This One Direction-inspired contemporary starts out with strong voice but descends into all the worst love triangle cliches, culminating in a predictable twist cliffhanger.

The worst aspect for me, though, is that I really loathe the romance. Before she met Gabriel, I liked Charlie. I was impressed by Russell's ability to write a female voice. She was independent and a bit funny, and she had this really blasé attitude about all the fame stuff that felt more believable than it usually does in a celebrity romance. Then Gabriel shows up, and the girl I'd enjoyed reading about disappears.

The love triangle is between Charlie and bandmates Olly and Gabriel. Aside from his jealousy over Gabriel, Olly's a genuinely nice guy throughout, even once she chooses Gabriel. He remains a friend when he's been rejected, and that's a good sign in a guy.

I honestly don't know why she chooses Gabriel. She meets him a handful of times, and he's off every time. He's either with another girl or being rude to his bandmates or brooding or drunk off his ass or fleeing his security or yelling at a pap. What about this guy is appealing? He has a rough past, but I'd feel for him more if he got therapy rather than merely taking on Charlie as his new muse.

Also, I think it's super fucked up that he has pretended someone else's songs are his own.

Hello people of the internet!!! On today’s ‘Monday Memos’ we have a book review of the first book in a new series called ‘Songs About a Girl’ by Chris Russell. This book was provided for review by Flatiron Books (a division of Macmillan Publishers), and was released on July 28th, 2016. Just so y’all know this will be a spoiler-free review so let’s get to the fun part of this blog, the book! Ready? Ok, let’s go!!!



This is a story about a 15 year old girl named Charlie who is given the opportunity to photograph the biggest pop band in the world Fire&Lights. Although Charlie is a quiet, shy girl, she is quickly is pushed into the spotlight after a photo of her with one of the guys from the band is leaked. At 1st Charlie decides to distances herself from the band, but when she finds a connection between their new lead single and poetry in her deceased mother’s old journal she can’t ignore investigating a possible connection. The harder Charlie looks for answers about her own past, the more she experiences the dark side of fame and fandom.



I’m going to start off by saying that the premise of this book was super interesting. We live in a time where reality & gossip shows allow us to feel closer to our favorite stars than even before. Also, with the addition of social media we’re able to join fandoms & feel a community around our admiration. Although ‘Songs About a Girl’ is marketed (rightfully so) as a One Direction fan-fiction, it really does speak to the current celebrity-centric culture we all live in. Although this isn’t a new topic, I really liked the way Chris Russell showed his love for fandoms in this story, but also showed the consequences of what can happen when they cross the line. I also really liked the characters he created. Charlie is a relatable protagonist, her bff Melissa is the fangirl in us all, the guys in the band are interesting and fun to read about, even the “villains” & more minor characters serve their roles well. The problem however, lies in how all of this comes together. In the end this story is a One Direction fan-fiction at its core which can either be a good thing or a not do good thing. If you really like romance & One Direction then you’ll probably love this book, but only if you really really love both of those things. Personally I’m a fan of both but this story just didn’t click with me. The whole time I kept getting distracted by who inspired which character and it took me out of the story too much. The big twist was very predictable (and I’m horrible at predicting this stuff so that tells you a lot), and the love triangle was solved to quickly (I know, I know, a lot of us have asked for this but a little more tension is always nice). Also, the mystery surrounding Charlie’s mom felt unnecessary & ultimately seemed like it could potential get in the way of the romance between her & the guy she chooses at the end of the book. I feel like this book serves a very niche market which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but because of this forces me to give it 2 smiley faces. This is definitely a quick, light summer read that you can try out if it sounds interesting, but because it doesn’t have a very vast market appeal I can’t recommend it for everyone. However if you do read it & love it, then book 2 is already out, and book 3 will be released later this year!

Songs About a Girl is about Charlie Book, a photographer and Olly - band member from Fire and Lights. The boyband was put together by TV and Charlie is not a big fan, but Olly knows her and knows that she is a photographer so he asks her to take backstage photos of the band as a favor. Charlie's Mom died when she was 3 and all she has left of her is a journal with songs and poems in them. She ends up realizing that the songs in her Mom's journal and the lyrics to Fire and Lights songs are eerily the same. She finds out that Gabe, another member of the band is the one who writes all the songs. In typical boyband book fashion - a love triangle erupts between Charlie, Gabe and Olly. Charlie has to keep lying about where she is going because her father is very over protective of her and he wouldn't want her to be hanging out with the band like she is. She lies and says she is hanging out with her friend Melissa - who is a big fan of Fire and Lights. When things heat up between Charlie and Gabe, a photo of them together ends up on a fan site which causes a lot of drama. But the more Charlie gets to know Gabe, the more she finds out about her Mom. Gabe's Dad was in Little Boy Blue and it is their lyrics that he is re purposing for Fire and Lights songs. Charlie's Mom was a groupie of the band and Gabe even has a photo of himself and Charlie together as kids. The book ends a bit abruptly but I am hoping that is because there is a sequel in the works. Also, bonus points for there being a Hanson mention in the book.

