The Quick Cut: Three friends find a way to get along once again in order to get the band back together for a prestigous music competition. Drama ensues as their lives become entangled again and their current situations begin to combine with the feelings of the past.
A Real Review:
Thank you to HarperCollins Publishing for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Musical fame can be a real double edged sword - just look at the news. As soon as you gain popularity, it gets far too easy to become trapped into the pitfalls of alcoholism, drug addiction, and a far too inflated ago. Its this type of problem that causes our three leads Hanna, Dia, and Jules to go their separate ways.
These three ladies used to be a hit band who played off each other in spectacular fashion to create amazing music. However, strained relationships were made much worse when Hanna became addicted to alcohol - which caused the band to fall apart and the girls to go their own ways. Hanna ends up trapped in her parent's house after a 2 week stint in rehab while Dia and Jules stick together. Dia becomes a single mother to the adorable Lex with Jules playing best friend and struggling to date as a lesbian.
All bets are off though when the Sun City competition comes out and the grand prize is even better than ever. Not only does the winner get fifteen thousand dollars, but they get to open for the band Glory Alabama. Separately, all three girls want to do the competition. However, how could they ever enter without being back together again? They find a way to get together once again and try to work together, putting the past behind them in order to win the competition and make their dreams come true together.
This one starts out really slow for me, but once it picked up about a quarter of the way in - the rest of the tale is well worth it. Hanna, Dia, and Jules really do have the most amazing chemistry together as a band that you can feel coming right off the page. Seeing them together brings out the best in each other and you can even see that as the story goes along. That doesn't mean they don't struggle with their present situations though. Hanna has to keep the band getting back together a secret from her parents since they would never approve, even if it does let her feel like she has a purpose in life again. Dia is trying to raise her daughter while also falling in love with a new guy, but can she let him into her life (especially after the last guy died)? Jules is a lesbian who has never been on a date or had a serious relationship with a girl, but has found her love in Autumn. Can she start a new love in her while maintaining all of the band work for the competition?
It's interesting watching them work through the struggles of the past, living out their dreams in the present, and working towards a better future. Where they used to never imagine they could work together again, their friendship is rekindled and they find a way to make even better music now - while improving the rest of their lives. The book also tells the story from each of their voices throughout the book, so you see it from each of their perspectives. I really enjoyed this, especially since it allowed for a much closer look at their private lives when they weren't all together.
Although it struggles to hold your interest to start, the finish is definitely worth the journey of watching these three girls re-discover their love of music and friendship in each other.
My rating: 4 out of 5