Code Red by N.R. Walker

Narrated by Nick J. Russo

I’ve been a fan of N.R. Walker since I listened to her fabulous Thomas Elkin series a few years back and I always look forward to reading or listening to her newest releases. Code Red is a standalone novel set in the music world which features a romance between the lead singer of the biggest boy band on the planet and his manager/handler. Nick J. Russo’s narration is as reliably good as ever, and I enjoyed certain aspects of the story, but unfortunately, I didn’t find the romance to be particularly compelling.

At twenty-three, Maddox Kershaw is the lead vocalist for Atrous, currently the most famous, most popular boy band in the world. He and his four band-mates – the closest thing he has to family – have spent the last seven years writing, recording, performing and touring; it’s fame and success beyond their wildest dreams, but for Maddox, it’s begun to turn into something of a nightmare. Their schedule is relentless; their current tour comes hot on the heels of recording a new album which followed hot on the heels of their previous tour and previous album; there’s been barely time to take a breath let alone a break. When this current tour begins, Maddox is already showing signs of burn-out, and with so many people relying on him (fans, employees, his fellow band members) he’s desperate to keep his issues a secret from everyone around him.

There’s one person, however, from whom he can’t hide – his personal manager, Roscoe Hall. In the four years Roscoe has been with Atrous, he and Maddox have built a strong rapport and it’s widely known that he’s become the only person Maddox really listens to. It’s a stressful, high-energy, high-profile job, but Roscoe loves it and he loves being the only person who gets to see the real Maddox. But Roscoe has been in love with Maddox for years and he has to work hard not to let the other man know how he feels. He doesn’t think he stands a chance with Maddox, who is gorgeous and could have any guy he wanted, and there are strict rules and contractual obligations that mean Roscoe could lose his job if anything did happen between them. So… he can’t afford to even think about going there.

I enjoyed the first third or so of the book. There’s lots of UST and longing between Maddox and Roscoe, lots of lingering looks and glancing touches – and even though the story is told entirely in Roscoe’s PoV, the author does a great job of showing us Maddox’s feelings as both he and Roscoe realise that something between them has shifted. But I was still surprised at how quickly they get together, and because they’ve known each other for several years when the book begins, I felt like I’d missed out on a stage or three of the relationship development. (We don’t see their first meeting or how they fall in love, for example.) And sadly, once they’re together, things get a bit dull and repetitive. They travel, the band rehearses and performs, Roscoe and Maddox sneak in some kissing and fooling around, then start having sex and spending nights together, but the relationship tension dissipates, and what tension there is left results from their having to hide what’s going on between them from everyone around them. And sadly, I didn’t feel I really got to know either of the leads at all well. By the half way point, all I knew about Roscoe was that that he loves Maddox and looks like he could be a Hemsworth brother; and all I knew about Maddox was that he’s seriously hot, very lonely and has severe anxiety.

Where Code Red scores, however, is in the way it examines the pressures of achieving fame at a young age and the toll that living in the spotlight for years on end can wreak upon a person’s mental health and well-being. The need to be ‘on’ all the time, the intrusiveness of the media, the constant scrutiny of social media – this is all depicted very well, and, speaking as someone who used to work in the music industry, felt pretty realistic. It’s easy to understand why Maddox feels trapped, isolated, lonely and as though his life is not his own and that nobody really listens to him or takes what he says seriously. He’s frustrated and angry and scared and spiralling out of control with no clue how to handle it, and it makes perfect sense that Maddox would turn to Roscoe for support. But Maddox’s neediness – he depends on Roscoe utterly and even gets annoyed and jealous if Roscoe has to leave him for a second to help someone else – seemed really unhealthy. He says frequently that Roscoe is the ONLY thing getting him through each day, and all the alarm bells in my brain were ringing overtime. I couldn’t help thinking that the best way Roscoe could have helped and supported Maddox would be to get him to a therapist, but he never mentions it.

Nick J. Russo is a very experienced and popular narrator of m/m romances and is someone I enjoy listening to. He delivers an expressive and nuanced performance in Code Red, utilising a variety of tone and timbre to provide distinct vocal characterisations for the primary and secondary characters and doing a terrific job when it comes to delivering the emotional content of the story. He’s great in the flirty exchanges shared by the two leads in the early stages, and does a good job conveying their deepening intimacy and the bond they share. I was especially impressed with the way he portrays Maddox as a man close to the edge, gradually increasing the tension in his voice and adding a brittle edge to his dialogue as Maddox struggles to maintain control. It’s an excellent performance that kept me engaged through some of the slower sections of the story, but it isn’t enough to paper over all its cracks and shortcomings.

It’s always tough to write a negative review of a book by an author whose work I usually enjoy, but sometimes it has to be done, and when it does I try to be as honest as I can about why the book didn’t work for me. In the case of Code Red, I can point to issues with characterisation, structure and pacing, and most of all to the fact that the romance is unconvincing; the central relationship feels unbalanced and unhealthy, with Maddox’s reliance on Roscoe to the exclusion of all else feeling like he’s using him as a crutch rather than being on equal footing with him as a lover.

So I can’t, in good conscience, recommend Code Red. I did like some parts of it, and Nick J. Russo’s performance is a definite plus, but overall, I was disappointed.

Caz