Love Songs and Other Lies
Love Songs and Other Lies was written by Jessica Pennington and follows two people, Cameron (Cam) and Virginia (Vee). This story switches between both of their perspectives and follows both their past and present.
After her first heartbreak two years ago, Vee Miller is more than ready for a fun summer where she follows her bestfriend, Logan, as his band enters a battling band reality show. This also is great opportunity for Vee as she has her dream internship on the tour. However, all of this crashes down as she realizes that Cam is in the band; the boy who both stole and broke her heart two years ago. Now, Vee has to deal with the public's prying eyes and Cam's determination to get another chance with her.
On the other hand, Cam never intended to hurt Vee this much. When he first met Vee, he was running away from something that he never wanted to remember again. However, the relationship he formed with Vee completely ruined all that. Now, when he has a second chance to make everything right, he has to deal with unhinged producers, cameramen, and obssessed fans.
Can the two ever fix their relationship and broken love song?
While Love Song and Other Lies wasn't the worst rom-com I have read before, it definitely isn't high on my ranking of books in this genre. While I usually like gushing over the romantic cliches, this book fell a bit flat with me. I felt as if everything was bit too dramatic for my taste and that the book never had any, as I would say, "cute" moments. For example, the whole middle part of the story seemed to be conflict after conflict after conflict and then a happy ending popped out. While I understand that some readers enjoy a truckload of angst and then maybe a chapter or two of happiness, I prefer something more balanced out. Just like someone wouldn't want too much salt or pepper on their food, I dislike having too much tragedy or rainbows in rom-coms.
Another thing that I disliked about Love Song and Other Lies is that the storyline was a bit confusing to read. The chapters constantly switches point of view's and the story also flipped back and forth between the past and present. This made the story hard to follow because I would get confused between who was talking and when the event was taking place. While I appreciated the fact that the author added notes to make sure that the reader knew who was speaking and whether it was before or now, it didn't really help as I would go straight to the story and I wouldn't notice.
However, one aspect of the story that I did enjoy was the small mysteries that the author put into the story. While I usually dislike mysteries (both simple and complex), I found these to be extremely intriguing. For example, readers learn that something bad happened in Cam's past but we never know, only get subtle hints from the author. She only revealed his situation near the end of the story. This really pulled me in and is one of the reasons why I finished the whole book.
Overall, Love Songs and Other Lies is for sure not the worst romance novel I have read before. If you are someone who enjoys rom-coms, I would suggest looking into this book to see if it your type of love story. While I would rate this book only a 3/5, I could see why someone would like this book.
**WARNING**
If you choose read this book, be aware that it hints at mature content and has no restrictions whatsoever on language. If you are someone who is sensitive to this, I would NOT recommend reading this.
Sarah Guo
Great review! This book sounds like a classic romance novel. Personally, I would not read this book because there seems to be a lot of drama throughout the book. I like how you included your opinions of this book because it gave me insight on what this book would be like.
ReplyDeleteThe title of the book makes it sound like an interesting, well-written story that I might pick up off of a shelf, but I'm glad your review warns away readers by describing the drama overload and confusing plotline. I like how you also included the good parts of the novel (the mystery element) to provide a well-rounded perspective on the book and put the reasoning behind your 3/5 rating. Nice review!
ReplyDeleteGreat review! The problem of books mulling over on romance and making it overdramatic is one which has ruined the reading experience of many novels for me. I liked how you still gave fair points of credit to the book with its intriguing mysteries, but still called it out on what it did wrong. I wonder how you would make the balance of drama and romance more even while still preserving the plot.
ReplyDeleteVery nice review! It seems like you give a really accurate representation of the book and its elements. You mentioned the important qualities so that readers can be prepared if they actually decide to read the book. I think you provide a very neutral perspective on the book that really helps the reader to decide whether or not they want to read this book.
ReplyDeleteNice review! you give a really good summary of the book and what you think. I like how you said what you liked and didn't like as sometimes I feel when reading reviews of a book the reviewers are sugarcoating things. I also appreciate the content warning and while I probably won't read the book myself I appreciate the work you sent reviewing this book.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great review! I really liked how you divided your summary up in an easy way to comprehend the different points of view portrayed in the book, both of Cam and Vee. I also enjoyed that you spoke about the "flaws" or what wasn't as enjoyable in the book with a very positive attitude.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed how you gave an easy to understand summary without any spoilers and you gave pros and cons to help the readers decide if they might be interested in this novel. I don't think I will be reading this because you seemed to have many more cons than pros for this book, however I feel I got a good sense of what it's like and I was also interested in the little mystery part. The plot itself sounds good to me, but maybe not the best executed. Thanks for the review!
ReplyDeleteNice review! The plot of the books sounded somewhat interesting when I first read the short summary, but after you pointed out the major flaws in the pacing and feel of the book I would probably not choose to read it. Several books have been either ruined or degraded for me because they tried to push drama and conflict when it didn't work with the current story. Great job!
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