I really, really enjoyed this dual POV, forced proximity romance between Erika, a scarred former broadway star and Christof, the head of a German hair band trying to make it big in the States.

When Christof rents out Erika's falling down theatre to rehearse for their next album, the two quickly find sparks flying with an undeniable chemistry. Things get complicated though after a trip to Vegas and the return of the band's former keyboardist (and Christof's ex).

I thought this was such a fun and unique premise, perfect for fans of books like Thank you for listening by Julia Whalen. Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy.

I feel awful. This is my first ever DNF. I've persevered to 23% and decided this book just isn't for me.

You may ask then, why am I giving it three stars? It is beautifully written. The language, prose and style are gorgeous and reflect the characters seeing Christof is from a non-English speaking background. I wanted to love a reverse Phantom telling and love me some broken characters, but I can't get past Erika being more concerned about being a bad person, than the accident that left her disfigured.

I'm hoping that others will give this a try and, hopefully, love it. It just isn't for me.

Had the pleasure of working on this and I love it. The characters, the fact that its a genderbent retelling of Phantom of the Opera and proudly embraces it, its all perfection.

I read Jen Comfort's book 'An astronaut and the star' when it was featured in Amazon's First Reads list, and I really enjoyed it. The combination of extreme intellect and a man who appears very shallow that's extremely famous. The comedy, the spice, and the writing style with a very original plot was a pleasure to read.
When I saw Midnight Duet open for reviews it was an automatic yes for me to read it and after finishing, I can say I enjoyed it. It wasn't as good as her debut but once again Jen wrote an original plot, fascinating characters and great comedy.
It fell a bit flat at some points. I enjoy switching between POV but it would take a good paragraph and a half sometimes to tell the difference between Erika and Christof. As well as the immediate 'will-they-wont-they' scenario that took place quickly. Christof was introduc)ed as a loyal and caring person but didn't think twice about proceeding with Erika romantically. At certain parts he was unsure whether he was still in a relationship! Erika seemed to have more self-control when it came to their Romance, reminding him of his 10 year relationship with Gillian.
Erika's treatment by Sybille because of her scars initially annoyed me. No effort was made to apologise or improve how Erika was insulted because of her scars, and it remained glossed over. She seemed ashamed of her appearance following her accident and I had hoped by the end, she would have been more confident, realising her appearance did not dictate her talent or self-worth.
If you're after an original romance with interesting characters and comedy then I'd recommend Midnight Duet (which has a gorgeous cover)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre/tropes: romance, opposites attract, redemption

Erika’s a former Broadway actress and diva who relocated to Nevada after a bad stage accident injured and scarred her, thereby ruining her career. She now runs her grandmother’s former opera house that she inherited. It’s a giant money pit so Erika rents out space on the premises to pay off bank loans coming due. A wildly successful German heavy metal band rents it for a few weeks while they work on their second album. This band of quirky personalities is led by Christof who’s stressed about creating new music, babysitting his bandmates, and hiding the truth from them that their keyboardist who’s also his girlfriend has quit the band. It’s all sorts of insta lust stuff when the classically trained diva and the screeching rock star meet. An attraction, connection, and alliance that neither expected forms.

Erika and Christof coming from very different worlds with music as their commonality made this very interesting. I liked that they were somehow able to see who the other was under all the pretense. Erika wasn’t the nicest in her previous life, and is living with the consequences. She’s been painstakingly reinventing herself into a better person. Christof sees her beauty, heart and intellect, and a steadiness that he hasn’t experienced yet. The stress of leading his band is almost breaking him. They tip toe around each other initially, though there’s a spicy scene at the beginning (so spicy I thought 𝘐 should leave the room!) until they finally give in and then 🔥 🔥 🔥

I liked the genuine mentorship and friendship that grew, and maybe it’s the setup but this romance felt a little different to me. I think Erika’s redemption arc got to me. The story was entertaining (the band brought the shenanigans), and I had no idea how things would turn out for everyone…It’s like a whirlwind of crazy coming together and I ate it up!

Thanks to @netgalley & Montlake for my review copy. This is my honest review.

𝗠𝗶𝗱𝗻𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗗𝘂𝗲𝘁 is available now.

This book is fun, refreshing and so enjoyable I couldn’t put it down.

The prologue is dynamic, engaging me right away and gives the reader a clear idea of our heroine, Erika. Cut to two years later and her life has drastically changed. The hero, Christof, is frontman for his hair metal band, and for reasons, he and his band leave their home in Germany, enter Erika’s world and bonkersness ensues.

