⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Description from Publisher:
A prison escape, a bear on the loose, botched lyrics. What more could go wrong with Crow Valley’s most anticipated night of the year?

A year after forest fires ravaged the town of Crow Valley and claimed the life of Dale Jepson—karaoke legend, local prison guard, and all-around good guy—the community hosts a high-stakes karaoke competition. But when a convicted murderer escapes from nearby Crow Valley Correctional, residents discover there’s more on the line than local, perhaps even national, karaoke fame. 

In this darkly comedic, fast-paced ride through an unforgettable small town, five residents with intimate connections to Dale and drastically different goals for the night will collide into, conspire with, and aid one another as they scramble to make it successfully through the evening under the scrutinizing watch of neighbors. 

To the soundtrack of classics belted out with abandon, voices will crack, cars will be stolen, marriages will falter, and kids will slip away in search of trouble. And maybe, just maybe, lives will be transformed for the better.
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My review:
First impression? Way too many characters to keep track of. And too many things dangling and dropped for the reader to remember for later.
It came together about half way through and I stayed interested in unhappy Molly, grieving Roxanne, angry Val, stupid Brett, running Marcel, and "perfect" Kabir. The novel is touted as being humorous but really only Kabir made me laugh with his perfect everything.
In small towns everyone knows everyone and everything and Crow Valley is like that. Everyone has mistakes to make up for, dreams to chase, or promises to keep (or break). It seems like each character has all of those though, and the book doesn't have a clear purpose except to be a snapshot of this dysfunctional town.
None of the many characters were really all that likable, but they were interesting. Roxanne was the most interesting and the one who made me most sad in her constant grief over the loss of her husband Dale who was the town EVERYTHING. But also, she needed help and that was no where to be found in this dysfunctional town. Overall, I think the author was going for quirky humor but I found a lot of the novel very sad.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thank you to NetGalley and He ry Holt and Co. for an advance digital copy of this book in exchange for my review.

Confession - I have never seen Schitt's Creek. I keep seeing the show mentioned with respect to this book and just wanted to make it clear that it had no influence on my decision to pick this one up. I would have to say it was the title that drew my attention to this book, as well as my penchant for small towns.

Crow Valley was rocked by the wild fires that tore through their area claiming one of the its favorite son's - Dale. In this story, I met five people whose lives had been affected by Dale, in some way or another, against the backdrop of the karaoke championships that were being held in his memory.

Music, shenanigans, and dark humor abound in this story, and I was throughly entertained and maybe even a bit scandalized at times. I felt many emotions as I got to know Molly, Roxanne, Marcel, Val and Brett. The range of feelings evoked was quite impressive.

This story was darker than I expected, but I still enjoyed my time in Crow Valley. I would largely attribute that to Bryan's exploration of many topics including grief, trauma, parenthood, forgiveness, and freedom - emotional and physical. That last one was something that popped up in subtle and not so subtle ways throughout the story, and it really captured my attention and gave me something to think about.

I had a really hard time getting into this. The word choices felt really off and threw off the rhythm for me. I was unable to finish the book.

Such a cool book! i really like books where the plot takes place within a short period of time. The karaoke competition is such a cool concept for the novel. It is very smart and funny, but not in a forced way. Well done!

This book was interesting, but I don't think it's very memorable. It's cute and quirky, but I can't really say I enjoyed all of the characters. I wish I would have enjoyed it more. It was very middle of the road. It's a mixed bag for me.

Laugh out loud funny, this was a cute book

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

The Crow Valley Karaoke Championships, while not as like Schitt's Creek as the blurb implied, is full of comedy, pathos, brilliant language use, and human peculiarity. The story is told through the perspectives of 5 different characters, each of whom is dealing with their own "stuff" whose lives intersect around the central theme of a small local karaoke championship. While a bit muddle at first, since the book picks up mid-story, it rapidly becomes clear what is happening and the personal "why"s behind each character. While darker than I'd expected, this is an engaging read.