I really enjoyed this story - I've read so many girl meets boyband and falls in love stories but this one had a different plot, a sort of mysterious twist to it that was refreshing and that I really enjoyed.

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

Didn't enjoy it, really. To be honest, I couldn't read most of it.

This book was a lot of fun to read! I mean, I really enjoy music and singing, and the idea that this book was written to fill the void that One Direction separating for now, well, yeah, that's a really sweet and awesome backstory!

I kinda don't really get being super fans of bands. I mean, like I said, I enjoy music. But I don't get obsessing over the people who create it-and really, not creating all of it, they don't always write the lyrics, or the producer, who brings all the recorded music together. Those people don't get the fame. So yeah, I just don't really get it. Because all bands have them, and it was a part of why she was being bullied. Just, gah.

To be torn between two different guys, and in different ways, is tough, especially when faced with the opportunity to take the pictures, like she's been given. And to have it all in the semi-public eye, that just makes it even worse!

That ending was just killer! This is the start of the series, so yeah, there's room for it to move on from this, not that the ending was bad, it was just that it was bad for the characters! Sure, there's some good parts, but there's also this need for healing to happen. And I can't wait!

I enjoyed this book, and I can't wait to read more of this series, and see where it will go!

Charlie Bloom has never been popular. She's never even dreamed of being in the popular crowd because she knows how far away from that life she is. As long as she can live behind the lens of her camera, she's happy.

When she gets the email from a former schoolmate, a boy who is now world famous in the boy band Fire&Lights, she is suddenly thrust into the popular world. He wants her to take pictures of the band backstage to have them uploaded to their website.

Charlie knows that it's crazy a life that the boys live, but she's not ready for the crazy that is lead singer Gabriel West. She's also not ready for the moment when she realizes that the words of his songs are also the words from her mother's journals. And when she's thrust from anonymity into the spotlight, can she handle her new life?

Final thoughts: This was the book that I kept putting down. I finished it eventually, but I wasn't really impressed. The last chapter also took me from a single book to a semi-cliffhanger into a series that I didn't know I was reading. It's ok if you like this kind of book, but I just didn't really feel it.

This is a book that should be on the to-be-read lists of the summer and fall of 2017! It marries books and music with ease and weaves a wonderful story.

I had high hopes for this book because I thought it was going to be something a little more similar to Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway. Like, the main character goes to school with a guy who ends up being a massively famous pop star and turns out he carried a secret torch for her all through high school and so all the songs on his band’s new album are about her. That’s not what this book was about (but that would be an awesome book, right?). I didn’t really understand the plot all the way and I was really confused as to why Charlie felt so strongly that she needed to lie to her father. And I didn’t understand why she was being targeted at school. Also, to be honest, I thought this was going to turn into an accidental incest situation. It didn’t, but I had no idea where the plot was going for a while if not in that direction.

I didn’t really like this book. And I feel bad for it.

I wanted to like this, and I just wasn’t into it. At one point I was just pushing myself through it because I refused to leave it unfinished.

The book is about 15-year old Charlie, who gets the chance of a lifetime to go backstage and photograph the hot new boy band: Fire&Lights. There she meets the guys who would become her friends. There is boy next door, Olly, funny and intelligent Yuki, quiet and kind Aiden, and of course, talented and dysfunctional Gabriel.

It seems like a dream come true until it turns into a nightmare.

When the fans of Fire&Lights find out about the girl that has been hanging out with the band, they decide to get nasty. All of this while the band starts crumbling from within as Olly and Gabriel compete for Charlie’s attention among other things.

It sounds like it would be a great story, and for a lot of people, it was. I just wasn’t one of them.

I liked the characters, I just didn’t much care what happened to them. The camaraderie between the Fire&Lights gang was fun to read and very endearing. Other than that, I really wasn’t feeling it. The other characters were just okay. The writing was okay. The plot was okay. It was just an okay novel and I wanted more.

Then there was the ‘romance’ aspect, which was very downplayed. I would have perhaps appreciated that if then the characters hadn’t gone and declared their love for each other, a month after meeting. You can’t have both. You can’t downplay the romance, and then proclaim your characters in love.

Honestly, I think that the problem is that I thought I was getting into something different than I got. I expected a full on romance about music and rock bands, and all that goodness. I got a mystery, a half-baked romance, and cliff hanger.

It just wasn’t for me.

**I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.**

** spoiler alert ** This book was provided to me by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I liked the plot of the book a lot... it wasn't quite a four star read for me because it was a little bit slow towards the middle, but it did pick up more around 70 percent. The book was like a contemporary girl joins band type of book, though she gets to take photos of them. I really liked the ending a lot, especially when she got recognized for her work even though she didn't think she good enough. I even kind of liked the part about Melissa's secret even though that caused the drama between them.

