Posts Tagged ‘Susan covets’

Rock Fiction Coveting: Rock’n Tapestries Series by Shari Copell

Posted: December 9, 2016 in Rock Fiction Coveting
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Yes, you see the right avatar. I shoved Jett out of the way because this one’s set in Pittsburgh and that immediately disqualified Jett from writing about it. It’s Rock’n Tapestries, the first book in Shari Copell’s series of two. The books came out in 2013-14, so I’m doubtful we’ll see more entries. In fact, Ms. Copell leaves a note on the description for the second book, Wild Angel, that she was going for a standalone with it. And the second one may not be set in my favorite stomping grounds; if it is, it doesn’t explicitly say. And no, that quote at the start doesn’t tell us much of anything. How many bands have opened a show with that same phrase?

That’s a bummer.

Here’s the description of Rock’n Tapestries:

“Asher Pratt had been a drug for me, and I wasn’t sure I wasn’t still addicted.”

Chelsea Whitaker works as a waitress at Tapestries, a trendy Pittsburgh bar. She’s doing her best to avoid Asher Pratt, the Pittsburgh rock legend who shattered her heart years ago.

When he takes a job at Tapestries just to be near her, Chelsea has some decisions to make.

She soon discovers that some things never change. It’s all she can do to keep a tight hold on her heart as Asher takes her for another wild ride.

As she struggles to gain some perspective on their relationship, she learns that he’s never needed her more. She must put the past aside for the sake of the future.

I am DYING to know what bar this is modeled on. Is it one I used to hang out in? Or is it straight out of the author’s imagination? Is the author herself from here? A current Yinzer?

But back to the book. It’s a familiar trope, no? The “Loved him when she was younger” trope — do we ever get over those early loves?

And then here’s the description for Wild Angel:

“Hello, Pittsburgh! You ready to rock?”

Nicks Sorenson, guitarist extraordinaire for the band Wild Angel, has a lot going on during her last year of high school. In fact, she sometimes wonders if someone has painted a bull’s eye on her forehead.

Stone Jensen, lead guitarist for the band Heavy Remedy, shows up everywhere she plays despite the bad blood between them. The high school principal is targeting her with endless detentions for some reason. And she’s starting to wonder if her mother is losing her mind.

Life soon spins into chaos for the Sorenson family. It began when Nicks learned the name of the dead musician who’d willed her his four guitars. Then came the dreams of a man shrouded in mist. She doesn’t recognize him, but he seems to know her.

As the strange occurrences escalate, Nicks goes on an unexpected—and painful—journey into the past.

She’s about to learn what you don’t know can hurt you.

Umm… wow, this is a departure! Why are these two books in the same series? They seem totally unrelated beyond the fact that they’re going to be pretty hard to challenge for their Rock Fiction qualities. What am I missing?

Like Jett so often says, I need to read this to see for myself. All of it: the setting, the stories, the whys and hows of this two-book series.

If you’ve read it and have a review you’d like to share, send it on. I’m always glad to post reviews for anything Rock Fiction.

Rock Fiction Coveting: Secrets of a Soprano by Miranda Neville

Posted: June 17, 2016 in Rock Fiction Coveting
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I’ll tell ya, man, if this historical Rock Fiction keeps popping up on our radars, Susan’s going to take this place over again. But maybe not; I’m having fun with the fact that there’s new stuff to explore and check out. We may wind up in some big fights yet!

Here’s why:

Teresa Foscari, Europe’s most famous opera singer, comes to London to make a fresh start and find her long lost English family. Her peerless voice thrills everyone—except Maximilian Hawthorne, Viscount Allerton, the wealthy owner of a rival opera house. Notorious Teresa Foscari is none other than Tessa, the innocent girl who broke his youthful heart. Yet Max still wants her, like no other woman.

Amidst backstage intrigue and the sumptuous soirées of fashionable London, the couple’s rivalry explodes in bitter accusations and smashed china. Tessa must fight for her career—and resist her attraction to Max, the man she once loved and who now holds the power to destroy her.

Yeah, okay… it’s the loved forever trope. But c’mon! Does it not sound DELICIOUS???

Rock Fiction Coveting: No Accounting for Cowboys by Leah Braemel

Posted: October 18, 2015 in Rock Fiction Coveting
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I get to covet this one ’cause I think of Leah as a friend. A Facebook friend, which means I don’t whine to her when I’m having a bad day, but a friend nonetheless. She’s probably better off for not having to be whined to, to be honest. [Jett: Yes, yes she is!]

