Key Change by Heidi HutchinsonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I've been a long time fan of the Smartypants Romance books. This is the third book in the Common Threads series, but it reads as a complete standalone. The books are more companion novels featuring familiar characters and settings, but they can all be read independently and in any order. This particular installment features a former pop-star in hiding, who would like to stay hidden and the owner of a small recording studio from her past that has never forgotten her.
Hannah leads a pretty boring life these days, she loves her routines and her anonymity. When she was pop star Aston James, she was always in the public eye and she wasn't the nicest person and she didn't make the best decisions. Now she's much more responsible and has her little sister to worry about. Keeping her sister, Piper safe, healthy and happy is her #1 priority. Her boring routine gets shaken up when a talented busker recognizes her, it just so happens she had a fling with his older brother who is now a music producer. Johnny was hurt by Hannah's alter ego Aston many years ago and doesn't want his brother anywhere near her. Hannah doesn't trust anyone after all the betrayals in her music career, so naturally she is skeptical when Johnny and Shawn offer to keep her identity secret without a bribe or NDA in place. Hannah doesn't remember her time with Johnny, but through a series of events, she ends up working with one of his clients which makes him super uncomfortable. This is a huge client for Johnny and his studio so he puts his feelings aside and lets Hannah do her thing with the young rapper Sunshine Capone. Sunshine likes working with them so much he decides to record his entire album with them as long as Hannah is involved. As Johnny and Hannah work together, her memory of him resurfaces and Johnny warms up to her. While he works on putting the past in the past, they both work on moving forward and look toward the future and what that will mean.
If you wanted a steamy romance, this isn't the book for you. There is some kissing, but the intimate scene takes place behind closed doors. I think it actually fits the story and the characters pretty well given the slow build up of their romantic relationship and the fragile nature of the characters. This is a little bit of everything, enemies to lovers and slow burn romance. It also deals with addiction and recovery in a very open way. I think alot of musicians and people who find themselves in famous situations deal with drugs and alcohol, so I really appreciate that the author chose to put a very real topic in the book. She also chose to put the main character in therapy to deal with her issues and her situations as a guardian. There were times that you did not like the person Hannah used to be, and she was harsh and aggressive at times, but I also felt like she was relatable. I know people that are abrasive like Hannah, but once you get to know them, they are some of the best people. Overall, I really enjoyed this. I love music, and I love watching behind the scenes clips of my favorite bands when they were recording their albums. I really enjoyed the setting of this and I thought the characters worked really well together. I thought Johnny and Hannah had good chemistry and they both had good development. There were good side characters and great dialogue between everyone in the story.
Thank you to Dreamscape Media and Netgalley for providing me an audio arc, and Smartypants Romance for providing me an ebook arc. All opinions expressed are my own.
I thought the narrators did a wonderful job with the characters giving them all a voice. I appreciate when narrators are able to give all of the characters different voices so I know who is involved in dialogue.
No comments:
Post a Comment