While at the start this book started off a little slow, once it got going, it was going. Regina Black never does me wrong. I loved The Art of the Scandal, so when I saw August Lane I had to read it. Especially since it's about black country music artists. It book was emotional, raw, honest, and humorous. Some parts I laughed out loud. It also had a soap opera/behind-the-music vibe that I enjoyed. I'll be talking about this book for a while especially since we are in the Beyoncé Cowboy Carter era (yee-haw). Prepare for this book to be my entire personality.

When I started reading this book I just knew that it would give me all the feels. I honestly didn’t know that it would have me laughing and crying and then getting angry sometimes in the same chapters!

I love the way that Regina Black uses flashback scenes in the book to truly build out these characters. They are so developed as characters early on and it makes me feel like I know them as a real people and I love that!

Luke is a former country music star and is now at the rock bottom of his career. He has one hit that people still pay to hear him sing, but what they don’t know about this hit is that he stole it from August Lane. The same August Lane whose mom is 90’s country superstar, Jojo Lane. Luke is asked to perform with Jojo at her Country Music Hall of Fame induction since they are both from the same small town. This means that he has to go back to the small town and come face to face with August who he hasn’t seen in over a decade, since he stole the song she wrote and made

Now August threatens to reveal his secret unless he writes and performs a new song with her. This book is so juicy and also it’s fast paced so it moves at a good speed and can be finished in about a day. The feelings that these two main characters have for each other is evident in both the present and flashback scenes. I love the transition that we see in both their characters, August and Luke are both very angry and sad people who have been through so much in such a short time, Luke getting a divorce and August losing her grandmother who loved her so deeply.

The book deals with a lot of topics including racism in country music and it just feels so fitting reading it because Jojo is a black woman in country music and her critics and some family and friends didn’t understand why she chose that genre and they treated her and her daughter bad because of it. Luke being black himself was kind of welcomed into the country world which shows how women in general are just treated lesser than in general. It’s always shocking to read about racism in the current day because it’s such a blatant disrespect to another because of their skin color and it just pisses me off as a human being and as a black woman.

Either way I absolutely loved this book and Luke finally has his reckoning with August but she also has hers as well with Luke when she’s made to confront her feelings and stop running away from the way he makes her feel.

Thank you to Netgalley and Grand Central Publishing for the advanced read copy of this book for my honest review.

Thank you Grand Central for this gifted copy in exchange for an honest review. I went into this book completely blind so coming off a historic win in country music made this book hit a little different. The way the story is written with a podcast element and the multiple scenes including dual timelines, gives the feel of a really good audiobook. But for someone like me who sees books visually with sound, it is written like the movies we enjoy on a rainy weekend at home complete with a beautifully written lyrics as the soundtrack. The characters were flawed yet extremely lovable. Understanding the root of Luke’s addiction and pain made me champion despite his wrongdoing. I wanted adult August to win for the sake of the wounded teenager. JoJo’s story shocked me but explained everything I needed to know about both of roles as a mother and a daughter. On top of this captivating story, the author’s ability to gently educate readers about some of the history of the stolen art was a pleasant surprise - especially in light of how country music (the industry and the fans) treats Black country musicians. This is the perfect follow up to The Art of Scandal and has cemented Regina Black as an auto-buy author.

This book was so real, raw and emotional. I loved everything about this story of love, grief and redemption. The FMC August was so relatable and just a sweet soul even when she didn’t believe it. The MMC Luke was a lost soul who just needed to be tethered to the sweetness of August. Their love was so real and beautiful even with the ugly it took to get there. I was so furious with Luke trying to figure out why he did what was accused of him, but I melted after he explained his reasoning. This book was a 5-star read for me and I can’t wait to read more of Regina Black’s work.

Another 5-star read from Regina Black. The characters and relationships are so layered and addictive in this book. I couldn't stop reading it and now I'm off to listen to some country music with new ears.

This book was an emotional ride and I'm glad the mcs got their happy ending but it was a journey to get there. The book starts with the mmc, a broke country musician performing at bars singing his hit song. He gets approached by the manager of a popular black country singer to perform a duet with her during an honorary award. He is thrown back to his small town where he has to face the fmc who hates him because she thinks he stole her lyrics that gave him a hit song.

This book is told in both the past(2009) and the present(2023) and at first I wasn't a fan of the past chapters but everything came together and I think it was necessary for the story to be told. I felt for the main characters cause they had a tough life and it just seemed to keep coming and never-ending for them. Their parents sucked, the fmc had to take care of her grandma with a dementia diagnosis, the mmc had a mom that had a substance use disorder and he later developed alcohol use, abuse, domestic violence, trauma, etc. I can count the amount of times the characters were actually happy and I just wanted them to have moments of happiness despite life. This book is a slow burn even though the characters were best friends in the past and had a thing for each other. It is a journey of character development, finding belonging and each other. Overall well written and highly emotional story and romance. Thanks to Grand Central Publishing for this arc.