I really enjoyed this book. I loved all the 90's references, the Hey there Delilah connection, both the love stories that connected at the end and the writing style by the author. I listened to the audiobook of this one and the characters were brought to light so well by the narration. This will be one book I'll remember for a long time - it was that good!

U most definitely want to read more books by this author. To be fair, it took me a bit to get into the story. I had other similar stories in my head, and couldn't divorce myself from them, automatically assuming they'd be the same (think Drive or Reverse IYKYK). How wrong I was and happily so (or sadly as the case may be as tears are still streaming down my face). Told in dual timelines that eventually make sense and flow nicely, I could indulge in two beautiful love stories that eventually merge into a satisfying story of life.

This was a sweet read. Love the cover and LOVE the chapter titles!

Cecilia is a writer for Rolling Stone Magazine. She somehow stumbles upon the muse for one of the biggest love songs of all time. She begins investigating to find out more about their love story for a piece that could catapult her career. Meanwhile her own relationship is a mess. And her familial relationships aren’t great, either. We have dueling timelines where we follow Sara and Eddie’s story in one and Cecilia’s investigation and her own relationships in another.

I found the storyline for Eddie and Sara very interesting. I always love a good every summer reunification. We also have a forbidden love aspect as well. I wasn’t super into the Cecilia and Pete storyline, though, and could have done without that aspect. I just never felt any love there. On the other hand, Cecilia’s relationship with her father and her stepmother was really interesting. It made me think a lot about how there really are three sides to every story.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!

When I read the synopsis for this book it immediately reminded me of Daisy Jones and The Six, a book I loved. I am not only a book lover, but also a music lover, so whenever music plays a big role in a book I want to read it.

I was pleasantly surprised to find out at the beginning of the book that the song that inspired the story was Hey There Delilah by The Plain White T's. It had been a while since I had heard the song and because of the book I started listening to it again. And as someone who makes a Spotify playlist for all of their writing projects, I can confirm that songs can indeed inspire entire stories.

Every chapter title of the book has a song reference in it. Those kind of details made me enjoy the book even more, because I could hear the music that went with the chapter.

Following both Sara Friedman, the muse of the song the book is about, and a reporter from Rolling Stone magazine was a good choice for telling this kind of story. Cecilia and Sara go through similar yet different experiences and switching between their POV's and timelines worked really well.

I think my only criticism of the book is that I didn't entirely believe the level of devotion between Eddie and Sara, especially in the present timeline. So many years had passed that I found it difficult to believe that they would reconnect that quickly. But I was willing to suspend my disbelieve, because of how romantic the story was.

"Hey There Delilah" was on repeat in my mind as I read this novel and I have to say it made for great background music! I loved the two different storylines we got in this book, especially the respective family dynamics. I am Jewish and I really enjoyed the Jewish representation we got in Sara's story. I was captivated by the unraveling plot and never wanted to put the book down, needing to know where it would go. I loved the resolution for Sara's story but I was honestly upset about Cecilia's. She had already been through so much!

What You Do To Me is described as “a moving novel of two unfinished love stories and the music and lyrics that bring them together.”
I loved this book by Rochelle B. Weinstein and stayed up way too late finishing it the other night. It came out earlier this week so you can also read it now.
I’m not going to lie. Hey There Delilah is not my favourite song. And this book is fully based on Rochelle Weinstein’s imagining of the people in that song, and it WILL be in your head while you’re reading the book. But also I think it’s so cool that she was so inspired by a song that she wanted to write the story behind it. And now the song has grown on me.
I loved the Jewish representation in this book. I loved the dual timeline in the 1970s and 1990s and that it was before cell phones and internet. I loved that there were two different stories, and the mysteries of trying to put all the pieces together in both. I really loved the parts where Cecilia was conducting interviews and that it was written in interview format.
I definitely did not see certain things coming and I don’t want to give spoilers but wow it broke my heart a few times.
My favourite quote that I may have normally read and moved on but I think it resonates so much right now: “Don’t ever hide who you are.”
What You Do To Me was unlike anything I’ve read before and I highly recommend it.

Cecilia, a writer at Rolling Stone magazine, is determined to find the muse behind the hit song, "What You Do To Me." Who did Eddie Vee write the song for, and why?

Inspired by the song, "Hey There Delilah" by Tom Higgenson of the Plain White T's, the author wrote this imagined love story about a couple forced apart by their differences. I've loved other books by this author (see below), but this time, I just didn't feel much of an emotional connection to any of the characters. I did enjoy discovering that Sara (not a spoiler) was the inspiration behind the song written by Eddie Vee, and I definitely enjoyed that storyline more than Cecilia's. I also liked how songs were used as titles for each of the chapters.

