It's hard to describe Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm. The writing is very melodic. When I finished it, I realized there wasn't a heavy plot, and yet it kept me entertained throughout the book. It's primarily the story of Circus, an aging jazz player who is talented but never made it big. The chapters alternate between Circus and the women in his life, his teenage daughter Koko, his ex-wife Pia, various lovers and strangers he meets. In some ways the stories center around Circus, in others, all these women have their own issues. The book is at its best when talking about music, the characters have such a strong connection to it.

Circus Palmer is a forty-year-old jazz trumpet player. He is also an old-school ladies’ man, with pretty much all of the negative connotations that phrase might bring to mind. His marriage to Pia failed years ago, and he seldom sees his daughter Koko. He feels closest in spirit to Maggie, a drummer with whom he has occasional flings. And there are other women ... Luz, Peach, Josephine, Odessa, ...

Circus tells his story, but it is counter-balanced by the voices of these women in his life. The result is a more honest and complete portrait of Circus, his life, and the people who make up his world.

In addition to this fascinating exploration of characters, this debut novel is a fine look at how our lives seem to unfold in ways that leave us all both somewhat amazed and quite probably a bit disappointed. (For those who will argue that *your* life has not been even a bit disappointing, did you get to be the astronaut or the professional ball player or the movie star or the rockstar you imagined for yourself when you were ten?)

A sweeping story of various women and the man at the center of their orbit. Told in alternating perspectives, this story is lyrical, generational, and heartbreaking. Circus Palmer, a jazz musician, has always enticed women, and many women, even when they try to distance themselves from him emotionally, find him incredibly hard to resist. Warrell reveals a man who is charismatic and we understand why the women keep waiting for him to commit or, at the very least, be the man they all think him to be. But then, through the women's voices, we slowly understand why expectations will only lead to disappointment.

Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm is an emotional read that reveals the raw nature of loving someone you can never fully know or is emotionally unavailable. I appreciated the alternating points of view and I saw an interview with Warrell where she explained the alternating perspectives were designed to mimic jazz -- each woman gets a solo and a chance to share her story. I think Warrell is successful in creating lyricism and a unique voice for each character.

Highly recommend.

A debut author with an adult novel about Circus Palmer, a musician who has one true love - his horn. His home base is the Boston area where his X-wife, Pia, and estranged daughter, Koko, live. His story unfolds in chapters alternating between the many females whose lives he touches. He plays jazz well enough to make the women swoon, but not good enough to become famous and record his dream album. He teaches, travels some and leaves heartache in his wake.
A drummer, Maggie, is one of the women he frequently spends time with. He is not adept with relationships. He cheats, avoids commitment and lies. He has little contact with Koko as she’s growing up. She needs him but he doesn’t know how to be a parent. Koko is expertly drawn out in the story with typical teenage rebellion, needs and a total lack of parental nurturing.
As he nears his forties he may be forced to change and settle down. The women he has been with all needed him to love them in order to be relevant. It is the story of his many lady friends, women he used, lovers, acquaintances, and the ones he left. The author expertly described these women, all of whom had no self worth without him. Some incapable of even fixing a meal or cleaning the house if he left them. They were dependent on him for their identity. While realistically depicted, I found many of them weak, pitiful and unlikable.
It is a thought provoking look into one fictional, selfish musician’s life with the hope that he figures out what and who is really important.
Thanks to NetGalley for the digital advance reader copy of “Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm” by Laura Warrell and to Pantheon Books, Penguin Random House. These are all my honest personal thoughts and opinions given voluntarily.

This was a different book for me, versus what I normally gravitate to.

MV Rating: 6/10
•Circus is a ladies man that makes very questionable, very selfish choices, and the women in his life take the brunt of the impact.
•After his on again-off again love Maggie becomes pregnant, he bails, and then tries to rebuild his relationships as best he can.
•The characters are written well, but Circus was so irredeemable to me, that I couldn’t enjoy or believe his journey sometimes.
•It speaks so highly of the author that I could feel such strong emotions about the characters at all, but this one just fell a bit flat for me. I hope others will give it a shot and make their own assumption!

If I had to sum up this complex book in one sentence I’d have to say that it is ultimately a love story, of sorts, but a really messy and gritty one. And I wasn’t able to land on the “this is a love story” designation until I had finished and sat back and asked myself “what is this book actually about?” So, you should know that going in.

