Book Review: Songs About a Girl
Katie 
Songs About a Girl is about Charlie Book, a photographer and Olly – band member from Fire and Lights. The boyband was put together by TV and Charlie is not a big fan, but Olly knows her and knows that she is a photographer so he asks her to take backstage photos of the band as a favor. Charlie’s Mom died when she was 3 and all she has left of her is a journal with songs and poems in them. She ends up realizing that the songs in her Mom’s journal and the lyrics to Fire and Lights songs are eerily the same. She finds out that Gabe, another member of the band is the one who writes all the songs. In typical boyband book fashion – a love triangle erupts between Charlie, Gabe and Olly. Charlie has to keep lying about where she is going because her father is very over protective of her and he wouldn’t want her to be hanging out with the band like she is. She lies and says she is hanging out with her friend Melissa – who is a big fan of Fire and Lights. When things heat up between Charlie and Gabe, a photo of them together ends up on a fan site which causes a lot of drama. But the more Charlie gets to know Gabe, the more she finds out about her Mom. Gabe’s Dad was in Little Boy Blue and it is their lyrics that he is re purposing for Fire and Lights songs. Charlie’s Mom was a groupie of the band and Gabe even has a photo of himself and Charlie together as kids. The book ends a bit abruptly but I am hoping that is because there is a sequel in the works. Also, bonus points for there being a Hanson mention in the book.
I really enjoyed this story – I’ve read so many girl meets boyband and falls in love stories but this one had a different plot, a sort of mysterious twist to it that was refreshing and that I really enjoyed.
I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.
About the Book
Pure wish fulfillment for anyone who hasn’t gotten over the One Direction breakup
Charlie Bloom is happiest behind her camera, unseen and unnoticed. When former classmate Olly Samson gets in touch out of the blue, asking her to take backstage pictures of his new band, she takes him up on it. Charlie dreams of becoming a photographer, and it’ll be good experience.
But Olly’s band, Fire&Lights, isn’t playing ordinary gigs. They’re stars on the rise, the hottest boy band in the country—and Charlie is immediately catapulted into the band’s surreal world of paparazzi, sold-out arenas, and screaming fans. Soon enough, she becomes caught between Olly and Fire&Lights’ gorgeous but damaged frontman, Gabriel West. As the boys’ rivalry threatens to tear the band apart, Charlie stumbles on a secret about the band—and herself—hidden within the lyrics of their new #1 single.
Music. Fame. Heartbreak: Chris Russell’s Songs about a Girl is the perfect next read for anyone who has ever wanted to say, “I’m with the band.”
The High Note is the second book in the Girl vs Boyband series. I had previously read the first book. Lark is hanging out with Abbey Road – British Boyband that recently had a member replaced by Lark’s crush from school. Mimi is a budding singer and songwriter, but has stage fright so the only way her songs make it out to the world is when Lark and her friend Mimi make videos for the song under a moniker on YouTube. Lark’s Mom gets mad when a record label shows interest in Lark, since her Mom runs a record label as well – which is the one Abbey Road is signed on to. Abbey Road has taken off and they are being primed for fame and Lark may be finding some fame of her own as well. Meanwhile, she has a crush on Teddy and Max says that Teddy has a crush on her as well… The book ended a bit abruptly after Lark’s first show – of course to set up the reader for the next book in the series!
Paper Hearts begins with a cupcake for Rose’s birthday – she has run away and been gone for 4 years. Felicity is at a ball in handmade masks and she meets a guy after he spills on her dress. He tells her that his name is Aaron, but he is actually Alec and he plays bass in the band the Heartbreakers. Felicity and Alec get photographed and end up in a gossip magazine. She expected to never hear from him again and ends up looking around at her house and finds letters from Rose in the closet – she hadn’t run away at all and Felicity is going to try and find her. Alec ends up showing back up and helping her out with her quest to find her sister. The last letter is from San Francisco so they start there, but end up going up the coast and finding her in Seattle. It turns out that Felicity’s Mom had sent Rose away and told her not to try and contact Felicity until after she had graduated. Felicity and Alec seem to be getting closer, but all the gossip mags keep saying that he is dating an actress named Violet. Can Felicity straighten things out with her Mom, sister, and Alec?
