Happy Super bowl Sunday! In the US this is pretty much considered a national holiday, equipped with its own traditions involving chicken wings (mine are going to be vegan), beer, and highly paid for commercials that we actually want to watch. Americans are strange. Anyway- I’m glad to push out another review before the week is through. Feeling like a power-reader. *bicep emoji*
I found How Sweet the Sound while cruising Amazon, although I do follow Evelyn Dar on social media (including her blog). This was a pretty captivating and enjoyable read. It also brought me back to my high school days, which was only a little traumatizing.
So here’s the premise-
After first befriending as children, teenagers, Liz and Kat, meet as peer counselors their senior year of high school. Liz has been through hell and back; after Kat’s parents contact Child Protective Services on Liz’s mom, she ends up bouncing from foster home to foster home, losing hope and building walls. By the time she sees Kat again, the scared, sweet girl she once was is now angry, wounded, and doesn’t care for Kat’s companionship or compassion. Kat is enduring her own trauma as her family struggles with her mother’s disease and pending death. Though they don’t hit it off right away, a friendship does blossom into something warm and reliable. Unfortunately, these girls can’t catch a break and their relationship endures some turbulence before making a smooth landing. Let’s just say that any happiness that might occur is well deserved. This book is heavy, and I like heavy.
The story definitely doesn’t lack for action. Personally, I felt like there
needed to be more development between climaxes. I don’t want to give away any
spoilers by going into detail here, but quite a few traumatic events take place,
and it didn’t seem like the characters processed enough before the next
incident.
I thought the prologue was effective in giving the reader backstory upfront to certain motives and character traits without having to dive too heavily into flashbacks. I also liked reading about the girls as children and found their friendship adorable.
One thing I thought was just too unbelievable was the use of heroin as a means of pain relief for a cancer patient. Not only was it extremely out of Laurie’s character to ask her teenage daughter to shoot her up, but the logistics are off. The hospital would be monitoring her pain and upping the medication if she needed something stronger. They’d also be able to tell if she was using and would want her to be as comfortable as possible by providing drugs that are better equipped than heroin. This was just a little hang up for me.
The dialogue in this book felt very realistic. Especially when Kat was talking with her group of friends. Each character had their own voice. The conversations between Kat and Liz really showed off their romantic chemistry and flowed like the ease of a good friendship.
If you’re into emotional romance, supportive parental characters, and don’t mind your characters making questionable life choices, then you might enjoy How Sweet the Sound.
https://www.amazon.com/How-Sweet-Sound
Follow Evelyn Dar: @evelyn_dar