Not Another Love Song - Review

Not Another Love Song

By: Olivia Wildenstein

Expected Publication: July 7th 2020 by Swoon Reads

320 pages

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary

Source: Publisher via Edelweiss (Thank you!!)

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Goodreads description--Angie gets thrown into the deep end of the music industry and goes head to head with a sexy new boy.

Success requires sacrifice.

No one understands this better than high school senior Angie, who’s worked her entire life toward her dream of making it onto Nashville’s music scene. When her idol, Mona Stone, launches a songwriting competition, her dream suddenly feels within reach. Against her mother’s wishes, Angie pours her heart and soul into creating a song worthy of Mona.

But soon it isn’t only her mother who stands in the way of her dream. Reedwood High’s newest transfer student, Ten, becomes a major roadblock in Angie’s path to success. With his endless collection of graphic tees, his infuriating attitude, smoldering good looks, and endearing little sister, Ten toys with the rhythm of Angie’s heart.

She’s never desired anything but success until Ten mauled her with his big black car. Now she wants him and Mona Stone, but she can’t have both.

And picking one means losing the other.

Against the glittery backdrop of Nashville’s music scene unfolds a story of betrayal and abandonment, of first love and acceptance, and of ties that go far beyond those made of blood.

*I have been in a bit of a reading funk. I've read several good books, and I'm coming off a reading high I guess. Lately, I've picked up several books but can't seem to get far before I DNF them or simply put them down to return to another time. I can't explain it exactly but my tolerance for reading pet peeves has been at an all-time low. That being said, I almost DNFd Not Another Love Song within the first 15%.

My issues were small, but seemingly numerous, specifically at the very beginning of this book. A few cliche things: two best friends creating a senior year bucket list (which never came back around in the end and maybe should have been edited out or revisited towards the end of the book), mention of a popular character holding court at school, a typical clumsy female lead character, required gay character/couple to check the diversity box, occasional moments where I felt like I was missing pieces of a scene and had to pull out of the moment to re-read sections to ensure I didn't, the main female was a bit judgemental at times, a completely bogus and harsh argument with her mother, feeling entitled to the details of someone else's life, a faith in and idolization of a celebrity, a continuity issue where Angie thinks Ten is going to trick her but then acts as if the idea of someone doing such a thing is ludicrous to Nev, and then there's the one-sentence mountain out of molehills moment where a political statement is made about the state of America's health care system. Each of these things is a small issue individually, but when compiled they do add up to quite a lot of eye-rolling and sighing while reading this book.

I did decide to keep reading and once I got past the beginning my issues weren't so concentrated.

Obviously I had some issues with Angie. She's a bit too similar to many other female leads I've read before. I did appreciate her drive to follow her dreams, but I didn't feel like she was always smart about her approach. She often acted out of an emotional response rather than thinking things out.

Ten was also a bit of a reactor. He had a hot button topic that he couldn't seem to respond logically about. He and Angie were hot and cold. They would make progress and then have a fight. Over and over.

Probably my favorite part of this entire story revolves around Nev. I was afraid that I wouldn't like her as she felt like such a weak and insecure character (which I struggle with this type of person in real life), but she only needed a little encouragement to find some strength to stand up for herself and make some changes. Her story was the most interesting part outside of the back and forth and Angie and Ten.

I was a little disappointed with Angie's blind adoration of Mona Stone. One of those "never meet your heroes" kinds of things. Yet I guess that's just another difference between myself and the character. I have never felt it wise to idolize any person. We are all human. And humans will inevitably eventually let you down in some form or other. And celebrities are real people who often think and behave much differently than we imagine them to. Which means the version of them that lives in our heads just does not even exist. And that's what we mourn when we realize who we have imagined isn't real.

I read Not Another Love Song quickly, but it wasn't without issues for me. Most of them were very small, but when you add them up, I can't help but knock my rating down to reflect all of the sighing I was doing. Not Another Love Song gets 3 Stars. A little more polish would buff out a few of these kinks. Have you read Not Another Love Song? What did you think? Let me know!

*Review was written months ago when I originally read this book, but I waited to closer to the publication date to post my review.