This book is a wild ride from beginning to end. The setting is a Karaoke Championship in a small town that is recovering from a devastating fire that took the life of one of the town's heros. The story focuses mainly on 5 distinct characters, but we soon meet just about every member of the town as the story of each protagonist unfolds. Each character is dealing with their own demons. They are each grappling with big questions of how to proceed with their lives, and where they truly belong. Lessons are learned through hilarious mishaps, adventures and almost unbelievable scenarios. All of the action is going on against the backdrop of the Karaoke Championship, and the songs chosen by the performers set the stage perfectly for the chaos of the book.
Although the situations are outlandish, the characters are all truly human and completely believable. You are rooting for every single one of them.
The writing is intelligent and witty and the book is a very quick read. It is a page turner that you can not put down, and the ending is pure perfection. I am now looking to read more by Ali Bryan. I am surprised I haven't done so already.

A book that I need to revisit when I'm in the mood for it. A solid premise, but I struggled with the shifting narrative with the pick-up put-down nature I have for ARC reading. I enjoyed it enough to press on. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity with this title.

Incredibly fun read! he characters are complex and dynamic, the plot moves at a great speed, the humor was smart and laugh out loud at times. Beginning was a bit slow, so don't DNF too early.

As a person who loves karaoke and who has worked in a prison in a small town, I knew I had to read this one. I was a fan of the alternating points of view and really enjoyed getting to know the characters who were definitely relatable and felt like some people I knew myself—even the wild ones! Overall, this was a good read. I liked it, but it did take me some time to finish it.

This book was a tough one for me, I had to come back several times to try again and finish it. I think, for me, there were too many people to follow; I kept forgetting who was who and what they were dealing with.

It finally captured me somewhere in the last half of the story, to a point where I felt compelled to finish it and find out what would happen. A lot of people dealing with very persona and relatable issues - losing your loved one, losing yourself to motherhood, losing yourself to the events of your past - in one afternoon. A lot happens in a short period of time, ultimately ending rather hopefully for most everyone. I did feel satisfied at the finish, so that was successful, in my opinion.

I can't say I'd recommend it, but I don't think it was a complete waste of my time, either.

3.75 stars for me. This was cute and enjoyable. I enjoyed the small town vibe and would recommend to others in my reading group. I felt like this was slightly similar to my J. Ryan Stradal reads, which I love. The characters truly make this story and I am so glad I got to "meet" all of them. Quirky, odd, grief-y but wonderfully poignant.

I ended up DNF-ing this at just under 25%. I really struggled with this one, but it just didn't draw me in. I kept waiting for it to hook me but it never happened.
One thing I really did like, though, were the individual voices. Each character felt so different to me and it wasn't hard to navigate between different POVs.

I deeply wanted to enjoy this one. Parts of it made me think of ANXIOUS PEOPLE: a uniting central event, the intersection of lives of very different people, some funny coincidences and moments. It didn't quite get there for me, however. I didn't feel like I knew the characters enough to fully connect to the emotional oomph of the story and root for them.

3.5 stars rounded up. Not totally sure what i just read, but i kind of liked it! Way too many POV characters for my taste, but in a sort of caper/romp way so i just accepted that i wasn't going to know anyone well and went along for the ride. Small town/weird residents, felt sort of like Northern Exposure (wish that were on netflix), a little cozy while also chaotic.

This was a super fun read! I had a feeling I was going to enjoy it based on the title and it did not disappoint. The writing style of this author is very fun and quirky, which lends itself to some literal LOL moments within the story.

The story is told from multiple POVs in a small town in Canada, each connected to Dale Jepson, a recently deceased popular town figure. Each story had its silly moments, but also all had deeper, meaningful moments that rounded the characters out nicely.

The only thing I didn’t love was the very beginning where I think it would be helpful to set the scene a little bit before launching into the plot. I struggled for a moment to get into the story but once I was in it was a very enjoyable read.

I am interested in reading more of this author’s works. She is a great comedy writer, and has the timing down perfectly. I would recommend this book to people who enjoy cozy mysteries and especially fans of Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club series.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This was just not a tale that held my attention, I’m afraid; a bit too all-over-the-place with characters that weren’t relatable.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC opportunity.

This book is about a small town (Crow Valley) in Canada that hosts a Karaoke Championship each year. It centers around a man who recently died through the lens of multiple people. I liked how this story changed perspectives so that we could understand how each individual lives in their own world with their own motivations and thoughts, but I thought that the book had a few too many characters and I often found myself getting lost of confused trying to remember who was who and how each person was related to other characters. Overall, this book was fun but I wouldn't widely recommend it.

Crow Valley Karaoke Championships is an interesting one. To be fair, I'm not sure how I feel about it. Its humorous but also dark. Thank you netgalley & the publisher for the ARC, in exchange for an honest review.