The whole marshmellow best friend scene at the end was really cute.

I'd recommend this book to anybody who liked to read about bands and stuff like that.

This was an interesting book to say the least. I’ve always in my younger days dreamed of going to concerts and becoming friends with the talent, hanging out and doing all these great things. But it’s not always as easy as it seems and Chris Russell did a great job of portraying that throughout this book. Yeah it’s all fun and games but there is always a story behind anyone’s façade.

We meet Charlie Bloom, seems to be a quiet person with her best friend Melissa, they tend to keep to themselves most of the time. But that doesn’t stop the mean girls from getting up in their face so there is quite a bit of bullying in this book which I wouldn’t mind teaching Aimee a lesson or two to bring her down a peg or twenty. There is always that one person who thinks they are better than everyone else. Those are the people that need to be humbled the most. This book is not mainly about bullying, there is also friendship, family, love, letting go, letting in and betrayal. Betrayal happens to us all at one point it’s about how you deal with it that makes you the person you are.

Olly knows Charlie from school way back when and invites her on tour with his pop group to take photographs, one thing leads to another and Charlie forms friendships and more with some of the other members. Its great watching the interaction between her and all the members, you really start to get to know them all and love them all the same. Sure sometimes I wish she would end up with other people but I don’t know why it happens for some reason they always fall for the bad boy instead of the good guy. Charlie is drawn to the fire and not the light.

Overall I thought this book was good and it kept me interested the whole way through, I thought the ending and close to the ending was the best parts. The heightened drama and emotions I went through reading them were really great. I was super shocked in some parts and sad in others, an epitome of an emotional rollercoaster. But it was good and that’s what kept me going from beginning to end. There are times when I wonder why not the good guy, but sometimes things have a way of sorting themselves out that you can’t help but say well now that explains a lot. Great book.

I love the cover, so sweet innocent and simple, but still eye catching. Great writing and overall just a great story.

"Songs About a Girl" is the quintessential teen girl fantasy come to life. What's there not to love about a teen girl getting a once in a lifetime chance to hang out with the most popular boy band on the planet...and have not one, but two boys, who want to make sweet music with her? *fans herself* Charlie, Olly and Gabriel navigate the unchartered waters of first love, first heartbreak, and growing up fast in the digital age. Chris Russell nails Charlie's voice, detailing a lonely girl who has to grow up quickly without a mother to guide her. He does an amazing job of sprinkling in the effects of what anonymous bullying in the digital age can do to a person. The author's first-hand look at what it's like to be in a boy band kept me turning the pages to the very end. I highly recommend this book, but note that it ends on a cliffhanger. I can't wait for the next book to find out what happens next!

Charlie Bloom was not your typical teen. Therefore, when she was contacted by a member of the current-hottest-boy band to photograph them for their fan site, she declined. Due to interference from her technologically savvy best friend, she found herself a reluctant part of the Fire&Lights world. With each concert, she found herself more attached to each member of the band, but there was something different about her attachment to Gabriel, the brooding bad boy of the band. As they got to know each other, they found they had a connection, and this connection was a lot more meaningful than they initially anticipated.

This is a debut, so I really didn't know what to expect, but you know me, I love a contemporary romance. That coupled with a boy band sold me on reading the story, but this was not simply a contemporary romance. It was made a little more interesting with this thread of mystery, which was woven into the story.

I really like Charlie. She was this ordinary girl, who was thrust into an extraordinary situation. She was quite unprepared for all the negative and positive things that resulted from her work with Fire&Lights, and I found her reactions quite honest and authentic. She was nursing wounds that ran quite deep too. Her mother was dead, her father was somewhat disconnected, she was bullied at school and online. All these difficulties could get a girl down, yet, Charlie kept going. I attribute some of that to her support system next door - her best friend, Melissa, and Melissa's mom, Rosie, but also to her fortitude of character. **Side note: Melissa was a hilarious fangirl of epic proportions, and made me laugh almost every time she opened her mouth. Example:
"It's impossible to be sad when you're eating marshmallows. That's a scientific fact."
I really enjoyed being back stage with the band. They charmed the pants off of me. Russell captured the boyish camaraderie perfectly, and their antics were quite fun to read about. Another thing I loved was that he made the characters so age appropriate. Charlie is 15-years-old at the book's onset, and the band members are all around 18, so their behaviors and reactions really fell in line with normal teens of similar age.
"'Carla's famous. She's on TV. Me, I'm just...'
Gabriel looked at me, amber light shining in his eyes.
'Charlie, trust me. You're not just anything.'"
When Charlie and Gabe met, there was this pull, they were drawn to each other. They keep talking about a connection, and as they started to break down each other's wall, they learn that there is indeed a reason for this connection. This little mystery is present throughout most of the story, and I thought I knew where is was going, and I was really wrong. Then, I thought I knew where it was going again, and I was wrong again. And then with the cliffhanger, I thought I had it figured out, but I will be unable to confirm until the next book.

