This has got to be one of the oddest set ups for a romance novel-- it starts with marriage and then spends a good chunk of its time in one character's anxiety-ridden head while his husband is out on tour-- but I'll be damned if it didn't love it. I love that it gets all up in the messy stuff and never flinches. I love that it doesn't take take shortcuts and doesn't heal everything with only the Power of Love.

I just.. My HEART. I am dead. I just died of all the feels.

This review will appear at All About Romance closer to the release date.

I tend to either wildly love Ms. Parrish’s books or dislike them intensely, and Rend, my friends, falls squarely in the ‘wildly love’ category. Although much of its subject matter is somber and heavy, the author deftly balances the darkness with a passionate romance that’s heartbreakingly tender, romantic and moving. Rend takes the second chance love trope and twists it, putting its characters (and readers) through the proverbial wringer on the road to happily ever after. Our principal pair is a study in contrasts, and I was totally invested in each of these characters, their ‘issues,’ and their love for each other from beginning to end. Rend, Ms. Parrish’s ode to a gothic love story, is alternately painful and lovely, and ends with a hard earned, satisfying and hopeful happily ever after.

Unlike Riven (which you don’t have to read in order to enjoy this story) and it’s dual PoV’s, Rend takes place entirely in the PoV of Matt Argento, a minor secondary character in the first novel. Matt, after a childhood of abandonment and deprivation, falls desperately and totally in love with Rhys Nyland - a handsome, wholesome and happy stranger, who picks him up in a bar. In the prelude, which we later discover is a flashback, the pair meet - and instead of the hook-up Matt expected, they wind up sharing a late night meal, talking and getting to know one another for hours, and forging a surprisingly intense connection.

Matt, who originally hoped for distractingly good sex and maybe a good night’s sleep on a comfy mattress (he shares a crowded apartment and sleeps on the couch), is charmed and irresistibly drawn to Rhys. Rhys is sweet and funny, charming and kind, and obviously delighted with life and Matt, and doesn’t seem in any hurry to get him into bed...it’s new and different from what Matt’s accustomed to, but he can’t resist the big man. When Rhys says good night after only a heated kiss and request for his phone number, Matt’s confused - he thought they had great chemistry, but Rhys doesn’t push for anything more. Instead, he arranges for them to meet up several times over the next few days, further endearing himself to Matt, but frustrating him. Smitten, wracked by the lust he feels whenever Rhys is near, and bewildered by Rhys’s interest, Matt finally just asks Rhys what they’re doing,

...I texted him, Do you have sex?
He wrote back immediately: Yes.
I responded: Great. Wanna have it with me?
Rhys: More than anything.
And I was left speechless yet again, completely undone by his endearing brand of deep impact honesty.
OK I’m coming over, I wrote finally, suddenly convinced the whole thing would fall apart if I waited.
Yay! Rhys responded, and I found myself grinning despite myself.

The ensuing liaison, and Rhys’s confession about what he wants from Matt and why, thrill and scare him in equal measure. He sneaks away while he thinks Rhys is asleep...but moments later, a love note (in the form of a text) shocks him into returning. When the prelude ends, Matt is hopeful for the first time in years, but doubtful it can last. After all, everyone he’s ever loved has abandoned him...eventually.

From this completely absorbing prelude, the story jumps forward two years: Matt and Rhys are happily married and living in Sleepy Hollow, New York. The relationship is idyllic - they’re besotted, can’t keep their hands off each other, and are committed to being together forever. Matt represses any worries he has and he thinks he’s fine until Rhys leaves to go on tour in support of his new solo album. Doubts and fears from Matt’s past - his belief that everyone he loves eventually leaves him behind - overwhelm him.

Rend unfolds as Matt’s unravels. Interspersed with vignettes of Rhys and Matt’s whirlwind romance and impetuous marriage, we watch Matt slowly fall apart while Rhys goes on the road and lives out his musical dreams. He tries and mostly succeeds at hiding his struggles from Rhys, but as the days go by he finds it harder and harder to cope on his own in Sleepy Hollow. Plagued by darkly pessimistic thoughts telling him he isn’t good for Rhys and that he can find someone else, he can’t sleep and doesn’t eat, and he finds himself returning - over and over again - to the last ‘home’ he knew...before he was passed from foster home to foster home. He’s haunted by the ghosts of his past and the fear that Rhys will reject him once he knows his darkest secrets. Rhys suspects something is off about Matt, but when he finally returns home to his husband, it’s nearly too late.

