Tag Archive | music

Are You Experienced? by Jordan Sonnenblick (book review) – time traveling back to Woodstock

Sep2

book cover of Are You Experienced? by Jordan Sonnenblick published by Fiewel and Friends3 days of peace and love,
Music too memorable to resist,
Woodstock.

Time travel with Rich as he meets his own dad as a teenager, hears Jimi Hendrix play his “Star-Spangled Banner” for the crowd, and tries to discover what he got sent back in time to accomplish.

Are You Experienced? embraces those three magical days whose musical and cultural legacies influenced generations – and its book birthday is tomorrow!

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Book info: Are You Experienced? / Jordan Sonnenblick. Feiwel & Friends, 2013. [author site]  [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: One perfect chord on a classic electric guitar and Rich zooms from 2014 and world’s strictest parents to 1969 and Woodstock! Dad will never believe this, except he’s there, too, as his teenage self…

Why his mom and dad are so controlling, Rich will never know, especially since they were hippies and musicians back in the 70s. Dad still gets choked up about his big brother dying of an overdose at 18, but does he ever show Rich any affection? Of course not.

Sneaking into Dad’s always-locked den closet, the teen discovers a vintage electric guitar and a note about playing a special chord… Boom! Suddenly, Rich is on the road to the Woodstock Music Festival in 1969, picked up by David, Michael, and Willow – his own dad, uncle, and uncle’s girlfriend! Claiming the name Gabriel, he hangs out with them for the whole weekend of peace and music.

Living through all the amazing music played live by bands who’d become legendary, wishing for a cellphone to record it, a long late-night talk with Jimi Hendrix – amazing. Getting to know Uncle Michael (whose name grown-up Dad never even says) and his cool girlfriend – awesome. Meeting beautiful Donna and seeing David/Dad so excited about the trip and the music – priceless.

Michael is really worried about something and is trying to hide it from David – but he might talk to Gabriel.

How many of these people at Woodstock will get drafted for the Vietnam War?
What did Jimi mean when they talked backstage?
Is Gabriel/Rich ever getting back to 2014?

Time travel, recreational pharmaceuticals, rock and roll, dysfunctional families, mud, mushrooms, and music – welcome to Woodstock… the Jimi Hendrix song as title says it all.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

If I Ever Get Out of Here, by Eric Gansworth (book review) – rez life, the Beatles, a new view

Aug14

“book cover of If I Ever Get Out of Here by Eric Gansworth published by Arthur A Levine BooksBand on the Run”
“Bohemian Rhapsody”
“Live and Let Die”

Music takes Lewis out of his tumbling-down house on the Tuscarora Reservation in the mid-1970s, where water comes from the pump outside and the outhouse is horrible in summer, worse in winter. His first white friend shares his taste in music – life may be okay for a while in junior high, despite the bullies and prejudice.

As an Air Force brat myself, I understand how George must quickly make friends when his father is transferred to a new base and be ready to uproot and do it all again in a heartbeat.

Read this interview to see why the author drew his own versions of the album covers which Lewis and George listen to again and again. Every chapter is a 70s song title, reflecting Gansworth’s growing-up years on the reservation.

This is a “don’t miss” title on my 2013 list, so when you’re looking for it on the shelf, note that the book spine is same blue as the headphones, not orange like the cover.

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Book info: If I Ever Get Out of Here / Eric Gansworth. Arthur A. Levine Books, 2013.  [author site]  [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: Junior high advanced classes aren’t a good place for a skinny reservation kid with glasses in the 1970s, but Lewis might just survive thanks to his first white friend and rock music.

Always moving with his Air Force dad, the new guy George makes friends fast and simply ignores the “welfare Indian” label that most kids give to Lewis. They both love the Beatles and Wacky Pack stickers, but Lewis won’t let George see his falling-down house on the reservation after visiting the Haddonfields’ tidy home on base.

When George’s dad finds out that Paul McCartney’s new band Wings is playing a concert in nearby Toronto, he promises to take both boys, despite difficulties with the tickets.

Lewis’s uncle reminds him that moving between the white world and the reservation will make his life harder, even as the town big-shot’s son decides to beat up Lewis daily in school despite all his efforts to stay clear.

Why won’t the teachers stop the bullying going on right under their noses?
How can Lewis repay the Haddonfields’ hospitality without inviting them to his house?

