Review of ‘The love song of Sawyer Bell’ by Avon Gale.
3.5 Stars. I wasn’t blown away by this book but it was a fun weekend read. This book is a re-release for June under a new publisher. According to Gale not much has changed from the original story. While I have never read Gale before, I have heard of her name since she is pretty big in the M/M world. I think it’s nice to see authors like Alexis Hall, KJ Charles, and Gale, write lesfic so I finally have a chance to try their books.
I almost always enjoy books about musician or artists. I have no musical talent myself and to this day, I completely blame my parents. I had dreams of being a drummer in a rock band, but they would not let me play the drums because it would “make too much noise” so I was forced to take piano lessons by a slightly scary woman with horrible breath. Needless to say I enjoy a book like this where I can live vicariously through the characters.
The character of Sawyer for me was the star of this book. She is a young 21, trying to find her confidence and place in this world and it was fun watching her character grow. The other character Vix for me wasn’t quite as substantial. I think Gale spent more time having to defend her bisexuality, than actually building up her character. I get there is plenty of biphobia out there, I just would have liked for Vix to be able to be bi and for it not to be a constant discussion. I think if being bi is treated more as the norm, it will hopefully just become more of the norm. I hope I’m making sense here.
I was pleasantly surprised by how much humor this book had. It wasn’t laugh out loud humor, but witty humor that made me smile all throughout the book. Gale even chose to give the sex scenes a little humor. And to me it actually worked. I don’t recall a romance where an author added a little humor to intimate scenes before. For me it made the characters seem more real. And the sex scenes didn’t feel like they were there just so a book could have sex scenes, they were there to make the characters connect and grow closer which is something I always appreciate.
I also want to mention I have a little bit of a pet peeve when it comes to reading lyrics of made up songs in books. I just don’t like it and I find it to be almost uncomfortable. The lyrics are almost always super cheesy. I must say it was nice that there were no pages filled with fake song lyrics in this book. The characters would sing and play there instruments but as a reader you interpret what kind of lyrics. The characters would sometimes write down one-liners that they wanted to use as a title or song lyric, but that was it. It was really refreshing for a change.
Overall, I enjoyed this read. It didn’t blow me away, but it was fun going on the road with a semi popular rock band. The romance was sweet and Sawyer was a great character. The next book in this series has a lead male character, so it’s not one I’m interested in at this time, but if Gale tries to write lesfic again, I would read it.
An ARC was given to me for an honest review.
2 Responses
I love this book. It might be the most realistic fiction I have found in the rock band on a road trip all summer genre. The van, the green rooms, the truck stop showers and the laundromats. I had a friend who made it to Vix’s (the band leader) level, and the stories I heard are a lot like this. Songwriters looking for ideas in everyday life. Musicians working hard to make it in a hard world.
And it is a fascinating romance, Vix and the newbie Taylor, slow developing and awkward, full of wit and also sincerity. I enjoyed these characters, and also the rest of the band, and other characters met along the way through small clubs from coast to coast. They feel real. They feel right.
I hope to read more from this author.
Charley- I also have a good friend that was in a band that toured all over and she thought this book was very realistic in those aspects herself. I think Gale really hit that part. I’m keeping my fingers crossed she’ll ventured into more lesfic since I would absolutely read her again:)