If You Give a Man a Cookie is a parody book and is by the same author as the “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” book that you may be familiar with. There is a series of events portrayed in the book between a husband and a wife – if you give a man a cookie he will ask for milk (god forbid he gets it himself) and then things just spiral completely out of control from there. A lot of fun to read and good for a quick laugh if you’re looking for one!
Lady Stuff is a book of secrets to being a woman. The book is a series of comics that are all very funny and relatable! The topics covered include: grooming and habitat maintenance, life ambitions, mating habits, self care and social conduct. This was a really quick read since it’s a comic, but I found myself laughing a lot and relating to pretty much everything!
Clay Lab for Kids is a book that includes 52 projects to make, model and mold. The clay used in the book are air dry polymer and homemade clay. Unit 1 is all about creating with kids and clay. Unit 2 is Air Dry clay and learning the basics. Unit 3 is Clay sculpture. Unit 4, polymer clay and learning the basics. Unit 5 is polymer clay sculptures and 6 is making your own clay. For each project there is a list of supplies and a lot of info on the differences between the types of clay. There are some simple projects using textures to get used to using the clay, ways to add color to the clay and a lot of really cool projects throughout like fairy doors and colorful polymer clay animals. Clay is definitely something that I want to try to work with more in the near future so this book really gave me a lot of information that will eventually come in handy!
This book includes 20 easy to craft adventures using cardboard. Explore the world, travel through time, put on a show or work a cool job! Each project has a list of materials and supplies needed in order to make the project and the how to instructions for each. Some of the ones that I thought were pretty cool included a paper towel roll space shuttle, claws, a sled for toys, dinosaurs, a banjo and a ukulele for a rock concert and a construction vest. These are a lot of ideas for a rainy day and you can use your imagination to build upon the projects already in the book to come up with even more great ideas!
This book is super adorable and shares how to sketch super cute objects in categories like food and drinks, nature, monsters, everyday cute and holiday decorations. There are step by step instructions included on how to make over 75 characters. You can start with a pencil to sketch them and then ink them. Rounded corners add to the cuteness (a great tip!) and faces are only recommended but not needed. I added faces on the drawings I tried out because I thought that it made them look cuter! Most of the instructions are only a handful of steps but there are some that are more like 2 pages and the instructions get more and more difficult as you go through the book so you might want to start with the earlier, smaller designs and work your way up to the more complicated ones! At the end there are pages at the end to doodle on. I had a lot of fun looking through the cute characters and ended up drawing a popsicle, lightning cloud and christmas tree on my notes for this book! Super adorable! I wouldn’t consider myself an artist at all and I think they came out really well!
This book is an illustrated history of Bob Marley. There are 6 chapters broken down by years – beginnings, Ska, Reggae, International Breakthrough, 3rd world superstar and final years as well as a chapter on his legacy and discography. The book says that Pop Stars usually fade after 2 generations have passed since the end of their career – but it has been 35 years since Bob Marley has died and he is still as big as ever. There are lot of cool photos throughout the book and photos of his records and notes all all of the lps. A really cool read. I enjoyed it!
This book tool me a very, very long time to get through. I enjoyed it, but I think that it could have been scaled back a little bit and still been just as good, just shorter and quicker to read. There is a serial killer on the lose and he has killed at an Aerosmith concert in Boston. The kill count starts ticking up almost immediately and before you know it there were 30, 40 deaths reported and no sign of the “unsub” (I felt like I was reading an episode of Criminal Minds) It seemed that the killer has been triggered by losing a scholarship and the kills just keep getting bigger and bigger. Police find out that he had killed his parents but did their jobs from home as them for a while to get their money and not have anyone notice that they had disappeared! Kind of genius, I have to admit. He wants to be known as the Concert Killer and all of the victims are “in concert with death”. I won’t go into too much more detail but like I said the kills get bigger and bigger. And are just unbelievable (or at least they were at the time I read this a few months ago, now with there being a mass shooting at a concert maybe I feel a bit different.) The other thing about the book I didn’t really like was how short the chapters were. Like a page or two. It just seemed to chop the book up a lot and I could never get a flow going which may be why it took me so long to finish! If that is a detail you can ignore and you don’t mind longer books and enjoy a good concert murder mystery I think you will enjoy this one.