Stay With My Heart by Tashie Bhuiyan

 

“Liana Sarkar lives and breathes music, hoping to follow in the footsteps of her A&R coordinator father. Maybe if she succeeds, he’ll finally give her the time of day instead of drowning himself in work to distract from the grief of her mother’s passing.

When Liana accidentally sabotages an up-and-coming local band, Third Eye, she makes it her mission to steer them towards success—without them discovering her role in their setback. But as she gets closer to Third Eye, especially their enigmatic leader Skyler Moon, it becomes harder to hide the truth.

With both her heart and their futures on the line, will Liana be able to undo the damage she’s caused?” - taken from Goodreads.

Once again, another great love story from one of my new must read authors. With a heavy influence of music throughout the story, Liana is mentally struggling since her mother’s death. When an aspiring musician lies to Liana, causing her to champion him to her record producing father, she is determined to right her wrong without her father’s involvement. The closer Liana gets the the members of Third Eye, especially its leader Skyler Moon, the lines begin to blur and it’s just a matter of time before the horrible truth is discovered.

Visit Tashie Bhuiyan’s website.

Famous in a Small Town by Emma Mills

“For Sophie, small town life has never felt small. With her four best friends—loving, infuriating, and all she could ever ask for—she can weather any storm. But when Sophie’s beloved Acadia High School marching band is selected to march in the upcoming Rose Parade, it’s her job to get them all the way to LA. Her plan? To persuade country singer Megan Pleasant, their Midwestern town’s only claim to fame, to come back to Acadia to headline a fundraising festival.

The only problem is that Megan has very publicly sworn never to return.

What ensues is a journey filled with long-kept secrets, hidden heartbreaks, and revelations that could change everything—along with a possible fifth best friend: a new guy with a magnetic smile and secrets of his own.” - taken from Goodreads.com

I have enjoyed reading Emma Mills’ books since her first, First & Then, but this one blew me away. Readers will go in thinking that the book is just about getting a famous singer to return to her hometown but Sophie and her friends go through some heart-wrenching journeys to make it out on the other end. Lots of shocking revelations occur. Definitely, my favorite book of her’s so far.

Born to Rock by Gordon Korman

In the fourth grade, Leo Caraway needed his birth certificate for a field trip to Canada. What Leo would learn was that Erik Caraway, the man he knew as his dad was not his biological father. A man by the name of Marion X. McMurphy was. Fast forwarded to Leo's senior year; 4.0 GPA, early acceptance to Harvard, a prestigious scholarship and a member of the young Republicans, Leo has his future mapped out and tries to keep McMurphy or the X factor, his wild impulses as he calls them, under control. That is until Melinda Rapaport, Leo's oldest friend, asks him to tutor Owen Stevenson, someone Leo does not really like. Melinda is the complete opposite of Leo; liberal, Goth and punk rock all the way.

After "tutoring" Owen, Leo has the bad luck of sitting next to him during the test. He notices that Owen is having difficulty with the one concepthe actually let Leo help him on. On impulse, Leo whispers a one word clue to Owen and gets in trouble for cheating. When the assistant principal gives Leo the opportunity to throw Owen under the bus to save himselk, Leo's inner McMurphy comes out. Now accused of cheating, Leo has a black mark on his permanent record. He is kicked out of the Young Republicans and his full scholarship is rescended. Leo has learned that Melinda keeps a blog and secretly reads it to see what his friend that he is slowly drifting away from is writing. On it she posts her English class essay entitled "Poets of Rage: A Sociological History of Punk and Its Offshoots" and in it Leo finds out exactly who his biological father is. Marion X. McMurphy, aka King Maggot, is the lead singer of Purge, the "angriest band in America". Leo discovers that he is Prince Maggot.

When Purge announces a reunion tour over the summer, Leo sees a way to get his tuiton to Harvard, he decides to ask the King. After causing an incident at the Purge press conference, Leo finally gets to meet his supposed father. Leo is surprised when Marion wants to get to know him better and offers him a job with the tour over the summer. Leo decides to do it and after a little father-son time to hit me up for a loan.

Leo soon realizes that life on the road is hard, especially when you are the boss' son. And Leo learns about true friendship, love and what a father really is.

Visit Gordon Korman's website.