Although Rend largely focuses on Matt’s physical and emotional break-down, the author (wisely) frames them within the context of his marriage and relationship to the love of his life, Rhys. Rhys is Matt’s heart; his enormous capacity to love and be loved holds holds the disparate parts of the novel together. He’s joyful and loveable and kind and honorable...and fiercely protective and possessive of Matt. I loved every scene with Rhys; his deep and abiding faith in Matt and their marriage, and his unwillingness to give in to Matt’s doubts and fears, his big heart...it’s just...wow. Ms. Parrish’s characterization of these two men is supremely well realized - I understood them, their struggles, their hopes and dreams...and I was completely engrossed in their love story. Rhys helps Matt confront his demons and rewards his trust with a possessive and all consuming love - the kind Matt craves and needs. Rend doesn’t flinch from the pain and damage of Matt’s childhood or its long term effects on every facet of his life; this is a starkly beautiful portrayal of a marriage in trouble and the lengths two men will go to in order to find happiness together, forever.

When I finished the terrific first book in the Riven series, which featured a famous musician eager to escape the limelight (Theo Decker) and a musician/recovering addict (Caleb Whitman) hiding himself away, I was curious where Ms. Parrish might go in book two. Riven seemed a bit of a closed loop - the principal pair found their happily ever after, and the only significant secondary character, their extremely likeable/loveable friend Rhys Nyland, was happily married. Rend was an expected and marvelous surprise. I enjoyed revisiting Riven’s characters, and Theo and Caleb both make terrific cameos in Rend, but this novel more than stands on its own. Rhys, a classic beta hero, is a wonderful contrast to the love of his life, Matt. Their poignant and heartbreaking journey to happily ever after feels real and authentic, and fans will root hard for them. This is one second-chance love story that will twist you up, wring you out, and then leave you wanting more.

5* I loved everything about this tale, reading it blurb-blind, because hey, it's a RP novel.

There are some books that don't live up to their excellent blurb and leave a cheated feeling behind, and then there are books that you grab because of the author's name, knowing you're going to get a decent read. Some RP novels I've liked, some I've appreciated for the quality of the writing, but haven't loved due to the tale, but this delivered in every way.

This was one of the best books I've read this year. It wasn't overly heavy with Matt's background, just exactly right, with the right timing and right events for his explanation to Rhys. I loved how Rhys's friends were there as the voice of reason at times, having gone through their own learning process (they may be the leads to book 1, I think) and how they didn't take sides. I loved, and yet hated, how Matt's past impacted on him, as that made him human, made him fallible, made him a person with frailties and not some caricature and not some stereotype as is often seem in someone who's had it tough.

Some books will do angst to the nth degree, and some will be verbose to drag out a tale and make it seem value for money, but this hit everything for me: romance, a good back story, an actual storyline that worked, a couple of leads I liked very much from the start, and a love from Rhys that I could feel, read and see. Matt's love was a little less prominent, but it was there in his courage in trying to just live day to day, with the gift of Rhys in his life. These guys felt real, and they touched my heart without the need to use any tropes, artifice or anything pop. Oh, and these days I tend to skip a lot of the sex in MM novels. Not here. Here, it was sexy, loving, healing and just a little dirty sex of the very best kind!

ARC courtesy of Random House Publishing/Loveswept and NetGalley, for my reading pleasure.

I absolutely loved this installment. It was even better than the first one for me.

Roan Parrish's characters always break my heart and put it back together, which is why she's one of my favorite authors.

I highly recommend this book, and this series!

Rend is told through the perspective of Matt Argento, an Italian-Mexican American who grew up in the foster system. He’s not used to being loved and is always waiting for the other shoe to drop. One night, he meets Rhys Nyland, a studio musician who is often described as looking like Thor and always seems to sparkle with sunshine. Matt and Rhys had a short relationship, only a couple months, before getting married at the courthouse. Rend takes place almost two years later when Rhys has started a solo career and Matt has to cope with feelings of abandonment when he goes on tour.

This book works through several different aspects of trauma and looks at how one’s past can shape their future. Matt is used to the foster system where he takes what he’s given and is always prepared to lose it, while Rhys comes from a loving family with parents who emulated the relationship he dreamed of. Matt is trying so hard to be okay, to move past his history, because he doesn’t want to taint Rhys’ world-view, but by doing so he only hurts both of them.

