Tara Kelly
RELEASE DATE: October 25th 2011
PAGES: 293
PUBLISHED BY: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
PUBLISHED BY: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
When privileged 17-year-old Jasmine gets kicked out of her house, she takes what is left of her savings and flees to Santa Cruz to pursue her dream of becoming a musician. Jasmine finds the ideal room in an oceanfront house, but she needs to convince the three guys living there that she's the perfect roommate and lead guitarist for their band, C-Side. Too bad she has major stage fright and the cute bassist doesn't think a spoiled girl from over the hill can hack it. . . .
In this fresh new novel by critically acclaimed author Tara Kelly, Jasmine finds out what happens when her life gets Amplified.
AMPLIFIED was
funny, sexy, full of music references, and it certainly would make a terrific movie!
Jasmine Kiss has a lot of nicknames: Cornflake Girl, little princess, high school band geek... but she is sick and tired of being labeled, of her father trying to control her life, pushing her over and over, constantly comparing to her mother… she wants her own life, to play on her guitar and make music, be part of a band. So she runs away from her home and lands on Santa Cruz with a broken car, her small savings and her guitar and a Diezel amp. She has to face now a whole packet of new problems: finding a nice room to rent, a job to pay for her car repairs and to convince the three guys’ owners of the house and members of the band “C-side” that she’ll make it worth their while. She must accomplish all of this and not count on the cute bassist for support because he seriously doubts she’s as good as she claims she is, and the worst of all he’s partly right because she has a major case of stage fright.
For a
guitar-obsessed (such as myself) a book about a chick guitarist is not a chance
I can bypass, however it was jam-packed with technical details that would
probably confuse some readers who are not familiar with the terms. Even I, as
advanced as I like to think I am, was a little sidetracked trying to imagine
what it would sound like, how would the melody flow, the lyrics, hearing the
beat in my head… and that distracted me from the reading and focusing, instead,
on the actual story. One good thing though, I couldn’t resist to try out some
notes and I found myself returning to my practices again :D
The chemistry
between the band’s members was incredible; they were very different one from
another but their fusion created some sparks. Each one had a unique
relationship with Jasmine and they all helped her getting out of her shell and
evolving into a guitar goddess and overcome her stage-fright. However the most
important relationship wasn’t very well explored: her father. Their fight is
what started it all and although they had a few calls and she kept thinking
about him, it wasn’t satisfying for me.
I felt a little
frustrated at the end, it was open and I hate open endings, I, however, changed
my mind when I saw that there will be a second book! So Tara Kelly I’m waiting
for more of Felix and C-side and yeah… Sean.
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