Music runs through this book about the power of friendship to change expectations about life, even when so much in Lewis’s life may never change for the better. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Anthem for Jackson Dawes, by Celia Grant (book review) – cancer, friendship, music, and love

Jun26

book cover of Anthem for Jackson Dawes by Celia Grant published by Bloomsbury Books for Young ReadersCancer?
Stuck in a pediatric ward?
What 13-year-old wants any of that?

When her friends don’t make the trip into London to visit her in the hospital, when the first clumps of her hair start falling out during chemo, only Jackson’s brilliant smile can start to cheer up Megan.

Grab some tissues when you get this memorable book from your local library or independent bookstore for the happy-sad story.

Is our time together here on Earth ever really long enough?
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Book info: Anthem for Jackson Dawes / Celia Grant.  Bloomsbury Books for Children, 2013.  [author site]  [publisher site]

My book talk: Stuck in the children’s ward of a London hospital, teens Megan and Jackson battle cancer, boredom, and their unknown futures as they forge a friendship that could be more.

Megan knew these horrible headaches weren’t normal for 13-year-olds, but she’d never have dreamed that a cancerous brain tumor was causing them. Her doctors are quick to order chemo, quick to hustle her into the first available hospital spot, not so quick to realize that being in a noisy ward with little kids isn’t very healing for teenagers… thank goodness she’ll be there a few weeks, then home for a while before the next round. And her friends will come in from the suburbs to visit her, right?

The brightest spot in the whole whirlwind of noise, nausea and IVs is Jackson, another teen like her, stuck in the kiddie ward as he fights off a rare cancer with more and more experimental treatments. But Jackson isn’t like anyone else. Tall, thin, blackest skin, brightest smile, he roams the hospital at all hours, especially where he shouldn’t be going. When Meg is at her lowest, he’ll tell her stories in his late Jamaican grandfather’s accent, sing the songs the two Jacksons shared, for music is his greatest passion.

When she’s home between treatments, Megan is so tired from the chemo that she can’t even go back to school half-days – and forget about playing soccer on the school team as she used to do. Her friends come over, but no one knows what to talk about – cancer will do that, Jackson says. If only Dad wasn’t working so far away, if Granddad could travel to the hospital to cheer everyone up…

Every time Jackson or Megan goes home from the hospital, they miss one another terribly and worry that they won’t be in for treatment at the same time next round. As Megan’s tumor shrinks and her surgery approaches, the pair escapes the ward nightly to wander through the hospital… in search of what?

How many of the kids in their ward will beat their cancer?
Why can’t Megan’s friends understand that it’s still her under the wig?
Are their days and nights in hospital all the time that Megan and Jackson will ever have together?

Full of heart and feeling, but never sentimental, Anthem for Jackson Dawes  pays tribute to all the youngsters who fight full-force against cancer, their caregivers and parents, and their schoolmates and siblings who watch bewildered from the sidelines.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Super Pop! by Daniel Harmon (book review) – pop culture top 10 lists galore

Jun22

book cover of Super Pop by Daniel Harmon published by Zest BooksFamily reunion time – can you keep up with the conversation about all-time favorite books?

It’s trivia night – are you ready?

Discussion of “best-ever” movies – got one to contribute?

With Daniel Harmon’s annotated, illustrated book filled with pop culture top ten lists, you can hold your own in the conversation, discover new (classic) films and music to enjoy, and yell at the book occasionally for leaving your favorite off a given list!

Read a sample chapter “Eat, Pray, Love, Spelunk: Tag Along on a Life-Changing Vacation” here, and look for this June 2013 release at your local library or favorite independent bookstore so you can top-ten your way to pop culture knowledge.

What top ten list would you create for the ultimate pop culture experience?
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Book info: Super Pop! Pop Culture Top Ten Lists to Help You Win at Trivia, Survive in the Wild, and Make It Through the Holidays / Daniel Harmon. Zest Books, 2013.  [author info]  [publisher site]  [author video]

My book talk: Want to outwit death, watch the world unfold, visit magical fictional worlds, or find speeches worth heeding? Super Pop has top ten media lists for all these pop culture topics and dozens more.