We also see how Rhys always trying to be protector and savior can be a bad thing. He tries to lay blame without being able to accept that sometimes someone has a bad history.

I loved seeing Matt and Rhys work through their issues to find their way back to each other. They’re established and love each other deeply, but have to work on several facets of their relationship. In some ways they’re in this half-submerged dream because communication is something Matt struggles with and because Rhys wants to fix everything. When he goes on tour, it showed how much they really needed to work on.

I love Matt and how much he cares. He works for a company that helps transition foster kids out of the system and he cares so deeply. He starts to have big dreams, and it was wonderful seeing his dreams become reality and help those around him.

I think my biggest complaint is how possessive Matt and Rhys tended to be. It worked for them and was what they both needed, but it was just a bit Much for me at times. They are very obviously individual people with their own life and goals and dreams, but there’s also a lot of “mine” and the way they would use “husband” to lay their claim on one another. It had some cute moments and elements, and some of that possessiveness tied to Matt’s need to feel wanted and loved, and Rhys wanting to make sure Matt knew he wouldn’t leave one day.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I hope there’ll be more in this universe, maybe Huey will get a book. There’s great friendships and found family elements in this book, as well as showing healing and fighting for what you want.

This wasn't as god as the first book in this series, but it was still romantic and enjoyable! It was hard for me, because the MC never felt truly invested in the love interest. They were even MARRIED but he still felt cagey. Hence it was hard for me to get into the story. A good idea for a plot device, to allow them to fall in love a second time and get it right?? But there didn't even seem to be a FIRST time for falling in love. I felt disconnected from this whole thing.

4.5 Stars!

Sheesh. Talk about hitting you where it hurts.

This one was hard to read. Most of the book in fact. It was very melancholic. Even with Rhys' sunny disposition.

My hurt broke time after time for Matt.

I really feel like I should remember Matt from Riven. After all, Matt and Rhys were married before Theo and Caleb even met. But I don't.

Much like Riven, the writing is flawless. It's captivating. It's full of so much emotion.

Great addition to the series. I like Noe need a book. Or Huey. Oh....maybe Noe and Huey! :)

Wow, what an amazing read!

<b>Rhys</b> is Caleb's best friend from the first novel, and remember how he was married? Well this is his and Matt's story. Rhys grew up in a rare truly happy home. He grew up with parents who loved him and supported him and never left him, and a good sister too.

<b>Matt</b>, of course, had the opposite life. His dad left when he five, and his mother left him two years later, so he mainly grew up in the system. He broke my heart when he told the story of how he'd wait for his mom to come home on that stoop like he'd done when she still there, everyday for years.

And Matt's problems in this book really stem from that abandonment, and like who he is isn't good enough for the people in his life.

Rhys and Matt were such opposites, but they were so good for each other in that way. Rhys was light and good and happiness and he brought that into Matt's life, and Matt was someone who wouldn't leave Rhys and was as committed to him as Rhys was to him. That's all Rhys wanted, a life with someone filled with love and happiness and commitment.

But it isn't smooth sailed, it so very rarely, if ever, is.

When Rhys goes on tour for two months, Matt slowly starts to get worse and worse, as the doubts start to creep in, as old fears make themselves known. Matt pushed them all down to the back of his mind when he married Rhys because Rhys made him happy. But that wasn't dealing with already existing problems, that was just ignoring them and leaving them to fester.

Matt made mistakes, Rhys made mistakes. They got married to0 early - only after two and half months! - and while they did marry each other for love, they didn't quite think it all the way through, that it takes more than love to sustain a marriage.

But the thing is, they try. Even when Matt is so scared to, even when Rhys maybe gets a little too intense with how hard he's trying, they don't give up. Rhys doesn't let them, and when Caleb - who, if you guys remember, had his own shit to work through in the first book - says some pretty damn insightful things, Matt agrees to go see a therapist.

It takes time, and will be a lifelong thing, but Matt gets to a much better place by the end of all this, all because Rhys wouldn't give up.

Rhys' upbringing make him be a little short sighted, a little rose-colored glasses like, a little blind to the reality of things, but it also is, I think, what saved their marriage. Because Rhys believed in love, in happiness, in building a life together and having a partner. He didn't want to give up and he determined not to give up.

