oh man i love this book. it was like evelyn hugo meets paper towns and for some reason that just works. it kept me hooked every page and i couldn't put it down. decklee was such an interesting character, even if she didn't get the ending i was hoping for. and hey, even the m/f romance didn't turn me off. but most of all, this book made me ache with nostalgia for my hometown. it felt like a love letter to small town america, and as someone who spent her entire childhood dreaming of a way out of her small town and now misses it like a heartbeat, decklee and darren felt so close to my heart and made me cry.

I feel like my review will be split in half for EVERY TIME YOU HEAR THAT SONG by Jenna Voris. Maybe I’ll attempt a sandwich, but let’s start with what made me happy.

Happy trails:

The top half of the cover. Tbh, I overlooked the bottom portion until I went to write this review 😅 I love the Dolly-esque lady - who we now know is Decklee Cassel (that name!! 😍🤩) - in the sky. 

The story was told using an alternating timeline. It was put together so well! Plus, the narration by Emily Lawerence and Allison Strong fits the characters perfectly. Listening to them tell Decklee and Darren’s stories made it interesting and fun to find the parallels. 

The reminder that the most important people will always be there even when you don’t realize it or deserve it. 

Frustrations:

The scavenger hunt was played up to be a more significant part, but I felt let down. Yes, it did move along the plot and where Darren and Kendall go to find clues, but I wish it was more fulfilling. Or maybe I just read too many scavenger hunt books that put people on the brink of death, so was this my fault for expecting too much? 

I always say I don’t mind an unlikeable lead and stand by that. Decklee was different. She was determined. She knew what she wanted and went for it, even if it hurt people who were faithful to her along the way. I know it was the 70s, so times were different than now, but I didn’t see part one of the twist coming. I saw her being many things but not making cruel, devastating ultimatums like that. I can’t go further into it without spoiling the twist or the last major one, which, omg 🤯 I did not see coming. 

Speaking of the final twist, I liked the book’s ending, especially the house (vague sentence here, lol), but I wish we had a little more time with the twist. A lot more could have been explored. 

Happiness vs Frustration:

Do I recommend this book? Yes. I think Jenna Voris has written a book worth reading, especially if you go with low stakes, not expecting a who’s next on the chopping block scavenger hunt and everyone finds their queer love dream-type novel. 

I think EVERY TIME YOU HEAR THAT SONG is an essential read for the queer and non-queer community alike because it shows queer characters in different eras figuring out who they are, what that means to their livelihood, and will their loved ones accept them once they figured it out. 

Books like this must exist. I may not have loved it, but I liked it enough to share and discuss it. The audiobook is excellent, and I got it from my local library via the Libby app! 

Did I see the twist in this book coming like a third of the way in? Yes. But did it still almost make me tear up when I finally got the payoff? Absolutely. What can I say? I am not immune to a dual narrative queer coming-of-age story with a tragic sapphic love story. I do wish that we'd gotten a little more of Decklee's story, because there was A LOT of ground to cover in not that many chapters (and bc she starts her rise to stardom by

locking her lover in a closet

and then only gets worse from there. I love a woman with ambition lmao)

This also doesn't affect my rating really, but I need to say it: jail time for Jenna Voris for making me have to pretend that names like Decklee and McKenlee belong on rising stars in the country music scene in the 60s instead of in a classroom full of 7th graders born in 2012 whose parents named them like that white lady with the chalkboard who named her kid Lakynn after a road sign. I think about her a lot.

Overall, though, this was SUCH a fantastic book. I've been in a bit of a reading slump recently, and this was exactly the kind of thing I needed to break it. I flew through it in a single evening, and I feel like I'll definitely be coming back to this one again and again. <3

I would like to thank NetGalley and Penguin Young Readers Group for providing me with a free e-ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. 