From the serious to the sublimely silly, these “ten best” lists draw from the best (or worst) movies, video games, podcasts, books, television shows, and songs of the past several decades. What sets this apart from everyday top ten listings are the author’s thoughtful, funny, and often irreverent annotations explaining why each item made it onto a list.

Zest Books editor Harmon divides his annotated lists into five groups – Be More Interesting, Get Smart(er), Stop Doing It Wrong, Find Happiness, and Survive the Holidays – and includes resource material for further investigation, lots of quirky sketches (like the TV-headed Charlie Brown regarding his spindly Christmas tree), and a great index.

Whether it’s “pithy explanations of really complex things” or “smartest inanimate objects in the history of pop culture” readers will find intriguing lists of books, films, games, television shows, and music to increase their knowledge and appreciation of our shared modern-day culture – counted down from 10 to 1 in classic Top Ten fashion, of course.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

The Immortal Von B., by M. Scott Carter (book review) – music, cloning, love, and villainy!

Jun21

book cover of The Immortal Von B. by M Scott Carter published by RoadRunner PressLudwig von Beethoven, here,
in the flesh, young and healthy!
Impossible… except it’s true!

Of course, Josie showed someone else Dad’s super-secure genetics lab when he told her not to. Of course, her routine button-pushing on the DNA sequencer started it up.

Who could have expected that the hair which floated unseen into the sequencer belonged to Beethoven, or that his clone would be so amazing on electric guitar?? (Romance between Ludwig and Josie…that’s something else entirely)

Check out the June 2013 contest on Carter’s website – you could win your own autographed copy of The Immortal Von B.  and a gift card to your favorite bookstore! Yes, this is the same M. Scott Carter who wrote Stealing Kevin’s Heart,  featured yesterday on BooksYALove, but this is such a different story. I wonder what his third book will be about….

If you could clone anyone from history, would you?? (and who?)
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Book info: The Immortal Von B. / M. Scott Carter. RoadRunner Press, 2013. [author site]  [publisher site]

My book talk: Moving from Oklahoma to Vienna for Dad’s research is quite a change for Josie, but losing her mother, discovering a dreadful secret, and unleashing a chain of musical impossibilities puts the teen and her friends in mortal peril.

It was a bit strange when Mom suddenly stopped playing concerts with symphonies all over the world; her piano genius came down to Josie as a love for guitar. Then Dad being chosen to head up the largest private genetics research center in Europe made quite a switch from being a university professor. So away they go, from the Oklahoma town she’s always known to a huge estate near Vienna.

When Mom suddenly falls ill and dies, Josie is left to raise herself as her grieving father throws himself into his work. He shows her the new genetic sequencer in his lab once, but is usually gone to meetings and conferences. She has just one friend at school, purposely going grunge-rocker to distance herself from the kids of diplomats and duchesses.

The only bright spot in her whole senior year is visiting the Vienna Haus der Musik as a new Beethoven exhibit is being unveiled. The museum director knew Anna and is delighted to show Beethoven’s own clothing and fortepiano to her daughter.

Somehow Josie’s friend Fa8 talks her into hosting a party at the estate where a diplomat’s son starts criticizing her dad’s work. Eager to shut him up, she disobeys Dad’s instructions and shows him the lab and sequencer.  Days later, Dad calls to ask her to check on the lab computer; it says it’s running a human DNA sequence when nothing should be on. Just a glitch probably…

Except when Josie goes down to the lab, she discovers footprints leading from the sequencer to the yard! What got cloned in there? Yes, a strand of Beethoven’s hair from the museum fell from Josie’s sweater into the sequencer when she was showing how harmless it all was, and now a 17-year-old Ludwig is alive in the 21st century!

Suddenly, not only Dad is wondering which human DNA sequence was completed, but thugs with automatic weapons are after Josie, Fa8 and Ludwig – with orders to kill all but the clone! Racing through Vienna while trying to help Ludwig adjust to modern life and all the music that his older self will/did write sends Josie from fear to joy to terror.

Can the three teens escape the bad guys?
What is the DNA sequencer really supposed to do?
Is Josie falling in love with Ludwig, or is he falling in love with her?

Classical music, cutting-edge research, timeless values, and Beethoven learning to play the electric guitar… adventure and romance in Vienna – if they can just live long enough to enjoy it!  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

T for traded – The Day Before, by Lisa Schroeder (book review) – birth-switch discovered years later; now what?