These characters are multi-faceted. Sometimes you understand them, sometimes you can at least empathize, and in my case most of the time you really dislike them. Rarely have I found a book that I have truly enjoyed when I found the characters to be hard to like. This book was no different, which means that Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm wasn’t the book for me. But, I can definitely see why someone else would really enjoy it. The characters are fleshed out. The dialogue felt authentic. The pacing really worked. This author clearly knows what she’s doing, and does it well. Some might find the multiple points of view difficult to follow at times, but that’s something I usually expect with an ensemble cast of characters.

This book was good, and I’d recommend it to any reader who likes, or at least doesn’t mind stories with unlikeable characters. I’m just not that reader. Having said that, I still think this was an impressive debut and I’m curious to see what this author does next.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my review.

This book has an array of characters. Circus Palmer was a 40 year old trumpet player. His life is messed up. He refuses to be tied down to 1 woman. He takes off after his latest paramour is pregnant.. Circus has a different woman in every city he goes to play music. He has a fraught relationship with his daughter but finally shared his life with her in a meaningful way and learns to love himself and life.
As Circus ages, life catches up with him and he must pay the consequences. the book focuses mostly on Circus but takes the reader into the lives of some of the women who fall in love with a musician.
This was an engaging debut novel.
Thank you to Netgalley for the eARC.

I fought hard to get through the book but finally stopped at 22% mid chapter. I really wanted to love this book as the synopsis seemed incredibly interesting. Unfortunately, this one was a miss for me. I do not like to leave books unfinished so I may attempt to complete it at a later date and update my feedback but for now this is a DNF for me.

I struggled to like this book. It may be just that I couldn't relate to the culture it depicts. I didn't see redemming qualities in the two-dimensional character Circus. With no other reason given than he fancies himself a lady's man, he deserts his drummer, Maggie, when he learns she is pregnant. Trite, commonplace behavior, and consistent with how he's treated ther women in his previous life, including his daughter Koko.

Several times I contemplated giving up on this book, and finally I did. It failed to hold my interest, so I left it unfinished.

Laura Warrell's debut novel Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm is literary fiction based on a jazz musician.

Synopsis:
Circus Palmer is a forty-year-old trumpet player. He has a reputation as a ladies man and he fully lives up to it. Although Circus refuses to be tied down to just one woman, he does have strong feelings for Maggie, until she tells him she is pregnant. As Circus already has Koko, a daughter from his previous marriage, he leaves Maggie to deal with the "problem". Circus feels the solution is to find comfort in other women's arms, but will this plan work?

Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm has some very touching and humorous scenes. It is filled with delightful references to jazz music which are very enjoyable. At times, the book is difficult to follow due to the multiple characters. Additionally, it is challenging to like or feel empathy for Circus, the main protagonist. I liked the book, but did not find parts of it easy to digest due to the subject matter. Be sure to check the trigger warnings before reading.

Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm is available on September 27th. Congratulations to Laura Wardell on the publication of her debut novel. I look forward to reading more of her work.

Thank you, NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Pantheon, for sharing this book with me. I appreciate your kindness. My opinions are my own.

Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm tells the story of Circus Palmer and the women who cross his path. Circus is a semi-successful jazz musician with a lot of charm and lot of fraught relationships. As the story begins, Circus learns that he's gotten a woman pregnant, and promptly flees, which should tell you a lot about what kind of a person he is. The rest of the story, which is light on plot and deals with the aftermath of the pregnancy news and Circus's strained relationship with his teenage daughter Koko, unfolds through alternating points of views. These alternating POVs include the obvious choices -- Circus, Koko, Circus's ex-wife-- but also several short story-esque glimpses into the lives of various women with whom Circus is romantically or sexually involved.

The book's structure is a perfect match for its story. Circus does a lot of downright terrible things (running away after learning about a pregnancy, disappearing from his daughter's life, cheating...), and the rotating cast of narrators does not let him fully off the hook for any of them. In showcasing the voices of those whose lives only briefly interact with Circus', Warrell makes it easy for the reader to understand that Circus's actions have consequences-- and that the other characters have unique, complex things going on in their lives that have nothing to do with Circus. I also found the book relatively easy to follow for all the perspective switches -- key plot details are revealed in subtle yet clear ways, with small lines that tie up loose ends between chapters and mark the passage of time.