Every Time You Hear That Song is for those readers who absolutely love Taylor Jenkins Reid’s works, but wishes she wrote YA. Detailing Darren’s journey to find her favorite singer’s time capsule, Vorris has a uniquely atmospheric voice and setting that draws you in from the very first page. While some parts of the book dragged on a bit, the dual timelines between Darren finding the time capsule and the legacy of Decklee Cassel’s career was a really nice touch for the book. That being said, if you’re looking for a YA novel that gives off a similar vibe to Taylor Jenkins Reid, you would probably enjoy reading Every Time You Hear That Song.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this story
SPOILERS TO FOLLOW

I didn't expect to like this story as much as I did. I'm not much of a country fan and the idea of a scavenger hunt road trip didn't really appeal to me but I decided to give it a shot! I was really glad actually that Darren wasn't the one who found the time capsule. It would've felt unrealistic to me if she was the one to figure everything out/find all the clues. Her finding the first one was great but I fully expected her to overall loose the competition. Having her loose was a good climax for the story so she could look inside of herself and think about what Mayberry really means to her/what is really important to her in life. 

I also expected, since Decklee was a really big star with millions of fans, that Darren wouldn't be the only one to come to these kinds of conclusions about where the clues might be. Not everyone would've been able to put it altogether obviously but having other people be able to figure out the clues as well alongside her made the most sense in that situation. Having Darren be wrong about the last clue in particular was really great too because I was also fully convinced that the last clue would be in Mayberry because that's where Decklee was from/where Micknlee ended up. When the time capsule showed up in Nashville, in front of the studio, it really captured how in the end, Decklee was only thinking of herself and what kind of impact she would have and not the people who helped make her in the industry and who tried to love her. 

Ending the story with Darren talking about how she and Kendall broke up was also very realistic. Honestly, if they'd stayed together I would have probably rated it lower. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed them together. They were a cute couple but Kendall didn't want to leave Mayberry and Darren couldn't stay. It wouldn't make sense for them to try to force something that ultimately wouldn't work and leave one of them miserable. 

Ultimately, the road trip Kendall and Darren took was really fun. their personalties really shone through everything and I liked how they were able to stop and have fun on top of searching for clues. I was also glad that Darren made some really good apologies to the people she hurt in the book. It really put into perspective how AWFUL of a person Decklee was. (I really didn't like Decklee. I could understand wanting to be something BIG and be remembered but you don't have to step on all the people who helped you get there). The contrast between both girls was great so I really enjoyed the dual POV's even if I didn't like Decklee herself. 

I really enjoyed this! This novel is a very charming, easy to read, coming of age story about Darren, a teenage girl on the brink of adulthood coming to terms with who she is, what she wants for her life, and facing her fears while following a scavenger hunt of sorts, with her friend Kendall, that was created by country music icon Decklee Cassel, shortly before her death. 

The narration alternates between Darren and Decklee and takes place over multiple periods of time. The writing is impressive and the story was bittersweet, a perfect mixture of heartache and hope. 

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!  

 A huge thank you to the author for approaching me about reading and reviewing an early copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

You don't have to be a fan of country music to enjoy Every Time You Hear That Song by Jenna Voris—I'm certainly not. Even though this is a massive love letter to country legends and their impact on fans, it's so much more than that. It's a queer coming-of-age story wrapped up in a road trip with dual POVs to give an added layer to the story.

Having Decklee's point of view through her career helped round out the story for me. Knowing that Darren and her mom strongly connect to Decklee Cassel was great and all, but seeing how Darren views her vs how Decklee actually was and seeing her do what she thought she had to to get where she ended up was so much more impactful that if we hadn't gotten her POV at all. She may have clawed her way to the top from nothing, but at what cost?

Overall, I really enjoyed this one. It's the perfect read to kick off summer and what's typically considered road trip season. Darren and Kendall had such great chemistry and the slow build was totally worth it. I loved seeing Darren wrestle with her queerness and all the little things along the way that helped her realize that it's okay to be bisexual. Even in a small Arkansas town that seems to defeat you before your life has really begun. The road trip and scavenger hunt not only helped Darren learn more about her favorite musical artist, but it helped her learn more about herself and what she wants out of life.

I won't spoil more than I already have, but I think this is such an impactful read. Especially to young queer girls. The ending isn't the payoff I wanted, but it was incredibly realistic and a breath of fresh air, honestly. Not everything has to end up with a flashy ending. Things turned out well in the end for Darren and cast, but it didn't exactly go where I expected. That said, I highly recommend this for fans of Brian D. Kennedy's A LITTLE BIT COUNTRY.

CONTENT WARNING for talk of cancer and potential relapse, parental abandonment, and homophobia