Oh goodness I loved this one. As much even as I loved the other two in the series!! Goodness, what was not to like? There was a bodyguard/rockstar romance. The movie with a similar premise was referenced multiple times. Reverb brought new and interesting twists to the old story. Although David does step back from Mish, it's not his first reaction when things go wrong. Chosen family! Adorable side character romances! A band of amazing queer misfits to die for!

Okay, let me start from the beginning. This is Mish's story, the bass player for the band Twisted Wishes. We've previously had the stories for Ray and Dom, both of them m/m romances. This is a f/m story with a trans male protagonist.

Mish is kickass and powerful and manages to look after and protect the rest of the band without coming across as the band mother. She kinda defies already established female archetypes and kinda just makes her own way.

David is definitely the same. Although he is trans, this is not a trans story. It's part of his history, and it's definitely mentioned, but it's not everything he is. The rest of his personality is filled with pride, wanting to belong, needing to feel useful. Actually, I could very much relate to David. Especially in his stupid and self blaming moments.

His close friendship with Adrian, the other person who isn't part of the band but is part of the inner circle, was I think my favourite side relationship. We've seen Misha in previous books, and obviously we saw Adrian with Dom in Counterpoint, but I enjoyed seeing this different side of Adrian in a platonic friendship as I enjoyed seeing him stretch his dominant nature with Dom.

Zavier is a terrific know it all as ever, and the many references to Ray's hospitalisation at the end of Syncopation made me wanna just go back and start the whole series right back from the start now that I've finished this trilogy.

I think Anna Zabo goes where not many mainstream authors tread, where sexuality (and what it means) is put to the forefront of the Twisted Wishes series. ‘Reverb’ on the surface, might seem like an M/F book as opposed to the first to M/M ones, but I’ve always thought that Mish—the unapologetic loudmouth, Spartan rock queen, bold and take-no-prisoners bass player Mish Sullivan—wouldn’t settle for anything vanilla. Apparently Zabo thought so too.

Getting stuck with a bodyguard isn’t Mish’s idea of a good time, but the internet stalker is making the band nervous enough to put her under David Altet’s watch. What follows is an oddly sweet, progressive step—from attraction and lust to something deeper—with the idea of the band as a close-knit family being reiterated throughout Mish/David’s story.

I’m guessing (and I might be wrong here) that it’s not a book that all readers would take to—to each her or his own, really—especially since the Twisted Wishes series is the furthest from heterosexual pairings. Anna Zabo didn’t make David’s transgender status a big issue at all but then queerness in the band members in the previous 2 books had already set the stage for Mish’s own book where bucking gender norms had already taken centre stage.

What I did have a bit of an issue with however, was that both David’s and Mish’s pasts were very much glossed over in favour of the here and now. There were merely hints of the traumatic times both had in their earlier years, and where I was hoping for a deeper (and perhaps more painful, brutal look) at David’s transition, his deployment in the army and Mish’s own difficult childhood, what came instead were quite a few repetitive scenes of the band touring, its meteoric rise and the building chemistry between David/Mish.

Their easy, developing affection—with a more alpha, dominating female and a sensitive transgender man—surprised me nonetheless, when I thought it’d be full of angst and suppressed passion. Quickly falling into sync together, so much of them together consisted of laughter, desire and acceptance…well, at least until it came to a climax, the pushing away and the pre-requisite grovelling.

‘Reverb’ turned out to be a sweeter, more yearning read than I thought, at least with less of an edge that the first two books had. There’s still a certain sense of satisfaction in seeing Mish’s story that rounded out the band members’ own zig-zagged paths to their own HEAs, but the bottom-line perhaps, is that I enjoyed myself for most part.

I didn't realize this was part of a series until I began reading, but now I want to go back and read the rest of the series!!!!!

Amazing queer rep!!!!!!!!!!

Full review to come on my blog closer to publication date.