Apr23

book cover of The Day Before by Lisa Schroeder published by Simon PulseFamily is family,
there for you when you need them,
there when they drive you nuts.
But what if you’re not really their flesh and blood at all?

Babies being accidentally switched at birth can happen even in modern hospitals. Sometimes the error is discovered, other times not. Amber’s birth parents uncover the unintentional swap when the girls are young teens and will go to any lengths to be involved in the Oregon teen’s life, even if she’s not interested.

Experience her one perfect day on the beach with Cade, an amazing guy burdened by his own secrets, in this novel-in-verse that reads like the waves on the shore or the beating of an anxious heart.

It’s Novels in Verse Week – what are your favorites?
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Book info:  The Day Before / Lisa Schroeder. Simon Pulse, 2011 hardcover, 2012 paperback.   [author site]  [publisher site]  [book trailer]

My recommendation: Just one day when everything is perfect, that’s all Amber wants – before the journey, before the changes that will leave her different forever. Meeting Cade on the Oregon beach is perfect, but she worries about what he’s running from. So much can change in one day…

When her parents split up, Amber took refuge in drumming with her rock band, dissecting school rumors with best friend Madison, watching sappy late-night movies with Mom. The news took them all by surprise, three years ago. Switched at birth by mistake – sounds like something in the tabloids.

Somehow she’s really the biological daughter of a Texas couple, who discovered the mixup when their same-birthdate daughter died of a rare disorder. Bloodtypes didn’t match, records were back-traced, and suddenly Amber is someone else… and her birth parents long to meet her.

So she’s taking this last day as just Mom and Dad’s daughter to do her favorite Oregon things – walk the beach, toes in the cold Pacific, visit the aquarium. There she meets Cade, a guy her age who’s also taking a personal day off from school, revisiting favorite childhood seaside places. But he’s not just skipping school; like Amber, he’s here as if he might not ever see them again.

What’s Cade running from?
Could he see her as Amber-the-Girl instead of Amber-the-Drummer?
Why, oh why, does she have to leave tomorrow?

This novel-in-verse chronicles Amber’s perfect day with Cade, punctuated with letters from her old and new family, sprinkled with jelly beans, laced through and through with worry about her future, his future, their future. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

S for Sisters in Jane Austen Goes to Hollywood, by Abby McDonald (book review) – Sense and Sensibility and sunscreen

Apr22

book cover of Jane Austen Goes to Hollywood by Abby McDonald published by CandlewickPoor relatives can’t be picky about things,
Change can be painful…
but landing on your feet in Beverly Hills – wow!

Hallie and Grace’s very rich stepmother sells the sisters’ home so that their half-brother will “be provided for” – curses on Dad for dying without a valid will!

And Grace is attracted to stepmother’s brother (her step-uncle?) who appreciates her love of science combined with art.

You can read the first three chapters  free here, then be ready to head for your local library or independent bookstore because you’ll want to read the rest of this updated version of Sense and Sensibility ! While you’re there, look for other titles by McDonald, like Boys, Bears, and a Serious Pair of Hiking Boots  (my no-spoiler recommendation here).

What other modernized classics have you read lately?
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Book info: Jane Austen Goes to Hollywood / Abby McDonald. Candlewick Press, 2013. [author site] [publisher site]

My recommendation: Dad suddenly died and left everything to his new wife, including their childhood home. So Mom, Grace, and Hallie leave the misty cool of San Francisco and move in with Mom’s cousin – in his Beverly Hills mansion. Reinvent themselves or stay the same?

So weird to meet their stepmother’s brother at Dad’s wake – he’s just a bit older than the sisters. Theo and Grace visit all her favorite places in San Francisco one last time before she moves to L.A. and he heads back east to college. They were getting along so well…

Sometimes, Grace feels like the parent as big sister is dramatic to extremes and mom is artistic, laid-back. For them, being in Cousin Auggie’s guesthouse is starting anew; for shy Grace, it’s anguishing to change, no matter how nice their cousin’s young starlet wife is to them.

Hallie can’t wait to start her acting career, but agencies won’t even let her in the door. A chance encounter on the beach gets her into an exclusive circle of young actresses where she meets Dakota, lead singer for the hottest band, new love of her life! She’ll be his inspiration now, and life is very, very good. Never mind scarred Brandon next door, offering to photograph her for agency headshots, trying to get over his tour in Iraq.