This book is so much more than a contemporary romance. It explores ideas about friendship, family, aspirations, the impact of online media, bullying, love, and loss.

Chris Russell's story about a girl, Charlie, who likes to be in the background with her camera, taking pictures and observing the world through the lens, drew me right in. Despite the fact that she's smart and usually a good kid, Charlie makes some rash decisions, but seeing that she's a teenager, that's not exactly extraordinary. When she comes to the attention of bullies and trolls, you feel her unhappiness although her way of dealing with it is to say she's fine or okay. She is the type of person who empathizes with others even though she's going through her own stuff. All of her interactions force her to evaluate herself and come to terms with the people around her, even when she thinks she'll never be able to forgive them.

As the story evolves, the question of Charlie's mother, who died in a car accident when she was a toddler, arises. Charlie has kept a scrapbook of her mother's writings and suddenly she hears those words in the lyrics of Fire&Lights.

All of the characters are multi-dimensional, even the ones that initially come across as stereotypes.

This is definitely the kind of book you start reading and just don't want to put down as evidenced by the fact that I stayed up until the wee hours and then decided that maybe the last quarter really could wait for the next morning.

Songs About A Girl ends with a cliffhanger, but it's not the kind of cliffhanger that feels like it ends mid-sentence as some do.

I highly recommend Songs About A Girl. This is the kind of book that I really want to read when I pick up a book about rock/popstars. It has the magic of the performance and the charisma of people who make music, but it's also extremely well written and intriguing.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Songs About a Girl by Chris Russell will release on May 30, 2017 by Flatiron Books. Chris Russell creates characters that are truly unique and a plot line that reminds me of boy band fan fiction with a twist. When a teenage girl gets a once in a lifetime opportunity to hang with her favorite boy band, what could go wrong? Well what about getting the attention of the charming and flirty lead singer. This book makes you wonder about how many teenage girls have dreamed and fantasized about this happening to them. Charlie is a sixteen year old girl who some would call a tomboy. She is in love with photography and no so much into boy bands. Olly recently graduated from Charlie’s school. After a television talent show Fire and Lights band is born with Olly being the lead singer. Olly then reaches out to Charlie asking her to take photos of the band for the bands website. After much encouragement from her friend, she decides to take on the challenge. It is very obvious that Olly is crushing on Charlie, but another band member is too and this creates a love triangle. Will this love triangle effect the band and tear them apart? You will have to read to find out! I really like how Russell write’s from Charlie’s point of view because this makes the reaction of the other characters a total surprise. I really enjoyed reading this and found it a fun.

I enjoyed this YA novel about a girl & her dream chance to be photographer for a boy band (the details of band life seemed authentic) but I did find the connections revealed in the ending (a bit too coincidental & not really clear, what exactly was the relationship between Charlie's mom & Gabe's dad?) & the betrayal by her best friend Melissa (gratuitous). Also the relationship between Olly & Charlie was never resolved nor was it explained why he reached out to her in the first place. I'm ready for a sequel. I think it would make a good movie, like a Netflix original if the ending was tightened up.

First and foremost I been waiting to read this book for a while now. I read the description and said this is just the type of book I love to read. Went to Amazon to purchase it but it didn't appear than I went on a looking for it everywhere until I read that was not available and that it was going to be rerelease.

So here is my rating:
3.5 stars

My review:
The reason I gave this a 3.5 is that who she would pick was so predictable and I really want to read a book that it has you guessing. Wouldn't it be wonderful if she fell in love with someone that surprised as all. I guess i have read to many books and is hard finding a book that surprised me in that way.
Both our leads fell for each other to fast. I actually loved Olly hahah. Our lead guy was my least favorite band member. I really dislike when the guy uses as excuse to be moody and a player because of his past. We all can choose how to act and be without our past controlling us.
But I have to accept I loved the story behind Gabriel's dad and Charlie's mom. I love every scene where the band members got together and goof around. The behind the scenes hahah.
I have to say I didn't like Melissa at all and I'm saying since the beginning I don't know something didn't seem okay to me. Specially how she was in top of Charlie about getting her to meet the band. I guess I feel like she would be those friends that would use you if you became famous and even if she redeem herself at the end I still don't like her.
And our female lead well I liked her she is the type of female lead that is not whiny or clingy. Which I can't stand reading about.
I was about to give this a lower rating thinking that the book just ended like that but then I read there's a sequel. And yes I can't wait to read it.

Overall I enjoy reading it but I expected to be more excited as I read it.