Sadly, this book didn't work for me. I was initially intrigued by the premise of this book but unfortunately found it hard to like the main character. Despite liking books related to music, somehow this was a miss for me.

I don’t often ready YA contemporary anymore but after having loved another YA contemporary with musical elements written into it, all the wrong chords sounded really interesting to me so I was happy I got an e-arc for it, back in the day.

I ended up rating it 3,5 stars, and rounded it down to 3 stars on Goodreads. It has some really enjoyable moments, but some meh things as well. Didn’t like the typical juvenile/teenage behaviour from the MC, who falls for a kind of ‘bad guy’ while the good guy is simply being ignored/forgotten. I know it’s quite a naturel occurring in these kind of books, and I don’t always not like them, but I just couldn’t always get into it with this one. Maybe because my reading behaviour has changed over the years for example or… well, whatever haha.

This doesn’t say anything really, because other readers could definitely love this! So I’d recommend to pick up this book and find out for yourself what you’ll think of it! It has romance, it has music and drama!

This was a typical Girl-falls-for-the-wrong-boy-only-to-realize-the-right-guy-was-always-right-there-story. But with bands, music , tragic losses and illnesses. My favorite characters were her grandfather and Zach. Zach was a real gentleman and so so cute and her grandfather was super funny and really cool. I liked Scarlett’s relationship with her sister, with her best friend and her grandfather. There were my favorite parts.
And I felt really sad when I read what a good and strong relationship she had with her brother before he died.

This was a gut wrenching story about passion and things that go wrong. I enjoyed the writing style of this one and thought it was really great.

Your typical young contemporary romance that didn’t stand out too much.
Christine Deriso’s “All the Wrong Chords” was a quick and easy read with a nice writing style.
However, the plot and characters were predictable and not a lot of depth to them. Standard girl falls for the bad boy and goes off crying when he breaks her heart again and again. And what does said girl do when you give your advice and encouragement that they deserve better? Ignore you and continue the cycle and you all end up in a catch 22.
I liked how music played a role in the book and we got to see some nice lyrics included, but the back and forth of our main protagonist’s bad relationship decisions was just tiring. The book ends up just being overtly predictable and did not leave me with any edge of my seat excitement. It was easy to read and if you’re looking an a quick and cute romance for the underdog/boy-next-door and don’t mind predictability, then it’s a good read for you.

A copy of the book was provided by the publisher in return for an honest review.

My apologies for not reviewing this book. I was unable to download it before the archive date. I would in the future really like to read it

*3 Stars*

Copy kindly received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was an alright book. I wasn't overly invested in the story, and I can say the only character who I truly liked the most was Zach. And probably Grandpa. Deals with a few interesting topics, but a bit too young feeling for me, with how Scarlett whinges/fantasises and deals with the boy situations.

Not terrible, but not fabulous either.

The book was really well written. The way the drug abuse was written was done very well. It had its ups and down.
Thanks netgalley

The depiction of grief translated really well. I loved how music played a big roll in helping our main character come to terms with her brother's death.

I'm not much for music/band story books but the blurb caught me on this one. Unfortunately, as much as I wanted to like this story, I didn't find much that spoke to me once I started reading. It was an ok story though.

3 stars

I received an Advanced Review Copy from Flux publishing and Netgalley.

I picked this book up based on the description. I have lost many loved ones due to addiction, so I was able to relate to Scarlett rather easily. At times this book helped me see things from a different light, from the perspectives of those who don’t really understand addiction. I was glad to be able to see that point of view as sometimes it is really hard to understand the thinking of those who don’t truly understand.

This was a quick, fluffy YA romance. All the Wrong Chords captured the essence of young adult love. Making mistakes, over thinking and questioning your actions and also not yet being completely comfortable in your own skin. But it isn’t all light hearted as it does show how pain can help bring people together to comfort one another and try to heal.

One of the other things that I really loved was the lyrics written for the band. I felt as if this book was serenading me. Not only do you get a cute YA romance, but you also get some cool lyrics. All the Wrong Chords is the complete package of a fluffy teen romance. It is a novel full of love, loss, heartache and healing. I would recommend this book to almost anyone, especially since it doesn’t paint the addict as a villain.

2.5 stars. Just because I had to finish this by skim reading and it took me almost a month to get through it. The skim reading really worked, I just read the parts I wanted to read and got the gist of the whole story.

Some parts I found shallow and eye rolling and just not real enough but it was alright. Plus if I was Scarlett I would have fell for Zach in the first place.

This book did bring various issues to the forefront like bullying, ALS, and sexual orientation but for me it was the same old, same old. Talented girl always passes on the good guy and picks the douche which wouldn’t have been too bad but it was all the cluelessness associated with Scarlett in all aspects of her life. Also the writing format was hard to follow since the author did not use breaks where needed.

I did like the closeness between Scarlett and her grandfather and the great heart that Kyle showed along with the song lyrics that the author gave us.

I received this ARC from NetGalley for a freely given and honest review.

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Description
Scarlett Stiles is desperate for a change of scenery after her older brother, Liam, dies of a drug overdose. But spending the summer with her grandfather wasn’t exactly what she had in mind. Luckily...

A sweet book with very relatable and normal characters. I liked that it wasn't over complicated and was quite simple. Any book that uses music as therapy gets a thumbs up from me!

All the Wrong Chords by Christine Hurley Deriso is an emotional, but heartfelt story about family, love, loss and learning how to move forward.