4.5* Very nearly a great tale, but David lost his head a bit. And, how refreshing to read about a trans man who's into women, not guys.

I've not read all the books in this series, as I wasn't enamoured of book 2 (I had to skim read it) and haven't read book 1, but this isn't hard to get into, and there's so much of the other leads and hints about their relationships, past, present and WIPs, that you won't be lost. It's well written and it featured a female lead who's pansexual, I think, and a trans male lead, who, refreshingly, isn't gay. By the latter, I mean that gay trans guys seem to be the focus of the majority of trans tales, so to see one who was het (or, at least I think he was, as David, but he'd been into guys and girls pre-transition, if I recall correctly), was really refreshing. And, this book feels more 'mainstream' than some tales featuring trans characters, and I do hope it gets the exposure it deserves.

What was uplifting about this tale was that David was very, very comfortable about his body, which wasn't detailed unnecessarily, but in line with what was happening in the tale and between the leads. There's a scene where he's topless at a pool and a trans teen fan of the band wants a selfie with him, as a proud, out trans man - I thought that that was both sweet and well done, really organically. And, David outed himself to the band and to the media without batting an eyelid. David doesn't have any body dysphoria, which was really positive to hear; he simply referred to his formerly girl parts (sorry, I don't quite know how else to word this) as the appropriate guy bits. He was on T, so his face and body had changed, and I was interested to read that he passed really well and had passed for so long - most tales where I've read about trans characters have them mainly unhappy at not passing, unhappy with parts of their anatomy and not being able to afford surgery, but other than top surgery, David hadn't had more, didn't seem to need or want more, and seemed like a grounded, happy, secure-in-himself guy.

And, to Mish (and to everyone one else), he was a man, nothing but a man. She accepted him without any shock when he outed himself to her, seemed to love being with him in bed and out, and was an equal opportunity lover, reciprocating fully and making David feel even more secure in his masculinity when she showed him how much, and all the ways, she wanted him. In fact, not one person in this tale batted an eyelid when they found out David was trans, and yes, that's expected from a band with guys on the LGBTQIA spectrum, and yes, it was the slightest bit eye-rolling, but it was sweet. Everyone was welcoming of him as a person, as their security guy and as Mish's lover.

Where the tale lost it a bit for me is that David, no pun or disrespect intended, used his little head instead of his big head, when he was doing a professional job, causing him to mess up, not once, but twice. And yes, he did mess up and he did the right thing by resigning, but to also leave Mish the way he did, citing the reasons he did, was (quite) a bit lame and did make her feel that she was less worthy than his job and earning an income. That was a turnaround for the romance books - because it's normally the girl who has the doubts and does the flit, again no pun intended, but it did make him a bit of a Richard. I didn't like him at that point and I did think he was not quite the man that I'd seen him as up until that point, and I think he was lucky Mish was such a decent person, was forgiving and didn't bear grudges and that she didn't want to see him grovel.

The slight downer for me is that I don't quite get why David was so lax about his duties, because that lessened him as a character - he wasn't the professional he was touted as being, and he wasn't able to compartmentalise, which I think pretty much most adults would be able to do, attraction or not. I mean, if you depend on your job for your mortgage, bills, etc., and value your hard-earned rep, then you will prioritise. And, the guy's ex-military, so those traits, and discipline, especially, should have been ingrained in him. And, at 43, he wasn't a young, immature guy who'd never had a relationship before...

Still, the tale ends well. If I were Mish, I might have wanted David to do at least a little grovelling, but maybe that was the measure of her love for him that she took him back, no conditions other than that they talk if there ever was an issue that rose its head. I think theirs is the start of a HEA, but I think the guys' idea of a HEA is a little less sweetness and light, and a little less all tied up than mine, which is on me, not them. I think the author ended the tale realistically and no doubt there will more sightings of the pair in future tales in the series.

ARC courtesy of Carina Press and NetGalley, for my reading pleasure.