just hints and clues along the way that make you put together a picture, a bigger picture at what Gray suffered, HOW much he suffered and how he got through it. But you just know, that someone else will put together a different picture, with the same clues. And I LOVED that!
Seb’s threat isn’t who I thought it was, but it was just as bad. I do love being proven wrong!
The chemistry between Gray and Seb bubbles along for much of the book, and I did, at one point, think we wouldn’t get to the main event, but we do, and it is glorious!
Talon and Finn (Five Minutes Longer) pop up at the end, and the others are mentioned at various places in the book, so ties the books together.
The Enhanced status of Seb plays very much second fiddle to his deafness.
But I’m not left wanting to LISTEN to this book. Nick J Russo narrates the other books, and I hope he does this one too. I’m eager to see how Seb’s voice comes across.
I originally wrote 4 stars at the top of the page (and yes, i do WRITE them up by hand before I post them!) but, actually, I can’t find anything to knock that star off, so…
5 full stars!
**same worded review will appear elsewhere**
Oh My. I love the main series this book is affiliated to, this book is just as good. The characters are as compelling as Talon and the crew. Seb is a delight,Gray perfect for him. I love reading books where people with challenges both physical and mental find their HEA and this book jumps beautifully into that category. I highly recommend this book to all.
This was surprisingly good. Even better than the previous book!! I thought I wasn’t going to love this as much, since the MCs aren’t part of the main storyline, but I devoured it in less than a day: it was so good and so damn sweet.
I adored both MCs: I’m usually a bit leery about an age gap that’s more than 15 years, but these two completed each other and were so gentle and understanding and sweet with one another, I rooted for them from the start. It was the loveliest slow-burn ever *chef’s kiss*
I adored them individually too, Gray with his over-protective attitude, his scarred past, the sweet and careful way he treats and respects Seb, and Seb? I loved him. So much. I wanted to wrap him up and keep him safe: he was lively and clever and sweet and strong, and what he was subjected to was horrific but I was so damn proud of him by the end. The side characters were utterly wonderful and the epilogue was priceless.
Now I can’t wait to get back to our favourite Enhanced team and Vance’s story *rubs hands gleefully*
This book was said to be a standalone so I went for it, but I was still left questioning what exactly the Enhanced were and how it all worked. That was my fault though for jumping ahead a few books. Even with some confusion, the book was sweet and emotional and action packed. Seb’s life was completely sad and tragic. He lived a very lonely existence. Gray sweeping in and being there to really look out for him made me love his character so much. The audio of this book was great!
For the most part, I really enjoyed this book, and will definitely be checking out more from this author. I didn’t actually know this title was part of a series going in, but as it can be read entirely as a standalone story, that didn’t alter my enjoyment at all. I do think the book felt a little filler-ish around the middle, like stuff was written purely to pad out the word count, but maybe that’s just because I felt the book had a strong start, very strong/action-packed finish, but not a whole lot happening in between. The dialogue also struck me as a bit cheesy/unrealistic at times. Overall though, a solid read.
I LOVE the Enhanced World SO FREAKING HARD!! This can be read as Standalone as written, but I will definitely recommended that you also read the others in the series, because they are amazing!
I can not wait for the next one in the series
This is a well written bodyguard to lover story and I was totally rooting for them. Seb is a sweet mixture of naive and smart. He is looking for someone to love and Gray is trying to run from his family and relationships.
I think the one thing which really spiked my adrenaline and put the angst in the story is the issue of guardianship. In the other enhanced stories, it’s brought up but we get the full on effect of what that means and how scary the loss of consent is. Like, how can a parent or the government legally make decisions for an adult? Brr. I shivered when the nurse came at Seb with the hypodermic needle.
And, I love the fact that disabled doesn’t mean unable. It means able to do it differently. I won’t give away spoilers but the title of the book is Guarding His Melody so yeah, Seb can play music.
This is a very good romantic suspense novel and fits perfectly in the Enhanced universe. I was really entertained and appreciated the mention of the Florida unit because really, that group is hawt! I hope we get to see more of this group in the future. So sweet.