Grace stays by the pool at Auggie’s all summer, then tries to find her place among the rich and ritzy at her new high school. Her lab partner Harry at least does his share of work and business-builder Palmer is a crazy-fun antidote to the celebrity gossip around them. Mom is so wrapped up in painting a new portrait series that she honestly has no idea what her daughters are experiencing, aside from the careful comments they make during family Sunday brunch.

Will Hallie ever get an audition? Will Dakota stay true to her?
Can Grace get over what might have been with Theo?
What happens when the in-crowd gossip hits a little too close to home?

Yes, this is Sense and Sensibility  transplanted into 92010 with all the social posturing and misunderstandings intact – and an added dose of sunscreen, rock music, and current events.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

N for Nothing Special, by Geoff Herbach (book review) – road trip to reclaim his brother, crazy times

Apr16

book cover of Nothing Special by Geoff Herbach published by SourcebooksAttend football camp or find his brother?
Be like his dad or make something of his life?
Listen to his friends or listen to his heart?

Even if you haven’t read the award-winning first book about Felton Feinstein, where he suddenly becomes Stupid Fast at running, you’ll die laughing at the high school senior’s stream-of-consciousness journaling and his screwball take on life. Running up and down the hall in the airport hotel because he can’t sleep, chasing after his brother, wanting to tell Grandpa Feinstein who he is but not wanting to tell him…

Grab this one before the last volume of the trilogy, I’m With Stupid,  is published in May 2013 so you understand everything Felton, Andrew, and Gus have gone through.

When change is so quick, even if it’s good change, is it easy to cope?
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Book info: Nothing Special / Geoff Herbach. Sourcebooks Fire, 2012. [author site] [publisher site] [fan-created book trailer]

My recommendation: Suddenly an amazing athlete after his dorky early years, Felton is still trying to sort out who he is – son of hippie mom and crazy dad, big brother of genius musician, football star, track phenom, terrible best friend to Gus… Then his brother goes missing and Felton has to find him, no matter what else he has to put aside to do it.

Gus is supposed to be Felton’s best friend, but he keeps hounding him about details for the prom (which is weeks and weeks away), bugging him about whether his girlfriend Aleah will come up for it, does he want to rent a limo, blah, blah, blah… when Felton really needs to concentrate on football games and indoor track meets and wondering if Aleah is a bit too quiet right now.

Andrew is supposed to be at orchestra camp in Michigan, but he’s not. His friends say he’s “on an adventure” and soon Felton’s skepticism about their claims turns to certainty: his too-serious little brother has taken himself to Florida to visit the Feinstein side of their family that Mom cut ties with ages ago.

Felton is supposed to go to football camp at University of Michigan, showing the coaches that he’s worthy of a scholarship. But for once in his not-the-best-decisions life, big brother decides that he absolutely must retrieve Andrew, whose made-up blog posts and stilted phone calls might placate Mom, but aren’t fooling him one bit.

So off he goes, first time on a plane, first time to book a hotel room, not the first time to find himself behaving like a total crazy man in front of people. Can’t stay still, can’t stop worrying about Andrew, can’t stop wondering why Gus is suddenly so mean to him, can’t bear to think about life after high school.

Will he find Andrew safe and sound?
Who is this cousin they never met before?
What will he say to his father’s father?

This wild and wacky road trip continues the transformation from dork to Stupid Fast  athlete begun in Herbach’s first book about Felton and sets the stage for the last book in the trilogy, I’m With Stupid.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

M for Mixtape, mystery and mistakes in Wish You Were Here, by Barbara Shoup (book review)

Apr15

book cover of Wish You Were Here by Barbara Shoup published by FluxBest high school pal.
A great girlfriend.
A family that gets along.
Quit dreaming, Jackson!

Senior year of high school is rarely all sunshine and cupcakes for folks, but Jax really does have some odd and difficult things to work through before he graduates in 1994.

His rock band roadie dad is dating a vegetarian aerobics instructor, straight-arrow MBA Ted has asked Jackson if he’s okay with him marrying Mom, and Brady is still gone.

Is his life a mixtape where nothing can change or is it on the shuffle setting, like Ted’s state-of-the-art CD player?

