Book Review: The Latecomers Fan Club

Katie January 1, 2016 0 Comments

The Latecomers Fan Club seemed like it would be more about a band, but by the time we are emerged into the story, Nathaniel’s band The Latecomers have already decided to split.  The book begins on New Year’s Eve, with Abby going to work and her boyfriend Nathaniel deciding to not spend the night with her and instead go to a party back home.  It is there he is reunited with one of his old friends, Maggie, and the love triangle of sorts begins.  The chapters alternate between Abby, Nathaniel and Maggie’s poits of views.

Nathaniel decides he is going to break up with Abby and make his dreams come true – that is until Abby lets him know what kind of news she found out on New Years Eve…

Things get a little complicated and for a while neither Abby nor Maggie know about each other, but when Nathaniel decides to get the band back together the two end up in the same room (along with another girl that is involved with Nathaniel) and then things really get interesting…

This was a decent book. It had a nice story line, a bit predictable at times and overall it didn’t wow me. But it was a fairly quick read and had some interesting characters that needed to find themselves and just what it was they wanted to do with their lives.

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

What is it about musicians that makes them so irresistible? If Abby and Maggie could answer that question, maybe they could finally get over Nathaniel.

Abby was first sucked in by Nathaniel’s rock and roll swagger four years ago when a drunken fling turned into a series of drunken hook-ups that became something like a relationship. Now, as New Year’s Eve promises a fresh start, she wants to believe he’s finally going to grow up and take their relationship seriously.

What does Nathaniel hope the New Year will bring? An escape from reality. He’s thirty-four years old and he’s barely making ends meet as an adjunct philosophy professor, which was always only a backup plan anyway. Nathaniel’s real goal was always to make his living as a musician, but his band, The Latecomers, broke up a couple of years ago, and he hasn’t picked up his guitar in months. When he decides to spend the holiday with some high school friends instead of hanging out at the bar where Abby works, he gets the happy surprise of reuniting with his long-lost friend Maggie. Newly divorced, Maggie has just moved back to her mother’s house to regroup.

Nathaniel and Maggie were supposed to be the ones who left central Massachusetts forever to conquer the world. He was going to be a rock star. She was going to take the world of art by storm. He’s never gotten farther than Boston, and her best efforts only left her broke and heartbroken. As they ring in the New Year together, Nathaniel decides it’s time to take control of his life and to start making his dreams come true. He thinks the first step will be easy. All he needs to do is break up with Abby and finally admit his feelings for Maggie. But the New Year has more surprises in store, and nothing is ever as simple as it seems.

Book Review: For the Record

Katie January 1, 2016 0 Comments

Chelsea was previously on a TV talent show, but she didn’t win.  She thought she could go back to her own little world, but then got the call asking to be the lead singer of the band Melbourne that is now going on a 30 city club tour.  For the Record shows life on the road for Chelsea with the band that is trying to tolerate her and her so called best friend who is on the tour as merch girl.

Then teen heartthrob Lucas Rivers gets thrown into the mix – he’s seeing Chelsea but no one seems to be happy about it.  And Chelsea may actually also have a thing for one of the band members as well…

This was a decent book for the YA crowd, but a bit boring for me who has read a lot more, uh, interesting tour stories.  But if you actually are a YA and interested in bands and tour stories, this seemed to have a decent amount of background work put into it about how tours really worked and seemed to be realistic in that regard.  and the relationships seemed legitimate as far as YA novels go as well.

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

ABOUT THE BOOK
A raw, honest celebration of music, friendship, romance, and life on the road.

Chelsea thought she knew what being a rock star was like . . . until she became one. After losing a TV talent show, she slid back into small-town anonymity. But one phone call changed everything

Now she’s the lead singer of the band Melbourne, performing in sold-out clubs every night and living on a bus with three gorgeous and talented guys. The bummer is that the band barely tolerates her. And when teen hearthrob Lucas Rivers take an interest in her, Chelsea is suddenly famous, bringing Melbourne to the next level–not that they’re happy about that. Her feelings for Beckett, Melbourne’s bassist, are making life even more complicated.

