3 July 2016

BOOK REVIEW: 'Songs About a Girl' by Chris Russell

Hiya!

"Charlie Bloom never wanted to be 'with the band'. She's happiest out of the spotlight, behind her camera, unseen and unnoticed. But when she's asked to take backstage photos for hot new boy band, Fire&Lights, she can't pass up the chance. Catapulted into a world of paparazzi and backstage bickering, Charlie soon becomes caught between gorgeous but damaged frontman Gabriel West and his boy-next-door bandmate, Olly Samson. Then, as the boys' rivalry threatens to tear the band apart, Charlie stumbles upon a mindblowing secret, hidden in the lyrics of their songs ..."

If you've been reading my posts for a while now, I'm sure you'll be aware of my obsession with celebrity culture and my love for novels based around this crazy world that surrounds famous people. So, as you can imagine, 'Songs About a Girl' was right up my street! I have to admit, I was also intrigued by this book as the main character and I have very similar names - coincidence or what?!

My initial thoughts of the novel were very different to my final opinion and I was very happy that I persevered with the story. At first, I thought the plot had a 'too-good-to-be-true' feel to it, as it seemed highly unlikely that a very famous pop star would have been keeping tabs on a student two years younger than him from his old school. However, once I'd got my head around that part of the story, I began to engage with Charlie's experience a lot more and I generally enjoyed the book more!

In general, I felt that the novel was very well written and contained a well balanced mixture of humorous, funny scenes, as well as the more serious, hard-hitting stuff . This made the book more readable and believable and added an almost 'down to earth' quality to the plot. Sometimes, I felt that Gabriel's story became too 'heavy' but apart from that I thought that it was amazing to see a novel address such dark, yet realistic troubles that some teenagers experience.

I truly can't decide whether I'm team Olly or team Gabriel... there's definitely more to the story, so I'm hoping to see a sequel soon! This brings me onto the ending of the novel, and what an ending it was! I have so so so many questions that I cannot wait to find out the answers to, as the story ended on a major cliff hanger that will leave you absolutely desperate for information!

Overall, I would definitely recommend 'Songs About a Girl' to anyone who fancying an insight into what life on the road is really like, and how different dynamics between members can completely change a band, and the disastrous consequences this can have on the whole band. Also, there's plenty of romance within the novel between a certain band member and a school girl photographer (I won't say anymore as I don't want to ruin anything!).

I hope you've enjoyed the review and make sure to grab a copy of 'Songs About a Girl' by Chris Russell (out on 28th July in the UK)!

See you soon,
Charlotte x 

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