Yeah, so before the peanut gallery takes her site back from its owner, here’s the book description:

Jake Grady loves Bull’s Hollow ranch and all the challenges and hard work it entails. But the past year hasn’t been easy—his father’s good name has been tarnished, and new financial problems are threatening to destroy everything the Gradys have built. Performing live under a stage name has become his escape, a way of blowing off some serious steam.

Accountant Paige Reynolds found Jake’s guitar-playing alter ego intriguing, but her connection with the real Jake sends her attraction into overdrive. When she’s summoned to make order out of the chaotic paper trail at Bull’s Hollow, he sets her world a-rocking—both in bed and out. But Paige has a plan; she’s determined to create her own path for the future, but is soon left scrambling for firmer ground.

Good news about Jake’s potential singing career is followed by the revelation of another family secret, one that has him questioning whether he belongs at Bull’s Hollow at all. But leaving the ranch would mean leaving his family…and Paige. How much is he willing to give up for a real shot at fame?

So … I’m not going to say too much except Leah did come to me with some questions about how the biz works. I haven’t read this, sadly, and I am DYING to — which is why it’s got a Coveting post devoted to it.

I have read some of Leah’s other Westerns. Not enough of them to satisfy because I think she’s up there in the genre with Lorelei James, who is just THE BEST. Which means I recommend this one sight-unseen and I am fairly confident that y’all (don’t you love my good Western jargon?) aren’t going to come back here and rip me a few new ones ’cause you didn’t like it.

Leah rocks. Read her books.

It’s that simple.

Rock Fiction Coveting: Live for You by Marquita Valentine

Posted: January 16, 2015 in Rock Fiction Coveting
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For awhile there, country music was hot in Rock Fiction. At least the stuff crossing my radar, anyway. I think it has to do with the popularity of the TV show Nashville. If you’re not watching, you should be; that’s Rock Fiction at its best.

But I found this one.

From New York Times Bestselling Author, Marquita Valentine, comes the first book in her new adult series, LIVE FOR YOU.

Boys of the South ~ Book 1

The faster I rise, the harder they want to see me to fall.

For years, I had the perfect life and the perfect career as the reigning princess of country music, Violet Lynn. Then after one drunken night, my mug shot went viral. Suddenly, I was the girl least likely to be invited anywhere. Unable to withstand the questions from the press or the sight of my ex-boyfriend with my ex-best friend, I ran…straight into the arms of one bad boy bartender- Cole Morgan.

Cole’s nothing like any guy I met before, with his rough demeanor, tattoos, and piercings. It doesn’t matter to me that our worlds are so different that they don’t even occupy the same universe. He makes me feel safe, secure, and …loved.

But once he learns the truth of who I am and what I did, will he stay or turn on me like all the others?

[Note from Susan: four typos in the first line? Really? Well, maybe that explains why a quick Google search didn’t turn up the name of the publisher]

So on the surface, to make another Nashville comparison, we’ve got the story of Juliette Barnes here. The faster I rise, the harder they want to see me fall. Right there, I’m curious to know how this Violet chick falls. One mug shot ain’t gonna do it anymore, honey. You need a string of them — and music that isn’t that great in the first place, or that’s fallen off over the years.

And we know nothing about Violet’s background, so how can this Cole dude be nothing like anyone she’s met before? She’s never met bartenders? Really? Never played a place that had a bar and all the particular magnetism that goes along with it? Not sure I buy it.

Add this one to the “gotta read to see how it gets pulled off” pile ’cause in the end, that’s all that matters. I just know that as a freelance editor, these are the questions I’d be asking my client about her back cover description, especially with that title, that makes me think Violet’s feeling pretty desperate and it’s up to this Cole dude to keep her from doing something… stupid.

Rock Fiction Coveting: The House on Mermaid Point by Wendy Wax

Posted: December 16, 2014 in Rock Fiction Coveting
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Count on my friend Mary at BookHounds to find me some cool Rock Fiction. And this time, it’s from an unlikely source: author Wendy Wax, who seems to write more chick lit/comedy/fun stuff than Rock Fiction. Maybe she’s given a rocker some grand humor … but maybe not. After all, his role seems mostly secondary, a vehicle for whatever lead character Maddie is up to. In fact, I think the three women in this book have been in other books written by Wax.

Here’s the description:

Maddie, Avery, and Nikki first got to know one another—perhaps all too well—while desperately restoring a beachfront mansion to its former grandeur. Now they’re putting that experience to professional use. But their latest project has presented some challenges they couldn’t have dreamed up in their wildest fantasies—although the house does belong to a man who actually was Maddie’s wildest fantasy once . . .

Rock-and-roll legend “William the Wild” Hightower may be past his prime, estranged from his family, and creatively blocked, but he’s still worshiped by fans—which is why he guards his privacy on his own island in the Florida Keys. He’s not thrilled about letting this crew turn his piece of paradise into a bed-and-breakfast for a reality show . . . though he is intrigued by Maddie. Hard as that is for her to believe as a newly single woman who can barely manage a dog paddle in the dating pool.