Chelsea only has the summer tour to make the band–and their fans–love her. If she doesn’t, she’ll be back in Michigan for senior year, dying a slow death. The paparazzi, the haters, the grueling schedule . . . Chelsea believed she could handle it. But what if she can’t?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CHARLOTTE HUANG grew up near Boston, graduated from Smith College, and received an MBA from Columbia Business School. She lives in Los Angeles. When not glued to her computer, she cheers her two sons on at sporting events and sometimes manages to stay up late enough to check out bands with her music-agent husband. For the Record is her first novel.

Book Review: Box of Cigar Bands

Katie January 1, 2016 0 Comments

This book is pretty cool, it contains a collection of Victorian-era cigar bands (the bands that are wrapped around a cigar).  There are all sorts of different images depicted, presidents, logos, royals, etc.  The beginning of the book has the story of the collection and how it came to be as well as a brief history of the bands and how they came to be.  The rest of the book is just photos of the collection.  I can’t say I am much of a cigar aficionado but I found the book interesting and liked seeing all the different things that were depicted on the various cigar bands.

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review, I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

This charming collection of over 1,100 Victorian-era cigar bands spans the time period from about 1880 to 1910, the golden age of German lithography and American and Cuban cigar band printing and the height of the workmanship of this beautiful art form. The bands illustrate US presidents, European royalty, noted world personalities, and many others, all in detailed and gilded illustrations. The bands are shown exactly as displayed in the ledger of a young man born in Philadelphia in the late 1800s. Enjoy leafing through this cigar band time capsule.

Book Review: Center Stage!

Katie January 1, 2016 0 Comments

Center Stage! is about a high schooler named Allison Burch.  She really wants to become a famous singer and open up for the hot boyband All or Nothing.  So she secretly heads out to audition for the show “Center Stage!” (Think The Voice meets X Factor meets American Idol.)  She smudges the year on her application so she doesn’t need her parents permission and becomes the first person on the show to get all 4 coach to want her on their teams!

After getting permission from her parents to do the show, it seems that her coach is out to sabotage her.  But Allison is able to take all the curve balls thrown at her throughout the competition and over come.  She ends up falling for another contestant, Elliott, but she ends up questioning if their feelings for each other are real, or if it is just another fabrication put together by the show.

The two need to team up to over come more and more obstacles put their by the show’s producers – but can they be a team when it is every man/woman for themselves in order to win the show?

As you probably know, I love American Idol. I don’t really love The Voice or XFactor as much but I’ll watch them sometimes so it was fun to read a book based on these shows with some fun drama behind the scenes.  This book was a quick read and I immediately found myself drawn in wanting to see what kind of sabotage would happen next and what Allison’s reaction would be.  I thought that the ending was going to end up predictable and perfect, but I was in for quite a surprise. A really great book and I hear that the author has some more books about Allison’s (former?) best friend Taylor (and daughter of Center Stage! coach Chase Atwood) so I might have to check it out and see if it is as good as Center Stage!

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

Allison Burch’s wildest dream is to become a famous singer. She can hardly believe her own good luck when she auditions for the reality television singing competition, Center Stage!, and is chosen as a contestant. She finally has a legitimate shot at fame, fortune, and a chance to go on tour as the opening act for her favorite boy band on their world tour.

However, Allison wasn’t counting on one of the celebrity coaches being Chase Atwood, the famous rock star father of her former best friend. Allison’s terrified that Chase is going to find out that she and his daughter have been in a fight for months, and it’ll ruin her shot at the grand prize. Making matters worse, Allison’s own coach, Country Western star Nelly Fulsom, intends to groom her into a Nashville superstar.

As Allison struggles to decide if she really wants to win on the show if it’s by resorting to dirty tricks and assuming the image that Nelly wants to create for her, she find herself falling hard for her biggest competition on the show: a brooding songwriter named Elliott Mercer. She’s not sure if Elliott’s interest in her is genuine, or if he’s just playing along with the producers’ strategy.

It’s up to Allison to decide: how much is she willing to lose in order to win?

Fans of Caitlyn Duffy’s The Rock Star’s Daughter will enjoy this tale about Taylor’s friend Allison and her journey to fame.