I loved that Erika was the opposite of a virgin and had no shame about it, and that she may come off as unlikeable to some readers but is at her core just like anyone else, she doesn’t want to be alone and she’s doing the best she can to make lemonade out of lemons. Christof is one of the most unusual, sweetest and hottest heroes I have read in a while. Both main characters are unforgettable and the way their romance unfolds is delightful.

I docked a star because there were a couple of implausible (romance reasons) moments that I just couldn’t suspend disbelief for, Erika has pet rats (I am not a fan of this!), I wanted the story’s villain to suffer, and the ending and epilogue felt rushed compared to how the rest of the book unfolded.

Besides that, the writing is terrific, the plot is a crazy, fun ride, the secondary characters are as well drawn out as the main characters, and the heat that Erika and Christof generate is smokin’!

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I so badly wanted to love this. And I tried to, I really did. Early signs were good. Disappointingly, this ended up being little more than "meh" for me.

I had read this author's debut recently and liked it well enough. I wanted to read Midnight Duet for a few reasons: 1) I liked enough about <i>The Astronaut and the Star</i> that I was excited to see how Comfort's writing matured in her second book; 2) she writes "unlikable" FMCs and those are my favorite; 3) I spent an embarrassing amount of time in my youth fighting with my friend over who got to slaughter the role of Christine in our living room productions of <i>The Phantom of the Opera.</i> I can't say this book did much on any of those counts. Am I being way too picky? Probably. Comfort's writing just doesn't work for me right now; it's much more plot than emotionality. The other thing that I've noticed in both books is that they're very instalust but don't do enough to convince me that the romance actually has more behind it than sexual chemistry.

Re: item #2, I just didn't think that Erika was all that bitchy. Yeah, she's a diva. Yeah, sleeping with her understudy's boyfriend is a pretty shitty move. But the most unlikable thing about her is how self-pitying she is. I guess I wanted her to be more angry and less "I'm a terrible human." I don't think she did anything to deserve her self-imposed exile, and her determination to atone for her sins clashed with how unrepentant she is about her talent and dramatic flair.

And item #3? Well, I knew I wasn't going to get a gothic, melodramatic romance. But other than the obvious parallels (so many character names referenced, midnight singing lessons, certain events at the end), I'm not walking away from <i>Midnight Duet</i> thinking about how it honors the inspiration. I wish the book had allowed itself to go more bonkers, even in a silly way. I mean, a former Broadway diva ends up in bumf*ck, Nevada trying to save a former brothel by becoming the voice coach and illegal landlady to a German hair metal frontman? It could have been a ridiculous good time but lacked the self-indulgent grandiosity I associate with both the original novel and the play.

Circling back to the romance itself, I've already mentioned that I found the love connection lacking. We don't see much intimacy between Erika and Christof other than the sexual kind. They mostly think about how hot they think the other one is. Which, important. But so is convincing me that these two people should be together to do more than just bang. I think the book could have stood to spend a little more time showing us the secret singing lessons and other encounters to develop their emotional connection. At times it felt like I was being told and not shown that they were falling in love with each other. I expect my investment in the characters and the romance to increase as the story goes but in this instance, after an intriguing start, my interest waned. The last few chapters then packed in all the melodramatic hijinks I wish had been consistent throughout the rest of the novel. These hijinks, in the vein of "now that I've faced death I've realized nothing is as important as you," felt disproportionately high stakes compared to everything that had happened until then. It irked me that Christof, in particular, was so willing to give up everything that had always been so important to him just to be with a woman he's known for two months. (Again, why? Because she's a fire tornado in the sack?) And then the sudden increase in pressure made the love confessions/commitment feel rushed and superficial.

All this to say, I must be becoming one of the most obnoxious, pickiest readers on the planet because this should have worked for me so much better than it did. I'm giving 3 stars because there's nothing objectively wrong about it, this author has just proven at this point to be not-for-Hannah. Sad face.

Content notes: accident causing injury and visible scarring, cheating, slut-shaming, fire resulting in building collapse, FMC struggles with significant financial debt, alcohol use/intoxication, gambling, open door sex scenes

When I heard that Midnight Duet was a phantom of the opera retelling I jumped at the opportunity to read this!

This was a fun take on the musical classic with the gender reversal and plenty of music still included.

Erika Greene was not a nice person and after suffering a tragic accident during a performance on Broadway has escaped to her old family theater/bordello in the Nevada desert to lick her wounds. Her business is crumbling in more ways than one, when a German rock band interested in recording in the US reach out to rent her theatre.

Front man Christof has just broken up with his girlfriend and fellow band mate is immediately attracted to the prickly proprietress! As the attraction tuns out to be mutual, they find themselves making some night music of their own!

This book was full of interesting characters, from Erika and Christof to the rest of the band and other side characters. I favourite parts of the book were the specific Phantom references and other fun 80’s pop culture references that varied from hair metal bands to movies, like Labyrinth.

