Jessica Pennington

Virginia (Vee) Miller is looking forward to her summer on the road with her high school rock band friends, now known as Your Future X. What she doesn't know when she decides to join their tour is that her ex will be there; and those wounds definitely haven't healed yet. Now, Vee and Cam are forced to work through the problems that ended their relationship while the entire world is watching.

The structure of this novel is absolutely what works the best. Told in a then/now format, Pennington show more slowly reveals the beginnings of Vee and Cam's relationship, switching back to now to create even more intrigue. It made the plot more interesting, making the reader desperate to get to the end to figure out what put an end to what seemed like an incredibly compatible relationship. What may have been a predictable plot in a more straightforward novel becomes more interesting with this structure.

Having two points of view also helps in giving the reader a fuller picture of the relationship; if we got only Cam's or only Vee's point of view, we would be likely to be biased toward one or the other. The inclusion of both their voices makes the reader feel empathy for both sides of the relationship. They both have reasons for doing what they do.

With a cast of extremely relatable characters and an immersive plot structure, fans of summer romance and rock bands will find a home in Pennington's story. show less

This story exemplifies the adage 'My mind is a dangerous neighborhood. I should never go there alone.' The first summer Sidney and Asher met when their parents rented two lakeside camps adjacent to each other, both of them felt something spark. Unfortunately, Sidney's constant need to plan out everything and overthink the potential results went into screaming overdrive when she saw something that changed how she interacted with Asher. While their common bond is competitive swimming and show more they'll be at the same college next year, the intervening summers have become a 'seldom out in the open' war of pranks that culminate in one that results in both families being evicted and scrambling to find places to stay for the rest of the summer.
What follows is like watching two young people leaning out to grab the brass ring, but dropping it each time they think they've finally succeeded. It's painful, sometimes funny, and very well laid out. Teens of both sexes with insecurity and/or obsessive thought issues will relate. A very satisfying book. show less

https://iwriteinbooks.wordpress.com/2018/06/02/love-songs-other-lies-jesica-penn...

I have read several books, recently, that tackle the harsh world of media-skewed publicity. It’s pretty horrific in some cases and Jessica Pennington’s debut, Love Songs and Other Lies, falls into that box.

In some ways, we’ve turned creativity into a dog-eat-dog war zone which is such a shame but it makes for some really great novel material. The thing I like about this lens on celebrity, however, is the show more look behind what the tabloids show. It ultimately shows far more heart than we could ever dream to find in pure voyeristic media consumption.

Pennington’s story follows a pack of friends in alternating points on a timeline, as they form musical bonds and then stumble into the world of fame and reality television. The book is told through two sets of alternating eyes: PR intern and former bandmate, Virginia narrated alonsidge new-to-town, accidental rock star, Cam. By piecing together both narratives and both points in time, holes are filled in and the original story framework is fleshed out.

I am finding that I have a strong affinity for mixed voice storytelling, mostly because I am someone who loves to think about things from multiple perspectives. Especially when there is any sort of mystery or scandal involved, this method really makes for a better-told tale and a more empathetically relatable book.

Like most books about bands and music, this one goes much deeper than a few power chords and stage manager production notes. Though the whole thing comes in just under 300 pages, the story is as heavy and powerful as it is small.

As the title indicates, there is much to do about honesty and integrity, laying down the age-old battlefield of loyalty and trust. Again, I love how in-depth this split-point-of-view format allows the story to go, hashing out old friendships, new love, and the ultimate act of self-discovery.

What I thought was going to be a sweet, little light summer read, turned out to be a much more impactful read and I highly recommend it. show less

It's hard getting on board a romance between two people who treat each other so badly, especially when they have very few actual conversations about why they "hate" each other. Pennington hints that those conversations will happen, and have happened, but in almost every instance, she side-steps showing us the conversations, themselves, in favor of giving us a flashback to the summer when Asher and Sidney were kind to one another. Instead of watching current-day Asher and Sidney connect, I'm show more told that they used to get along and now suddenly get along again.

The secondary characters are just as undeveloped as the romance, with the parents serving as motivation for Asher and Sidney to be nice to one another, Sidney's girlfriends appearing whenever she needs advice on her relationship (more conversations we're told happen but don't actually get to read), and Asher's BFF acting more as proof of Asher's years-long crush on Sidney than a BFF. The end result is a feeling that Asher and Sidney exist in a bubble untouched by the real world...and that their love is just as Doomed as Sidney thinks it is.

That might be a bit of a spoiler, but anyone who's watched Hallmark Christmas movies knows that someone in the relationship will freak out at the eleventh hour and Ruin Everything. Pennington doesn't present anything different here...and you don't have to know Sidney for more than 50 pages before you know she's the one who'll be doing the Ruining. Unfortunately, that last-minute relationship sabotage coincides with the end of the summer, whereupon the book loses almost all its momentum. By the time Sidney attempted her Grand Gesture to Fix It All, I was a lot more invested in getting to the end of the book than the relationship it depicted. show less