I just love Evan & Jesse...their relationship is to envy. I was sad to end Conquest until I saw that No Fear was a continuation so I dove right in. Conquest was my first book by S. J. Frost and I am enjoying her writing so much. I really like I am right in the room with them when I don't have any musical background. What a beautiful true love story. I look forward to jumping right into the next one and even though it involves another couple....I look forward to any Evan & Jesse tidbits. ( )

Great sequel to 'Conquest'. Some lingering issues were cleared up and I was so glad to see Brandon get some lovin'. :)

There are some POV issues and some dodgy flowery prose, but I loved this almost as much as the first book. ( )

Great sequel to 'Conquest'. Some lingering issues were cleared up and I was so glad to see Brandon get some lovin'. :)

There are some POV issues and some dodgy flowery prose, but I loved this almost as much as the first book. ( )

No Fear starts more or less where Conquest ended, with Evan and Jesse in a committed relationship, but only in private. Evan still fears (and here is the main reference to the title, other than the title of Jesse’s album, that like for Conquest before, is also the title of the book) to ruin Jesse’s chances to stardom if they do coming out together: best scenario is that people, and fans, will believe that Jesse is profiting from his relationship with Evan, and worst that they will desert him not accepting a gay rock start. And then the majority of Jesse’s, and Evan’s fans, are women, and their producer doesn’t think they will remain fans if they discover about Jesse and Evan.

And so, most of the story is spent with Jesse and Evan living almost two parallel lives, public and private, and this doesn’t help neither of it. No Fear is also a pretty complex book for the presence of a lot of supporting characters, whose presence is essential in the dynamics between Jesse and Evan: from the previous book, there is Trish, Jesse’s drummer, who apparently is hostile to Evan; Brandon, Jesse’s brother, who having found success in his professional life, like Jesse did, now wants to find true love like his brother did, and maybe there is a little bit of envy for the fact that his little brother seems to be happy even without his help; plus enter two new characters, Kyler and Trent. In a way they are related to Jesse and Evan for more or less the same reason: Kyler is gay, or at least bisexual, and he had a fling with Evan in the past; he is Evan’s same age, and he relates more to Evan than Jesse, both for age than experience. Jesse is jealous of Kyler for his past experience with Evan, and Evan is jealous of Kyler since he sees him like someone that could be competition for him with Jesse. On the other hand there is Trent, so young and eager to please Jesse, but with a undertone of homophobic attitude that create an uneasy atmosphere in the recording studios they all are in at the same moment.

No Fear is a big net of relationships, of the love and professional types, and Jesse and Evan are in the middle of it, they goal will be to not end lost. But they are growing, and even if there is still a core of selfishness in both of them, something that I noticed also in the previous book, now they are maybe able to recognize what is important in life. As it’s right for an artistry character, nor Jesse or Evan are the perfect heroes, they are moody and unsteady, always ready to bolt and with a penchant for drama, easy to fire up but also to fall in bed to consume all the energy in more interesting activities than being mad to each other.

If like me, you had the impression that in Conquest Jesse and Evan needed time to grow in their relationship but also in their life, No Fear perfectly covers that gap. I would almost say that it’s almost mandatory to read Conquest and No Fear together, if not that they are very long, No Fear more than 350 pages, and so, probably you need time to plan this read.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003F2QO2I/?tag=elimyrevandra-20