I enjoyed the girls in the story. Toni is such a wonderful character because she is flawed, but she nourishes the way she is to be better throughout the book. I know this has romance which is more subplot to me, but the growth of seeing Toni’s love for music and dedication was enjoyable to read. I didn’t necessarily dislike Seb, but he wasn’t my favorite. He indulged toxicity in his life, and it hurt the others around him. He had character growth too, but I’m kind of side eyeing the kind of relationship he had with Candi and Lilly. There will be more books on the rest of the band, but I do hope I get more and more on Toni. She’s definitely going to stay my favorite with Tiff/Kayla being a close second. Also, I wish there was more of Yvette because she seemed like an amazing bestie.

I went into this book blind, and I'm so glad I did.  I came to love so many of the characters. Toni and Seb went through so much to get where they're going. Can't wait for book #2.

disclaimer: I don’t really give starred reviews. I enjoy most books for what they are, & I extract lessons from them all. Everyone’s reading experiences are subjective, so I hope my reviews provide enough information to let you know if a book is for you or not. Find me on Instagram: @bookish.millennial or tiktok: @bookishmillennial

I loved this second-chance romance! I am a sucker for any kind of book set in the music or acting or any kind of famous industry lol, so this was my catnip! Antonia "Toni" Bennette & Sebastian "Seb" Quigley meet when they are pre-teens in Bordon, Pennsylvania, a small town where Toni is dropped off as a 12-year-old when her mother can no longer take care of her as she pursues a career in music on the road. They develop a close friendship over music and everything else, and decide they will leave Bordon one day to pursue music together, and to get away from their families. However, this dream is short-lived as Seb abruptly leaves one day without any explanation & never comes back. Regardless, Toni has made a name for herself in Philly's indie music scene and auditions for an open spot in the Lillys, as their guitarist Candi heals from an injury. This is when she is unexpectedly reunited with Sebastian Quick (nickname from his last name), who is the Lillys' manager, and they must confront the betrayal Toni felt all those years ago.

This book gives us the dual third-person limited POVs of Seb and Toni, and it is indeed a slow burn! It also felt more like a "fiction" book rather than a capital R romance for me, but that's fine. I loved the story, I rooted for the characters, and I was invested in seeing how things would unfold. I appreciated Seb's explanation for why he left all those years ago; I think we quickly villainize people, and Toni definitely learned to unpack and seek out more nuance depending on the situation!

With the subplot of Toni's parents, that absolutely tugged at my heartstrings. I felt for Toni, because it explained why she was so protective of herself, since she was continuously let down by the two people who were supposed to care for her and look out for her. This ultimately led her to look out for herself, and to not depend on others. I did appreciate the representation of Toni's dad, someone who didn't sign up to be a parent, and didn't know how, but looked out for Toni in his own way. It wasn't enough, and it wasn't the way Toni needed to be loved, but it was a nuanced representation that I appreciated. Not every parent is going to "see the light," admit their wrongs, or even be the parent that their child wants. However, it doesn't make either person the villain, and I appreciated that. 

I am excited to read more in this series, which I believe will focus on a different band member of the Lillys! 

cw: child abuse, misogyny, abandonment, drug abuse, addiction, cancer, emotional abuse, alcohol

This book was so good until it wasn’t.

TL;DR I really enjoyed this book for the most part. Lost love and second chances are both huge soft spots for me. Also, I really also loved that Apple Music literally has some of the songs mentioned in the book as being sung by the Lillys (the band in the book).

Overall, I think I’d read the sequel mentioned in the back if that book didn’t have specific things. Ultimately, I can’t be too mad about some of this stuff — I bought it for $1 at a thrift shop that benefits a hospital.

As for the spoilers, let’s get one thing out of the way first: the godawful, unnecessary, cishet sex scenes were NOT it for me and genuinely are why I didn’t give this book a higher rating. I was enraptured with this book — it’s the first time I’ve finished a book this quickly in ages. I really, really liked Toni. But the sex scenes seemed extremely random and poorly written. They also happened so late in the book that I was caught off guard. They were written like a pretty laughable first time writer attempt at being sexy — definitely not published book material. I’d expect that sort of shit on Literotica. I personally wouldn’t spend full price on the book for that alone. 

