When I first started reading this book I was a bit confused because I thought it was going to be music related. We first meet Ray and her husband is going after her with a knife, and cuts her. She had been planning on leaving him anyway and had already been packed. The plan that she had in her head of getting away from Joe and getting to her mother’s house seemed perfect in her head, but not so perfect as she is trying to actually put it in place.
Ray ends up at a bar and she meets a woman in the bathroom who helps give her a “makeover” so she won’t have to pay for any drinks all night. She ends up getting really, really drunk and when she gets back to her car, it won’t start. The drummer of the band that was playing in the club ends up letting her crash at his place for the night and subsequently several nights while she tries to figure out what she is going to do next and avoid her crazy husband who may be coming after her with a knife.
I need to mention that this book takes place in 1997 through the early 2000s – mostly insignificant aside from the fact that the whole rest of the story hinges on the fact that Ray and the drummer, Van, can’t get in contact with each other because Ray doesn’t have a cellphone and there’s no such thing as social media for them to reconnect on. Van ends up driving Ray to her mother’s farm and leaves her there even though he wants her to come back with him. He has to go to a gig and ends up joining the band Wanderlust because their drummer is sick and he is filling in. Wanderlust ends up getting bigger and bigger, their biggest single being a song about Ray. When the label wants them to move more Pop, Van tries to find his muse again (Ray) but when he goes to the farm she’s not there and his note for her with his number goes undelivered.
When Ray ends up figuring out that 4 of the songs on the band’s new CD must be about her, she finds a way to get to a show and tries to get backstage. She sends a message to Van with a couple of roadies and hopes that it will get to him. Once Van find out Ray is there, he comes running to her and they end up heading to the bus… Paparazzi catch them and Van has seemed to have forgot that he is currently dating America’s Sweetheart & Disney Starlet. Things go out of control and Ray worries that she may have just pulled a Yoko Ono…
Throughout it all Ray ends up with a few realizations about her life and now Van and Ray need to figure out how to smooth things over as there are shows being canceled because of picketers outside the venues!
I really liked this book and how Ray and Van figured out that they were each others “middle eight” which is describes as the “point in a song where things change up, usually after the first couple of verses.” I really loved that and I liked how they worked it into the story in several different relationships. I’m really bummed that this is appearing to be a standalone book and there won’t be more. The ending of the book while complete still left me wanting to find out more and what happened next!
I received a free e-copy in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.
About the Book
He’s sex, drugs, and rock and roll. She’s spray bleach, spreadsheets, and check lists. Will their relationship hit the charts, or break hearts?
When the normal life Ray has always dreamed of unravels, she falls for a drummer, comes to terms with her unconventional childhood, and inevitably discovers that normal was never really in her best interest.