This Is Not How It Ends (4 stars) and Somebody's Daughter (4 stars) remain my favorites by this author!

Lastly, this quote from the book, "You're a liar. And a fake. And a phony." made me giggle because it reminded me of this iconic quote from Sandy in Grease, "You're a fake and a phony and I wish I never laid eyes on you."

Location: New York City, New York; Los Angeles, California; Miami, Florida; Tucson (Bisbee), Arizona

I received an advance copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

4.5⭐️

What You Do To Me is an utterly delightful tale, with two interconnected love stories unfolding and unraveling in two timelines. Cecilia James’ relationship is crumbling, and her connection with her father has long-since fractured as well. She’s at a loss for what to do or how to feel. Employed by Rolling Stone, she stumbles across the key to rock legend Eddie Vee’s mysterious muse, and channels all her emotionally frustrated energy into solving the mystery and helping reconnect long-lost loves. What she uncovers leads us all down a moving and entertaining path right alongside her. I found myself frustrated with her character at some points- she was definitely not portrayed as a perfect character. But in the end, the story was all the better for it- and I was glad to be along for her journey and personal growth.

Thank you Rochelle B. Weinstein, Lake Union Publishing, and NetGalley for providing this ARC for review consideration. All opinions expressed are my own.

The premise for this book is cute, and there is enough to draw you in at the beginning. Unfortunately for me, there isn't a character that I connected to or was rooting for, so ultimately it felt like a drag. Cecelia doesn't feel like a "full" enough character to carry the book. It felt almost as if the book was made up of little vignettes of stories, rather than a full novel. Perhaps it's meant to be this way, but for me instead it lacked flow. There is romance, but the book for me didn't read as a romance and much more in the realm of straight fiction. If you like a serious type of romance, with plenty of personal growth with some music sprinkled in, this might be for you. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to provide my honest review.

4,5

I loved this book. It's a story about Cecilia a journalist who works for the rolling stones who tries to unmask a story that no one ever could. As the pages past we travelled back in time, where we are shown the story between Eddie and Sara, the story that Cece wants. I really liked that both stories have depth and we got to know the true colors of the characters. I liked how Cecelia learns to forgive and how everyone faced their fears and choose to love again.

It's a story of love, forgiveness and acceptance.

My only complaint here and that's why it's not a 5 star book, it's Eddie's Spanish wasn't Argentinian Spanish, and I as an Argentinian I noticed it.

This was a heartfelt and heartbreaking story about star crossed lovers, family secrets and dedicated to everyone who has ever been inspired by a great song. Perfect for fans of movies like Almost Famous, this book follows Cecilia, a young Jewish woman who just landed a job with Rolling Stones. Cecilia digs into the past in an attempt to uncover the story behind rock star Eddie Vee's famous song and where he's disappeared to.

Told in a dual timeline structure we get to see Eddie and his first love Sarah fall in love in the 70s and then ultimately get torn apart. I loved so much about this story but it was also really sad too!! Cecilia is very career focused, which drives her boyfriend away, she also has a complicated relationship with the father she thinks abandoned her and doesn't know the full story behind her mother's death.

Good on audio and recommended for fans of authors like Taylor Jenkins Reid. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!!

CW: alcoholic, drug addicted parent, racism

What this book did to me was made me appreciate and love Rochelle Weinstein's writing even more. What a wonderful story inspired by the song "Hey There Delilah" by the Plain White T's. Being a big music fan, I loved the music theme in this story, and I also loved Sara and Eddie's story, as well as Cecilia's story, the writer for Rolling Stone doing a story on Eddie and Sara. A beautifully written book that I think music fans, and even those not big music fans, will thoroughly enjoy. I loved it.

Thank you to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for the review copy.

Wow! I don't know where to start. Everything about this book is amazing and written so well. The past and present switched POVs. The main characters, the clues, the hot sexy celebrity guy. Everything is to the tee perfect. As a music journalist, these are the books I want to read more of.

Cecilia is an outright, talented, and brave woman who works for Rolling Stones. She is the dream journalist a lot of people including me want to be. From the outside her life looks perfect and like a dream world. But we all know that when we grow up all the castles and cotton candy disappear. Kind of like how Joni Mitchell describes life in "Both Sides Now."

This story was executed well. Every little detail was taken into consideration from the lyric references to the chapter names to the other celebrities. I won't spoil anything but all the little easter eggs Rochelle puts in every page make this a page-turner.