As with any book with multiple narrators, some are better than others. While some stories leap off the page with romantic, cinematic dialogue or characterizations that are detailed, observant, and memorable, other stories feel underbaked, unnecessarily dark, and cliched (a woman whose identical twin sister marries her now-ex-husband? Really?). I had some trouble accepting the book was set in 2013 as some of the characters, particularly Circus, feel a little retro in their words and actions-- though the more I think about it, the more this feels like a character trait as opposed to a flaw in the writing.

The writing, on the whole, is stellar. It's dynamic and evocative, with great passages about music and love as well as keenly observed, realistic details about human behavior. I was captivated by the writing and could easily imagine what tone and feel this story would have if told on screen or, perhaps more fittingly, stage.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and look forward to seeing what Warrell writes next!

This is a musical novel about Circus, a jazz musician, who plays the trumpet and finds a home in the arms of the women who lust after him. The novel tells the story of the trail of broken hearts Circus leaves behind but the most broken hearted of them all are his ex-wive and teenage daughter, KoKo.

There is an elaborate way that daughters challenge their fathers to expand and learn the intricacies of human connection. KoKo longs for a deeper, more meaningful connection with her father and he misses every opportunity to form an emotional bond. That is, until an unexpected life event thrusts him into active parenthood where he can no longer evade responsibility.

Circus starts off as an emotionally vacant protagonist and his relationship to his daughter, and the woman he eventually realizes he loves, forces him to mature and ultimately leads to a better outcome for these characters. I enjoyed how musical this book was written and the poetic language that truly reflects the power and unpredictability of jazz music.

Thank you to the publisher and the author for the E-arc copy.

I wish I loved this novel more: Laura Warrell is a talented prose stylist and the premise was instantly enticing.

But--for me--this was a tale peopled by characters who never quite reached out to ensorcel me, so I never fell under their spell.

Many thanks to Knopf Doubleday and to Netgalley for the opportunity of an early read.

Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm
by Laura Warrell
Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2022
Pantheon
Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC of this book. It was not a good fit and I did not enjoy reading it. I will not be recommending it or purchasing it for our library either.
For some readers who like reading about personal drama again and again and again, this book might be a good fit for them, for me, I found Circus pretty slimly, the story to be sex-obsessed, and overall, I found the whole story just depressing, with nothing hopeful or encouraging in it.
2 stars

Definitely not one that I could recommend to fellow readers. It was a laborious difficult read for me. Too many unlikeable people. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the DRC in exchange for my own opinion.

I received this book as an ARC and this is my review. This book is loaded with flawed characters but more than one is unlikeable. The story is sad with missed opportunities and lost chances. It all hangs together like an uneven tapestry. This book would appeal to readers who want to experience the onslaught of the result of a lifetime of selfish behavior as it lands squarely on the person who deserves it.

I really liked the concept/plot of this novel, but I just couldn't get sympathize with the main character. I found him so annoying, cocky, and insufferable. I couldn't root for him or his daughter. He's just a selfish and immature man-child. There was no depth to him, very one-dimensional. I thought the writing was decent. Overall, I just couldn't get into the story. I really struggled with this one.

I wanted to like this book, and man I did not. I didn't like or connect to any of the characters and I didn't want them taking up space in my brain. If there's one or two characters in a book that I don't like, that's not a deal breaker for me, as long as there are characters I can connect with. I didn't have any connection with any of these characters and it just because a chore to read this book.

Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm is about Circus, a philandering, striving jazz musician, and all the women in his life through the years, including his daughter Koko, who has her own coming-of-age story in these pages.

I appreciated the characterization of Circus, even if his actions were at times cringeworthy and confounding to the point of wanting to shake him. Too, the details of the women he loved and left are intriguing. I’d like to have seen their stories filled in even more, to have gotten to know them more outside their longing for and loathing of Circus.

I appreciated how Circus and Koko both come into their own over time. Circus’ growth, after living with so much restlessness and self-sabotage, was welcome and unexpected. The father-daughter relationship is probably one of my favorite parts of the novel. Recommended for readers who enjoy stories about men behaving badly and/or character-driven novels.

My thanks to NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for the advanced reader copy.

Story is about Curtis Palmer, a jazz musician who is more attached to his instrument than to the relationships with women he has in his life. Character development is good, and story line is moderately interesting. I expected to enjoy this book more than I did.