Within the first few chapters, this book had me feeling all kinds of happy. The writing style was smooth, easy to read and had a sense of sincerity and heart which I really appreciated. I absolutely loved the family dynamics and reading about the other relationships in the story was positively heartwarming. The interactions between the characters and the way the author demonstrated them grieving felt incredibly realistic. Real life situations, real pain, real heartbreak and just real everything. Those were definitely the best parts and totally gave me the feels.

The romance wasn’t particularly my favorite. I didn’t expect there to be a love triangle.  Not that there’s anything wrong with having more than one love interest. Sometimes, love triangles just work and make the story more interesting and fun. The one in this book though…just irritated me.  Scarlett’s infatuation was understandable, but I thought she was a little too whiney. I mean she’s a great character – smart, determined, and talented. I really liked her and rooted for her the entire time.  But, seeing her outrageously lovestruck and continually chasing after the wrong guy was not only annoying, but also disappointing.  I guess I was expecting more from her -- but when I think about it, she's just being a love sick teenager. I've been there before so in the end, I did get it. That being said, I'm so glad that Scarlett did go through a change of heart. Oh and the romance wasn’t a complete dud. There were some cute and swoony moments - like the ending which was surprisingly adorable and really romantic. 

There were some minor misses here and there, but all in all, this was an absolute joy to read and ended on a high note! The characters were great and I did liked them all. Even if some were frustrating, I thought they acted their age. Zach was amazing. He’s kind, sweet, charming and just a really good guy. I adored Scarlett’s Grandfather and his relationship with her was so endearing. Like I said, the relationships were the best parts of this book and I honestly enjoyed getting to know all the wonderful characters and their stories. 

This is a fantastic YA contemporary story that will make you smile, fall in love, hope and have an amazingly good time. Definitely recommend you check out All the Wrong Chords if you're in the mood for something quick, fun and also emotional. 

I received an Advanced Reader Copy of this book from the publisher, Flux (Imprint of North Star Editions), via Netgalley in exchange for an honest and fair review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

After reading couple of serious intense books, I just needed a break! And tbh this one was the perfect book for it! Sweet innocent young love, music and family struggles... Perfect holiday BOOK!! Love it!!

I received an advanced ecopy of this title via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this opportunity.

Actual rating: 3.5 stars

All the Wrong Chords is just the type of book I needed: set in the slow Southern charm of Georgia, musical, summery, romantic . . . a far cry from the post-apocalyptic YA novels I've been so invested in as of late.

Sure, this book has a lot of tropes. And Scarlett comes across as a bit silly and lovestruck - she's clearly falling for a total jerk!
But she resonated with me because I've made those kinds of mistakes. Been taken with the complete wrong guy, gotten enchanted despite his obvious flaws . . . it happens. If you haven't been so unfortunate, that's awesome - but I'm sure many of you have made mistakes in the romance department, and, like Scarlett, endured a lot to get out of it.

She's not exceptionally observant or 100% likeable - and that's why I liked her as a protagonist. She was realistic, and definitely stayed far away from Mary Sue territory.

Overall, this book was an easy read, nostalgic for me since I grew up in the South, and elegantly detailed.

Great back story, the love story, however... meh. This really struck all the wrong chords in me, I don't even know why.

I received a copy of this book on Netgalley from the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

3 stars. Overall, this was a good book and I'm not sad that I read it, but it's also not a book that changed my life. Although you definitely don't always need one of those. Let's get into the summary, shall we?

All the Wrong Chords is the story of Scarlett, a girl who is struggling to figure out who she is and her place in the world after her older brother dies from a drug overdose. She's staying with her grandfather for the summer when she almost hits a guy with her car, who happens to know her grandfather and invites them to watch his band play. From there, Scarlett ends up joining the band, and maybe falling for some of the band members.

First, let's get into the things I really liked about this book:

1. The main love interest is super swoon-worthy. I don't want to give away who Scarlett ends up with (although in my opinion it's pretty obvious) but he's super dreamy. He's a genuinely good person, he's creative and writes a song about her!!!! and he's just overall a really good "boy next door" type character.

2. The music in this is really cool. A lot of books about music don't have many of the songs they played, so it's a bit boring in that regard, I think. But this book includes the lyrics and there is also an album on Itunes so you can listen to the music in the novel. How cool is that??? I really appreciated that part and thought it made the novel come more alive.

3. The topics this book talks about are really important, including drug addiction and ALS. Both of these topics aren't something you normally see in YA books. However, this also leads me into things I disliked...

The first thing I disliked was the handling of those topics. I was attracted because of the talk about drug addiction, but while this book tried to balance the love story and Scarlett dealing with the death of her brother, it doesn't do it very well. It was like Deriso wanted to write a love story but also needed something to get readers interested. Like readers don't already love a love story anyway. But I felt like this story was in a constant state of struggle about what it really wanted to be and so the love story was pretty good but the real story, the drug addiction, was dropped in my opinion. It was handled but seemed to be thrown in at random moments. I also felt like the character with ALS was thrown in as a plot device and a way to make the lead love interest more dreamy which leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

The second thing I disliked was the main character. Honestly, she was the most oblivious, stupidest, immature character! Scarlett constantly made the decision that everyone knew she should make, like which boy to kiss. But beyond that, she was also oblivious. (view spoiler) Scarlet was also immature in that, when she thought the guy she was into was into her sister, she blamed her sister and was rude to her. Come on, in what world is that okay?? Yes Scarlett is only 18 which can somewhat excuse her behavior but overall just kind of made her obnoxious.

Overall, I think this book was fine but it's marketed wrong. It's more a love triangle love story and less of a heavy-hitting contemporary. Neither is bad, but when you think you're getting one and you get the other, it messes with your enjoyment of the book. However, I really think this book is a light, fun read that you won't regret reading.