Though, there were a lot of fun elements in this book and the romance was hot when we got there, I felt that the story had a very slow build it was harder for me to get into it than I had anticipated.

Overall, I really did enjoy how the story wrapped up and the Phantom elements brought this rockstar romance to another level!
Thanks to Montlake Publishing and NetGalley for my review copy.

#MidnightDuet #JenComfort

This just wasn't for me. I love the idea of a modern day take on Phantom of the Opera, but something like this needs to go further than just calling your characters Christoff and Erika. This read more like yet another retelling of Beauty and the Beast but without the organically unfolding love story. Neither character is especially likeable and I found all "Germans can't speak English" humor honestly kind of offensive.

Actual rating 3.5

I was so excited to read this as it is billed as a gender-bent retelling/reimagining of The Phantom of the Opera. And I have to say that those parts delivered for me.
My inner musical theatre geek was loving all of the mentions of different Broadway plays and songs and the parallels between the Phantom musical and the book.

However, it is also an adult romance, which I usually love. But this one puts sex at the forefront (sometimes for whole chapters), and so I didn’t get the romantic development that I wanted.
The sexual relationship was the priority, and so I didn’t get to see any romantic development. The main relationship goes at the speed of light once it starts, so I just was missing the realization of feelings, the pining, the cuteness.

But if you’re looking for a spicier read, this might be one for you to try.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing the E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

If you are looking for a romance with main characters who are damaged because of their past as well as colorful secondary characters this is the book for you. This is advertised as a reverse phantom of the opera style story. It is in the sense that the female main character Erica is a former Broadway diva who was scarred in an accident that took place at her theater during the show. She is now in Paris Nevada where she inherited a run down opera house. She is trying to save it from Xeno developer but it’s not working out until a German band shows up to do a residency there. It’s a German hair metal band whose lead singer Christoph is the main male character.

The group is missing their keyboardist who is supposed to be in a relationship with Christof.Unbeknownst to the other band members Christof’s ex has taken off and he still hasn’t told the bandmembers this news. Erica finds out and Christof and her agreed to work together on music for the band which will intern help the Opera House survive.

The relationship that develops between them is so full of emotion that it flies off the page. Jen Comfort writes in a way that you manage to feel everything that the characters are feeling. All of the secondary characters which are mainly the band members just added to the story and made it highly entertaining. This is a book that once you pick up you can’t put down until the end.

Obviously, being a former theatre kid, I couldn't pass up Midnight Duet after I realized it's a German hair metal gender swapped sexy take on Phantom of the Opera (to the point where the male lead shares the Daae surname with our beloved Christine and the female lead is named Ericka). Now, there's a lot to unpack here, and not a lot of time to do it. Suffice to say, the spice is good, the plot drags a bit, Christoff is easy to love and Ericka not so much (though, if you've seen Phantom...). I fear I wouldn't have enjoy the book much if not for all the theatre references, which gave a whimsical little touch to a book that needed a bit more action throughout to keep the plot moving.

There is so much to like about Midnight Duet. I loved the way it played with the Phantom of the Opera story by gender-flipping it and by updating it to Broadway and metal bands. I loved how our “phantom,” Erika, wasn’t a very likable person at the start and was actively working to improve herself and her approach to others. I loved how our hero Christof had all the outward trappings of a rock god (and loved those outward trappings), but inside was a worry freak with serious management-control issues.

Christof’s band was a blast, playing with every rock band stereotype, and the story of their “band on the cusp of breaking big” was a great place to explore. I also liked how Christof and Erika both had a huge level of miscomprehension when it came to their friends and coworkers. And that Erika’s pets were rats? Loved that play on “living in the sewers.”

But somehow I didn’t fully connect to Christof and Erika. Both seemed to fall in love too deeply and quickly for where they were in life, particularly Erika and her strong levels of mistrust. Comfort sells their physical connection beautifully, but the transference to love seemed sudden and not fully substantiated to me. I also struggled with how Erika was keeping her voice in shape when she never practiced. Because of this, I kept putting down and coming back to Midnight Duet.

That said, the atmosphere of this book—metal bands, decaying old opera houses, the blazing Nevada heat, the classy tackiness that is Vegas—is something that Comfort captures perfectly. And this is definitely a fun read, with ingenious twists and turns. It makes me want to explore more by Comfort, so I’ll definitely be looking out for that!