It’s National Library Week, so head over to your  local library and look for this 2008 re-release of Shoup’s award-winning classic.
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Book info: Wish You Were Here / Barbara Shoup. Flux, 2008.   [author site]  [publisher site]

My recommendation: Jackson and his best friend are moving into their own apartment for their senior year of high school! Until Brady runs away the weekend before school begins… Now Jax has to cope with everything by himself: his mom remarrying, his dad going into the hospital, girl-trouble. Maybe he can follow the postcards and bring Brady back.

If he must have a stepdad, Ted is better than most, and now only-child Jax will have part-time little sisters. But a new house, knowing that Mom and Dad will never get together again, no Brady to escape with… and to top it off, the three stepsiblings will be going with Mom and Ted on their honeymoon trip to the tropics over Christmas Break!

At least he got to meet Amanda at the beach – funny, smart, likes Kristin and Amy, really likes Jax. They’ll just have to write letters until graduation (Class of ’94 forever) since they live so far apart. One postcard from Brady, but no real news.

Odd that Jax gets tied up with stoner Steph, Brady’s ex, when he gets back from the island. He doesn’t love her, she doesn’t love him, but it just happens. Keeps him a little bit sane when Dad is injured during a rock concert (yep, he’s a roadie) and Jax winds up staying at his house to help him recover. Another postcard from Brady, less informative than the first.

A road trip to Graceland, spring break in Florida with his classmates…life for Jax is like the random feature on the CD player in Ted’s new van – you never know what song will play next, and the surprise isn’t always a pleasant one.

How does this being a big brother thing work?
Can he find Brady before senior year is over?
Why can’t he figure out what comes after all this drama?

Published in 1994 and named to the American Library Association’s 1995 Best Books for Young Adults list, Wish You Were Here  has been re-issued by Flux Books. Jackson’s musings still ring true, as he deals with divorce, weird relatives, the end of school, and the disappearance of his best friend.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) I won this review copy in the Authors for Henryville auction. Cover image courtesy of the publisher.

H for Heath in Catherine, by April Lindner (book review) – music, mystery, star-crossed lovers

Apr9

book cover of Catherine by April Lindner published by PoppyA legendary punk rock club,
Launching new talent, booking the best bands,
Just home-sweet-home…until she disappears.

It’s easy to see why Chelsea wants to find out more about the mother she thought was dead, to discover what made Catherine leave her behind, to learn why she never communicated with them again. What better place than The Underground, where Catherine grew up?

Based on the classic doomed romance of Wuthering Heights  and transported to the punk music scene of New York City, Catherine features alternating chapters by Chelsea now and Catherine then, threaded throughout with missed cues, misunderstandings, and mystery.

Check out “How I Wrote It” article by Lindner here, then read the first two chapters of Catherine  here – you’ll be hooked!

So, why are we so attracted to stories of romance with unhappy endings?
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Book info: Catherine / April Lindner. Poppy/ Little Brown, 2013.  [author site]  [publisher site]

My recommendation: As a teen Chelsea discovers that her mother didn’t die years ago as Dad told her, but had left to find out something and never returned. What and why are questions that Chelsea vows to answer – now!

Dad never told her much about Mom; it was a letter from her addressed to toddler Chelsea that she finds in a box of old photos that spurs her search. That return address in New York City is her only lead, so away she goes. Turns out that Mom’s family home is a decades-old punk rock club founded by Chelsea’s late grandfather! The Underground launched countless bands in the 70s and now is owned by a moody guy named Hence…who knew Catherine, her mom.

Unwillingly, Hence allows Chelsea to stay in Catherine’s old apartment in The Underground for a few days while she tries to piece together some answers. When Chelsea finds Catherine’s journal among her collection of books, even more questions arise. Now she must locate Mom’s best friend and her brother before it’s time to head home to Dad and school.

Why do folks at the club react so strangely to her mom’s name?
Where did mom’s brother go when he gave up the club after the death of their father?
What exactly is Hence’s connection to Catherine?

As Chelsea discovers more about the mom she never got to know, alternating chapters have Catherine telling her own story of love, music, passion, and betrayal. This updated version of Wuthering Heights,  transplanted from the gloomy moors to New York’s music world, spins through both young women’s lives with all the personal turmoil and drama intact.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.