Another festive romance for you today. This time set in the heady world of country music and Nashville. Similar to X Factor and American Idol but this time they are looking for the next big Country star. Max is Nashville royalty, the son of Holden Brady, but no matter what he does he is never taken seriously as an artist. Sadie has been trying to make it in Nashville but is just about to run out of money. This contest is her last chance before she has to admit defeat and return to Wisconsin.
In theory it sounds just like the kind of book that I would really enjoy. Set in the Music Industry. Tick. A complicated hero with a penchant for knitting and dogs (and knitting dog jumpers). Tick. A cute little dog called Patsy Canine. Tick. But I don’t care about what happened to any of them, apart from Patsy Canine. I just couldn’t bring myself to like either Max or Sadie and had no real interest in whether they got together or not.
I’ve had a couple of days to dissect why I couldn’t connect with this one. It may be that there are just too many tropes fighting to come out on top. It’s the whole enemies to lovers thing with added fake relationship for extra spice and a topping of Me Too abuse by people in positions of power. I suspect that with the slightly out dated talent show format there were just too many stereotypes fighting to be top dog in this one. The fun festive romance didn’t really stand a chance.
Supplied by Net Galley and Hodder & Stoughton in exchange for an honest review.
UK Publication date: Oct 13 2022. 353 pages.
Categories: 2.5 Stars Book Review
angelnet69
Prolific reader, enthusiastic theatre and movie-goer and ex-Olivier Awards judge who spent twenty years working in the music industry in London. Sharing my house with a gorgeous cockapoo called Harry who has taken over completely.
I love sharing my favourite books with friends - nearly always spoiler-free as I hate reading a synopsis of the whole book in other reviews.
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