Review: A great read but not my favorite Wardell book
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 17, 2013
I love Heather Wardell's writing so I jumped at the chance to read her latest novel. I was expecting a character-driven story about a woman trying to balance her dreams, a career, and love and I was not disappointed.Amy has been writing songs for years, and sets a goal for herself to create a CD of her music. She is discovered singing in a local bar in Toronto, and a music career as a 'bubble gum pop princess' soon develops. Amy has trouble finding the balance between writing songs that mean something and writing pop music. She also receives a surprising amount of push-back from her boyfriend Jason. She and Jason start to grow apart as a result of his jealousy over her sudden fame. Amy has to decide what's really important to her: her glamorous life as Misty Will, or starting the support center she and her late friend Giselle always dreamed of.Like Wardell's other books, the process of reconciling dreams and the real world is the bulk of the book. I just love that about Wardell's writing. I always feel like I can really identify with her characters, and Amy was no exception.Something kept me from really loving this book as much as I've loved Wardell's other books. I think it was that there wasn't quite as much chemistry between the two main characters. By chemistry, I mean a slow build from friends to more than friends. I like reading about a slow-developing relationship---which was the case here; however, something felt missing as far as the attraction went. I love that Wardell's women's fiction is not laden with a bunch of bedroom scenes like so many other adult fiction novels. That gets old for me and it cheapens the story (in my opinion). I'd rather read about love in action than read bedroom scenes.Overall, I really enjoyed Live Out Loud and would recommend it to fans of women's fiction.