Syncopation cover art

Syncopation

Twisted Wishes Series, Book 1

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Thousands of incredible audiobooks and podcasts to take wherever you go.
Immerse yourself in a world of storytelling with the Plus Catalogue - unlimited listening to thousands of select audiobooks, podcasts and Audible Originals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Syncopation

By: Anna Zabo
Narrated by: Greg Boudreaux
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

There's no resisting the thrum of temptation in this male/male rock-star romance from genre-favorite author Anna Zabo!

Twisted Wishes front man Ray Van Zeller is in one hell of a tight spot. After a heated confrontation with his bandmate goes viral, Ray is hit with a PR nightmare the fledgling band so doesn't need. But his problems only multiply when they snag a talented new drummer - insufferably sexy Zavier Demos, the high school crush Ray barely survived.

Zavier's kept a casual eye on Twisted Wishes for years, and lately, he likes what he sees. What he doesn't like is how out of control Ray seems - something Zavier's aching to correct after their first pulse-pounding encounter. If Ray's up for the challenge.

Despite the prospect of a glorious sexual encore, Ray is reluctant to trust Zavier with his band - or his heart. And Zavier has always had big dreams; this gig was supposed to be temporary. But touring together has opened their eyes to new passions and new possibilities, making them rethink their commitments, both to the band and to each other.

Contains mature themes.

©2018 Anna Zabo (P)2020 Tantor Contemporary Contemporary Romance Romance Heartfelt

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Loner cover art
Takeover cover art
Dedicated: A Rhythm of Love Novel cover art
Confetti Hearts cover art
The Strangest Forms cover art
Powder & Pavlova cover art
The Southern Boys Trilogy cover art
The Sunny Side cover art
Relative Justice cover art
A Proper Education cover art
The Shutout cover art
The Kite cover art
Unwritten Law cover art
Blame It on the Champagne cover art
Taming Dante cover art
His Dark Savior cover art
All stars
Most relevant
I've listened to Syncopation before on another platform and I'd forgotten just how much I like the story and characters.
Greg Boudreaux did a great job in painting the story almost as a film before my mind's eye, as per usual.

The character growth with new depths brought up from each of them was a joy to follow. Only the villain was left a bit too "disney-villain-y" to my tastes.
Not knowing much about music labels and their ways of dealing with smaller and potentially rising artists, it seemed very counterintuitive how some things were done but then again... real life is often more grotesque and weird than people can even imagine.

Hot, kinky, dramatic, fulfilling - highly recommend!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Syncopation is the idea of cross-beats, a rhythm that stands out against whatever else is going on. Something in competition, maybe, or in a kind of musical conflict.

This is where we meet Ray van Zeller and Xavier Damos. Ray's band is going through tricky times. So is Xavier, in a different way. Xave answers an audition call for the band and excels, There's no question he's probably going to be good for the band but only if he and Ray can get past some joint ancient history. The catalyst that finally brings them together comes from a surprising direction.

Anna Zabo revels in describing performing, the joy of making music, especially in front of an audience. There's also drama, sex, rivalries, and unapologetic queerness.

Coming together

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I really did enjoy it.

I loved the relationship between Zavier & Ray.

I also really liked that it was (for me) was one of the best portrayals of a safe, truly consensual initiation into BDSM, as I understand it.

BDSM is not really my scene, but I read loads of books that include BDSM themes.

I know there are different kinks, but so many BDSM-type books rely purely on degradation & borderline sadism... which do turn me off completely!

In this book we have a Dom, who is extremely sweet as a person, takes time to explain the scenes, walks their "Sub" through all the different toys/tools, asks what the "sub" feels about each toy & really tries to acclimate them to what might happen, etc...

I also like that there's a clear line, for both of them, between a scene & the outside world.

& to those who might be put off because it includes BDSM themes... I'd say, give it a chance. It really is handled well, IMO & it's not hard-core... it's more soft & sweet than anything else.

Where the author did lose me, was after the hospital & specifically after the walkabout... such a massive step simply for legality purposes felt disingenuous, to me & simply rushing the ending.

& tbph, the ending felt more HFN than HEA. I really don't know how an HEA could've been achieved with the subject matter (once you read it, you'll understand what I'm referring to), but honestly that was the only let down of the book for me.

really enjoyable

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great storyline, I enjoyed the depth of characters and the space the main relationship was given to flourish, challenging stereotypes and embracing individual needs and desires.

Narrator was fab as always

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
For starters I’d like to say that this book when it comes to the BDSM aspect, they do it really nicely the scenes are so sweet along with the spice, and Xavier was such a good Dom for Ray as a beginner in the BDSM world, he was always so sweet and caring for Ray along with there scenes being so well ended like the beginning and ending of a scene is so coherent, I never got confused. You always know the difference in the Mc’s attitude when he enters his ‘sub space’.

I would like to mention as well, like another reviewer said this is definitely a story more fit for a HFN sort of setting instead of HEA, well I mean a HFN ending just makes more sense, for a reason I won’t name, you’ll understand once you get there, I don’t see how Ray and Xavi, can have a HEA.

Anyway, regardless of that fact this was so great and I’m so glad Karl/carl was dealt with! What he did was nothing short of insane.

Woah this story.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.