I stayed up till 2:30 am to read this book and I guarantee you that it will keep you up wanting to know answers.

The best thing that I recognized about this book was that there was a lot of sadness and trauma but it all tied in making it a romance. It wasn't one of those books where it's a romance sob story.

I will definitely purchase this book. I am also someone who worked with Tom Higgenson of the Plain White Ts and can consider this the best storytelling in music.

Well, this is one of the strangest, odd, bizarre contemporary/historical romances I’ve ever read. I finished it a few days ago and I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about it.

First of all, it’s based on the Plain White T’s song “Hey There Delilah” which, if you missed it, was a permanent fixture on Top 40 radio circa 2006. The song has a cute story behind it (I highly recommend doing a quick Google if you’re unfamiliar), but I never felt like I needed more in the Hey There Delilah Universe ™️. I guess someone did though, otherwise this book wouldn’t exist.

It follows a Rolling Stone journalist who, after letting her own love life fall apart, is trying to find the woman who inspired a hit song written by a reclusive rock star. The set up sounds like a perfect fit for anyone who loves celeb romances, but the actual meat of the book is a little different than what’s advertised.

What You Do To Me covers A LOT of ground in a slim volume. There are like five major plot points across two different timelines: the present, focused on the journalist, her work, her family drama, and her love life, and the past, which follows the rock star and his muse from their first meeting to when things fell apart. While that sounds like a lot to keep straight, it was surprisingly easy to follow, even if the story felt a little bloated at times.

This one isn’t a new favorite, but it was a pleasant enough story that I think would be a great fit for anyone who loves Jill Santopolo’s romances, or is looking for a more serious romance that doesn’t get too heavy.

What You Do To Me is out today. Thanks to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Better Than Malibu Rising. I read and reviewed Mailbu Rising as an ARC, back before it came out. In that review, I noted that while it was a good story overall, I knew of many others that were at least as good - and would likely never get anywhere *near* the hype.

Here, despite being published by an Amazon imprint and thus having a pretty solid team behind even it... we have just such a book that is *better* than Malibu Rising... and yet isn't getting anywhere near the hype, even though it absolutely should.

Even from the opening of the tale, before you even get to a word of Weinstein's own alternate history of Hey There Delilah, the fact that she/ someone on her team was able to get Tom Higgenson from the Plain White T's to write a foreword for this tale is freaking awesome.

Then, we get into the tale. And what a tale it is. I've read several of its type over the years, of coming of age, of finding yourself, of mysterious zeitgeist happenings, of journalists looking for their big break and landing on a secret they decide to try to find the truth of, of star crossed lovers and what comes of them, of famous rockers that famously either disappear or crash and burn or crash and burn and then disappear.

And yet... Weinstein manages to make this tale her own unique blend of all of the above, and a love song to the entire music industry and the songs that we all believe were written about specific people to boot. Choosing to lead into every chapter with a song referencing someone specific, then discussing so very many different artists and songs through the narrative - and even having cameos by various artists - was a great touch.

Including a condo in Miami was an interesting touch, and perhaps a nod to her own real-life tragedy as her family knew some of the victims of the 2021 Surfside Condos collapse - though this is pure speculation (about the nod) on my part. (Those who follow her on social media know she did in fact know some of those victims.)

Weinstein almost always brings her own Jewish faith into her tales as well, and this is no different - and yet, like the best Christian writers I've encountered over the years, she always does it seamlessly and without preaching, just bakes it right into the overall tale she is telling and uses it to even *enhance* the story she is telling.

The addition of a young character who barely speaks English when we first meet him is also quite relevant to where we originally encounter him - Miami, where thanks to the large Hispanic population, this is a particular character type that much more commonly gets overlooked - particularly in these types of tales.

And then there are the actual relationships here, and where the true magic and heartbreak of this story lies. The daughter who may not know as much about her parents or why they split as she thinks she does. The lover who pushes people away because she thinks she is unworthy of love. The soulmates forced into separation. The loving parent who never stopped wanting the best for their kid - even when the kid actively rejected them. So many others, and it all comes crashing together in this maniacal way that in less deft hands and with a less skilled storyteller could have been an absolute mess, but instead Weinstein pulls off masterfully in ways that will have you both breathless and bawling.

Truly an excellent work, and very much recommended.