Not that Matt didn't love Rhys - he loved Rhys about as much as Rhys loved him (which is a lot. These two adored each other to the moon and back) - but he had such a self hatred, a fear that he was worthless and he ruined Rhys' life.

I loved how this author didn't go the usual route with that. And I mean Rhys giving in to Matt's fears for drama's sake and "letting him go" and then breaking up and going through more pain all for the ~drama of it all. This book didn't do that.

It had it's drama, for sure, but it came from a real place, and I loved that. It wasn't manufactured, and these two didn't break up, they didn't end at all, they worked through it, together, which so many pieces of writing with romance so rarely do. It's refreshing to have read it, and these sort of established relationship stories are the ones I want. The couple working THROUGH it instead of crashing and burning and then getting back together some time down the line.

Honestly, time apart wouldn't have done these two good, imo. Rhys would have just been miserable and heartbroken, and Matt would have been too, but he also would go on living thing it was best, that he stay our of Rhys' life and not "ruin it" and he would probably just get worse, with the added heart break on top, and would never get the help he needs.

These two staying together was the best thing for them, and I love <spoiler>in the end how they choose to renew their vows and have another wedding! With friends and family this time :D</spoiler>.

I definitely recommend this, especially if you loved the first book. Now I hope the next book in this series is abbout Huey (and hopefully Grin? Or maybe they both can have separate books? :D).

I loved this, everything about this book. It didn't shy away from the angst at all, but it didn't run into the same pitfalls many other books do (and I'm remembering how Riven did that too. There was still a break up, but it happened super early in the book instead of in the last 20 or so percent like books usually do). It just made this book that much better.

Definite thumbs up from me! <3

Is it normal to cry while reading the prologue? Asking for a friend......

There has yet to be a book that Roan has written that I have no adored, and I am here to tell you...Rend blew me away. The writing, the story, the characters. I simply couldn't get enough of this book. And It wrecked me. The emotions poured out of the pages and down my cheeks. Ugh. My heart, my mind....this one put me through the ringer.

But I loved it. So very much!

This was a very well written hurt/comfort romance. After about a year of dating, Rhys, an up and coming musician, married Matt, a former foster child working at a nonprofit organization dedicated to foster children. Rhys ends up going on tour, leaving an insecure Matt behind. Matt has a very hard time without Rhys due to his abandonment issues, but doesn’t want to upset Rhys or cause him to leave his tour to come home, and so he doesn’t mention his problems to him. The problems eventually come up, and Matt and Rhys have to work together to become better communicators in their marriage. I loved both characters - Rhys takes such good care of Matt, and poor Matt does his best in a married relationship despite his issues. I loved how they both loved each other so much and wanted to make their relationship work. I thought that the portrayal of Matt’s anxiety was well done. I really enjoyed this book because it was so well written and well developed.

This book was refreshing in that it's not about a couple getting together. It's about how you bring your whole past to a new relationship, and how being partners and staying partnered is hard work. Unfortunately, it devolves into a loop of the same issues over and over again.

I enjoyed Rend as much as I did the first book in this series. I absolutely loved the characters in this story and was glad that this story included the characters from the previous one. Theo and Caleb were my favorites, but in this story I absolutely enjoyed Rhys and Matt. Rhys was funny, sweet, charming and Matt was the complete opposite of Rhys but they fit together perfectly. They were two characters that both needed to feel wanted by each other and had two very different backgrounds/upbringings. I loved the love Rhys had for Matt. Matt was definitely an easy person to love but he had his own demons to fight and it definitely tested their relationship. This story was completely different from the first story and I appreciated that a lot. There were times I wanted to grab Matt and either shake him or hug him because he frustrated me at times, but no matter what I couldn't hate him because when it came to certain things he looked at it differently. This is a story worth reading and all I would say is to go at this story with an open mind because even though it is a romance story it has a little twist to it that seems a little odd but fits the story perfectly when you get to the end. Would I recommend this story? Yes, it was a great M/M read with characters readers will enjoy and a storyline that will have you wanting more from the very beginning.

I love this couple and the author. I've been looking forward to this sequel and it did not dissappoint! I'm in love with this couple... The chemistry between the MC's is off the charts hot and the sex was steamy! Plot was great and the well written . Roan Parrish always releases high quality work and is definitely a favorite author of mine! I couldn't put this book down! In depth review to come closer to release date.