But whether it’s an unexpected flirtation with a bona fide rock star, a strained mother-daughter relationship, or a sudden tragedy, these women are in it together. The only thing that might drive them apart is being trapped on a houseboat with one bathroom . . .

So maybe not much of a departure for our rocker. He’s petulant. He likes his privacy (reminds me of the hero in Hot Rock, actually, and I’m sure there are more; this is a familiar trope).

I like women’s fiction. I like buddy fiction. If this rocker dude’s realistically painted, I will probably like this book.

#Rocktober Rock Fiction Coveting: Satan’s Whiskers by Roy A Higgins

Posted: October 21, 2014 in Rock Fiction Coveting
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This is one for you horror fans. Sorta reminds me of a bunch of other books that’ve been set in the club scene, and/or had a horror bend to ’em. Dave Butler’s Hellhound on my Trail. Voice, definitely. Even some Ladies and Gentlemen… the Redeemers or The Road to Fluffer. And of course, if you’re into horror with your Rock Fiction, you know how I feel about The Armageddon Chord.

So this should be a slam-dunk, right? Check out the description:

During the reign of the Beatles and on the back of the Mersey beat revolution, other rock and pop bands emerged. Some of these bands were successful in gaining worldwide recognition, while others were not quite so lucky.

Ray Evans joins one of these emerging bands and the story plots the rise and fall of the band Satan’s Whiskers.

The band turn out to be quite a successful locally, although a dark shadow hangs over their movements after a child is discovered, murdered and hidden inside a cardboard box .A vigilante killer tracks down the culprits and extracts his form of retribution. This is the start of a killing spree which lasts in excess of a year.

From the very outset the police suspect that one, if not all, of the band members are involved, as the killings appear to follow the movements of the band. Is the killer really a band member? The story will keep you guessing until the very end.

Now, here’s my reservation: the back cover copy isn’t very good. It smacks of amateur self-pubbed book (sorry, Roy). And it leaves me hoping the inside is better, but truth be told, I have a bad feeling I’d set this one down and bang my head on my desk for awhile because if Roy and I had hooked up as editor and author, it’d be a better book.

Still, I’m open to finding out, of course. Rock Fiction is what we do over here, and I’m always up for some horror fun.

Oh, and I love the time period this is set in. Slick move, going back in time a bit.

Rock Fiction Coveting: Her Wild Oats by Kathi Kamen Goldmark

Posted: July 31, 2014 in Rock Fiction Coveting
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Years and years ago, my sister handed me a book. And My Shoes Keep Walking Back to you, by Bay Area writer Kathi Kamen Goldmark.

For me, it was the first time I thought of Rock Fiction as a real genre. Maybe for my sister, it was foreshadowing, since she wound up in the Bay Area. You’d have to ask her.

Even beyond that, though, my copy holds a place of honor on my shelves. I truly loved that book, and every now and then, I debate re-reading it, to see if it will hold up since I’ve lived so much since I first read it. But then I think that as much as I loved it the first time, if I don’t love it this time, I’ll be shattered.

I doubt that’ll happen, to be honest. People continue to rave about this book. I’ve even had a chat with Goldmark’s literary agent about … the purpose of this post.

Goldmark passed on a few years ago, leaving behind an awful lot of unhappy friends, family, and fans. She also left behind one darn smart husband, who decided to take her mostly finished second novel and see it be published.

That book seems to have been released in June, and I totally need it. Just on principle. Just because the first book touched a chord so deeply within me — and within so many others, too.

Here’s the description. Maybe not as Rock Fiction as you may be expecting. But I bet this book rocks anyway:

Kathi Kamen Goldmark’s first novel, And My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You, earned praise from an assortment of well-known authors including Amy Tan, Maya Angelou, Scott Turow, Judy Collins, Rita Mae Brown, Carl Hiaasen, and Roddy Doyle; and received positive reviews in O, the Oprah Magazine, the Miami Herald, the San Francisco Chronicle, and other publications.

Completed shortly before her untimely death from breast cancer, Goldmark’s Her Wild Oats is a honky-tonk road story about two unlikely pals: A smart young woman, Arizona Rosenblatt, leaves home and her role as assistant to a high-powered Hollywood executive when she discovers her husband is having an affair with a woman from Jews for Jesus; and thirteen-year-old Otis Ray “Wild Oats” Pixlie, boy genius harmonica player. In the end, Otis Ray learns what it means to be an adult, Arizona discovers the life she wants, and they both figure out the true meaning of love and family.