Also, I was extremely bothered with Lilly’s portrayal in this book. “Ice queen” aside, they constantly flirted with the idea of her being queer/possibly having feelings for Candi, but nothing came of her being queer and it just felt very forced, especially since they also just threw a random nonbinary character (who I did not feel represented me well as a nonbinary/agender person! Especially since they just got randomly written off/used for diversity brownie points!) I would’ve appreciated even a mention toward a confirmation of Lilly or Candis sexualities, especially after that scene with Seb at the end. (Are they both bi or what? And Jordan too?)

Speaking of Seb, his entire character oscillated quickly between being okay and being absolutely insufferable for me. At no point was it okay that he was using her childhood nickname or bringing up their past during sex. But also, in some of those childhood scenes he had already become an adult! It doesn’t always seem like that much of an age difference, but it can definitely have some maturity level issues. And despite me loving the entire genre of childhood love being given a second chance, Seb absolutely did not deserve Toni’s time. (And despite him knowing that, he kept pushing and hurting her anyway!) That, and his inability to set boundaries with Candi, made his chapters a bit more of a slog.

Where the book had so much unsung (lol) potential was the relationships between the Lillys (Tiff, Kayla, Lilly, Toni, and Candi). I loved the parts that were just the band members enjoying their time. I loved the way that the author slowly peeled back the layers to show their motivations and feelings toward each other. I only wish those parts were longer and more detailed — it would’ve been such amazing character development, especially after Candi was kicked out. 

Toni was the best part. The things she had to overcome (Mo and Mary, breaking out of her shitty town, breaking into the industry, the bias against her, etc) genuinely made her into a strong character. Her ability to overcome her aversion to the spotlight as well as heal from her wounds genuinely was refreshing to read, though I wish more time was spent on it. 

Also, Mo showing up toward the end made me cry. 

I just wish that the Seb and Toni sex scenes were better, or less forced, or just weren’t there entirely (even if it was a cut). I felt like they had been overcoming their past really well prior to that, and it was frustrating. 

I am blown away by this book. As a girl who grew up on classic rock, this was everything I wanted and more. Toni is complicated but oh-so lovable. Her doubts are understandable and relatable - she struggles but still finds a way to shine. Seb’s character is fleshed out well, too. The dual POV complements the parallel character development well, and I couldn’t be happier that the miscommunication trope didn’t show its face. Great read with amazing character development, a captivating plot line, and a slow burn romance. Highly recommend. 

I really loved how this novel developed. The main characters were well written and their stories well fleshed out. I love music so getting a behind the scenes look was amazing. Toni is a badass heroine and has so much raw talent. It is so motivating to see black women dominate in the rock world. All the women of the Lillys are complex and talented and I’m so excited for the rest of this series. 

I would say the main romance of the story would be Toni falling in love with the band and secondary would be the love between Toni and Seb. The Toni and Seb romance was a slow burn and I wish we got more of it.  I will defiantly be buying each book in this series as they come out. I highly recommend this book and wouldn’t be surprised if this got adapted to the screen in some way one day.

I listened to the audiobook version of this book. This is kind of billed as a romance but I would say is more of a contemporary with a heavy romance subplot. It is about the lady main character is a guitarist has been kind of struggling going from gig to gig, having difficulty because the music world is very sexist and racist, and her former childhood friend who ghosted her and left town who is the manager of a about to be very successful girl band, and how they run into each other after a lot of years. And a lot about the running of this band, and how they kick out a member, add a new member the politics and the money and the
managing of an image that goes on around that. And then the romance between these two characters was a big part but there was a lot of band business that took up a lot of it. And I didn't mind because it was a really interesting band and really enjoyable, more found family dynamics. It was an audiobook with two narrators, one for each perspective, and the male narrator, or the narrator for the male character's part, did the women's voices weirdly. It wasn't just a normal falsetto. He made the voices very nasal and gave them a super LA accent, and it made them all sound that stereotype of the shallow caddy woman. Whenever it was his portion he read the main character's voice in a totally different way from the way the her perspective's narrator did it. And I don't know why he was so bad at doing women's voices, and there was no differentiation between the way he did all the voices. Like for one of the characters that voice would have worked but he did it for all of the characters. It kind of pulled me out of it and also made me confused about who was talking. So for this one maybe go for the physical or ebook versions.