2.75 stars

In 1996, Cecilia is a journalist for Rolling Stone magazine, looking for the big break that will get her her own column. In 1979, Sara and Eddie are experiencing a song-worthy first love. In the time between these two stories, Eddie becomes first a famous rockstar, then a recluse. No one knows where he is, or who his biggest hit, "What You Do To Me" is about, but it's wildly popular and seen as one of the greatest love songs of all time. When Cecilia stumbles on a lead pointing her to Sara, she's determined to uncover the truth behind the song and reunite Sara and Eddie, even if her preoccupation with their story puts her own life on the back burner.

The premise for this was really intriguing to me---I love "Almost Famous" and Taylor Jenkins Reid's books, and was expecting this would be something in those veins. It ended up being more of a romantic comedy/family drama heavy on the miscommunication than a story of fame and songwriting, so not what I was hoping for. The characters all infuriated me at one point or another, and while it is technically a happy ending, it felt like there was a sad flash-forward added just for the drama. If you prefer your stories bittersweet you may appreciate that, but it wasn't for me.

I love hearing about the playlists authors listened to when writing specific books, etc, and what I didn't realize when picking it up was that Sara and Eddie's story is a fictionalized version of what could have inspired the song "Hey There Deliliah" and the forward of the book was written by Tom Higgenson of the Plain White T's. If you're a fan then you'll be excited to hear that the pivotal song that the book is named after and that Cecilia is writing about, is "Hey There Delilah". Alas, I am not a fan and already knew the real story behind the song, so it was a little bizarre to read scenes where the lyrics were being used to profess undying love. I still think the concept of writing a book so inspired by a song is a neat premise, but this was not the one for me.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publishers, & the author for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

You know those catchy songs that get stuck in your head on repeat? “Hey There Delilah” is one of those songs and inspired this story. ⁣
⁣
Cecilia works for 𝘙𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘚𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘦 and is hoping to wow her boss by uncovering the mystery of who was the inspiration behind the hit song “What You Do To Me”. The songwriter Eddie Vee has been in hiding since a tragedy happened at one of their concerts while performing this very song. Cecilia is the only journalist who has ever managed to track him down and get an interview. As her own love life has fallen apart, she’s hopeful that she can reconnect Eddie with the love of his life- the one that got away. ⁣
⁣
I absolutely adored this book and the love story between Eddie and Sara. This is the second book I’ve picked up from Rochelle Weinstein and I can’t wait to read more. Thank you Netgalley for this advance reading copy.

I received this book as an ARC from Lake Union Publishing through NetGalley and this review is based on my own opinion.

Journalist Cecilia James always had a soft spot for music and lyrics. When she's in Miami for work, she finds a clue about the muse for a song written by one of the greatest; Eddie Vee.
She is determined to find out the truth, even if her own relationship is falling apart.

The book was sooo good!
It's a fiction story based on the song Hey There Delilah by Plain White T's.
After the first chapters I thought it was gonna be a bit like Daisy Jones, which wasn't really my thing, but the story is in some kind of dual pov.
One pov is about Sara's life when she was younger and the other pov is from Cecilia in the present, trying to find out who Eddies muse was. I was rooting so hard for Cecilia to find Sara and write that perfecr article because the story of Eddie and Sara was so interesting.

What You Do To Me by Rochelle B. Weinstein is a beautifully written, poignant and compelling story.
I absolutely thought the storytelling to be brilliant with amazing casts of characters.
I could relate with the characters here in this story and I loved how realistic they felt, it's a very enjoyable experience to know about their life!
I was sucked in to the story from the first two chapters and did not want this to end at all.
It was real, authentic, gripping, complex, tender, shattering, hopeful, and brilliant.
Rochelle is a master storyteller, and she write another brilliant story!

I would like to thank NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the opportunity to read this ahead of its publication date in return for my honest review.

Being a big music fan, I was excited to read this book. The two other books I have read by this author I have really enjoyed.

This is a dual timeline, two stories in one contemporary romance. It’s Cecelia’s story that starts in 1996 as an up and coming Rolling Stone journalist and the story she is researching.

While leaving an assignment, Cecelia is hurrying to the cruise ships where she and her boyfriend Pete will be taking a vacation. She gets the time wrong and misses it. Pete is angry and breaks it off with her. While there, Cecelia believes to have found the muse for the very popular “What You Do to Me” song. She is determined to bring Eddie Vee (the singer) and Sara back together while trying to navigate her own relationship with Pete and with her father.

The only thing negative that I would have to say is that I didn’t care for the very ending for Cecilia. Seemed unnecessary to me. Other than that, I enjoyed both storylines.

Thank you to Booksparks for a #gifted copy of this book as part of the #FRC2023 campaign and to NetGalley and Amazon Publishing for a digital arc. All thoughts and opinions are my own.