Every Time You Hear That Song is a YA story where we see two young women embark on the same journey 60 years apart. Darren Purchase has always felt a strong kinship to country music icon Decklee Cassel: both are from the same small Arkansas town, Darren wants to leave town as soon as possible, and Darren also suspects the pair may also share being queer. When Decklee dies, she leaves a message to her fans that she has one final album for them-if they can follow her clues to find it. Finding the songs would give Darren a final part of the artist she loves, a once in a lifetime story for her journalism instagram account, and money her single mom needs to pay for her cancer bills. On the quest with her coworker Kendall, Darren hopes to find the lost songs- but also ends up finding a sense of understanding she hadn't expected.

The story features similarities to The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Huego in that it tells the story of the hardships of a queer celebrity in the mid to late 1900's. Both of these books will get tagged in the romance genre, but I would consider this having less romance between the two characters in the past timeline and the romance between Kendall and Darren in the current timeline is pretty minor. Much like Evelyn Huego, there is a twist in the story that took me by surprise (although looking back through previous passages there are hints of it laid out). Overall I enjoyed this book, I liked all the pop culture references in the present timeline but I found the story in the past timeline hard to follow at times. I didn't get the full sense of what Decklee's goal for herself was outside of being at the top of the industry, and I wished there was a better sense of closure in her story since the events of it leave me with somewhat of a sad feeling.

Thank you Penguin Young Readers Group and NetGalley for an advanced readers copy of this book.