Thank you to NetGalley and Montlake for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

CW: disfiguring injury, fire, anxiety

I would recommend if you're looking for (SPOILERS)

-m/f contemporary romance
-gender flipped phantom of the opera
-forced proximity
-insta attraction
-in control rockstar
-chaos former Broadway singer
-horrrrny

This book was absolute chaos and I mean that in the best way. This was one of the closet third-person POVs and was just so fun and I'm going to say it again chaotic. This was a fun premise, two flawed individuals coming together in a gender flipped phantom of the opera retelling. Add in a crumbling brothel, some pet rats, and an eclectic German rock band,

Erika was such a fun protagonist. Not a perfect person, she's also really hard on herself, all while just being her authentic self. She was witty, sarcastic and flawed. And entirely too tempted by Christof the hot German front of the band who also takes everything onto himself.

These two were so horny for each other. Tiptoeing around the opera house just wanting each other. Add in some voeyuristic self-pleasure and these two were burning up the page. I had so much fun reading this one.

Steam: 3.75

Midnight Duet by Jen Comfort

Musicians with chemistry, but oh so different from one another on many levels, end up finding more than they expected in Paris, Nevada.

What I liked:
* Erika: opera star, scarred in accident, rather lost, seeking something, talented, wiser and better than she realizes, loves deeply
* Christoff: hair metal band lead singer and guitarist, German, control freak, worrier, rigid, a bit lost in some ways, a good man
* The chemistry between Erika and Christoff
* The band members: Sybelle, Sergei, Waldo…and later, Gillian
* Jean and Javert: Erika’s furry rat companion pets that
* The slow burn between the H/h
* The growth shown in both characters through the story arc
* That it reminded me a bit of Jilly Cooper books read long ago
* The way it all worked out in the end

What I didn’t like:
* That it took me quite awhile to get into the story and begin to care about the characters – I had trouble relating to them and their life issues – though I did finally begin to care and wonder how it would all work out.

Did I enjoy this book? By the end, I did.
Would I read more by this author? I believe I would

Thank you to NetGalley and Montlake for the ARC – This is my honest review.

3-4 Stars

I wasn't quite sure what to expect with this book. For me, it was an okay read, I finished it and enjoyed it, but I wouldn't rush to recommend it.

A surprising and fresh read, given my track record with contemporary YA and Phantom of the Opera takes. The characters are standout and manage to not be impossibly frustrating to read while making questionable decisions.

When I first read about this book I was really excited about it, but unfortunately I was very disappointed.
The romance part of the book was extremely good, but a bit to smutty for my liking. I really liked the chemistry between the main character and the love interest and though it was kinda of a meet cute situation the author still managed to make it a slow burn.

As someone who actually listens to a whole lot of hair metal, I really felt like this book didn't capture the essence of the concept hair metal, but instead showed the prejudices and generalisations about hair metal bands.
If you don't know anything about hair metal bands and only care about the romance, then I guess that you would still find this book entertaining, but it annoyed me to much to enjoy the book.

In this gender-swapped Phantom of the Opera retelling, Erika is an ex-broadway star turned theater owner renting her (dangerously unusable) space to Christof's German hair metal band. This book is just pure fun. The best way for me to describe it is campy. Underneath all the fun, are discussions of self-love and letting go of things outside of your control. I actually really loved the ending because it had me on the edge of my seat.

I didn’t know I needed a gender-flipped The Phantom of the Opera retelling in my life till I was four pages into Jen Comfort’s novel. I’m pretty sure I dreamed about this book when I wasn’t reading it, it completely captivated me from the start. Erika’s prickly nature, her passion and drive to protect the only thing she has left. Christof’s determination to be the best of the best and the way he loves his music and his band. The setting of Paris, Nevada and the Paris Opera House. The members of Nachtmusik and how distinct each of them were. Also how entertaining and interesting too!

Jen’s writing is snappy and smart, drawing you in and making you obsess over these characters and their fates. It’s just one of those stories that will make you want to give up everything to just read. Erika and Christof are horny, happy and wonderful fools. I absolutely loved the push and pull between these characters, the lust that thrums between them that they don’t act on for a while. You can feel the sexual tension through Jen’s words and that’s the best kind of writing, in my opinion.

Erika is such a fantastic character with such a big personality and an even bigger heart that she doesn’t let a lot of people see. I loved that she was shamelessly a diva, that her life had allowed her to be a certain type of person and she sank into that role in the best way possible. But I also liked how we got to see different sides of this character, her growth and evolution really made her an even more incredible character than I thought possible. Christof was such a dream. From all descriptions of him—clothes, hair, etc—I never thought that he’d be my type, but he was all of that and more. His struggles with making music, the drama (and hilarity) with the band and just all of that chemistry with Erika draws you into him completely.

Whether you’re a fan of the musical or not, I think this story still hits the spot. It’s got all of the things that I love about romance and then some. Cannot wait to read Jen’s debut now, because if this is what her writing is like, I’m going to devour that one too.