Sunday, December 15, 2013

ARC Review: The Sound of Us by Ashley Poston

Title: The Sound of Us
Author: Ashley Poston
Genre: New Adult, Contemporary Romance
Release Date: December 19, 2013
Source: Bloomsbury via NetGalley. Thank you!

Goodreads rating: 4.51 out of 5.00 (30+ ratings)
Goodreads






America's favorite pop band, Roman Holiday, is done, dead, and so totally last year. For eighteen-year-old rockoholic Junie Baltimore, this is music to her ears. But when she discovers their sexy ex-lead singer hiding out on the boardwalk, her summer vacation becomes the cover story of the year.

She's willing to keep him a secret, but when a sleazy paparazzo offers her the cash she needs to save the bar her father left behind, could she sell out for the chance to save her future? Who is she kidding? That's a no-brainer...but she never planned on falling head over heels for the lead singer.

Review by Nara


I honestly didn't expect to like this book as much as I did. I thought it'd be an enjoyable read, but nothing overly memorable or fresh. And true, the actual plot wasn't anything particularly ground breaking, but the romance and characters were fantastic.

While somewhat cliched, The Sound of Us contained quite a nice romance. To be honest, it’s difficult to pull out something truly surprising in a contemporary romance without killing off one of the characters or something, so I really shouldn't be going into these novels expecting something unpredictable. I suppose there was a bit of unnecessary drama, but I guess it was unavoidable. In this type of random unknown + famous person relationship, of course the paparazzi are going to get in the way at some point.

The love interest is surprisingly nice. Being in a rock band and such (or is that pop band), I thought he would be one of those typical tattooed bad boy types. While he is tattooed, I wouldn't necessarily say that he's a "bad boy". I mean, he blushes when Junie teases him. I feel that that's slightly outside normal bad boy behaviour. Also, fluorescent orange hair? Sounds....interesting.
Dad once told me that falling in love is like hearing your favourite song for the first time. It’s something so unsuspecting, something so quiet, that you don’t realise it’s happening until it’s over, and all you want to do is hear it again. All you want is to press repeat and keep yourself caught in that beautiful, breathless moment.
There were just so many really nice quotes that I could have shared with you but the one just above is probably my favourite (that I bothered to bookmark. There might have been others which I didn't highlight). There were a lot of similar statements in the book about music and love, and they're just so memorable and poetic.

Well, basically, I recommend this book if you're looking for a somewhat fluffy, cute contemporary romance.

Really liked it

Ratings
Overall: 9/10
Plot: 4/5
Writing: 5/5
Characters: 4/5
Cover: 3/5





14 comments:

  1. This sounds like a nice, cozy read. I am glad that you enjoyed it!

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    1. I don't know about "cozy" per se, but it is a nice contemporary. There is a fair bit of drama!

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  2. If I am reading contemporaries, I tend to lower my standards because most of them are cliched. I tend to overlook that the plot is already repetitive. But what I am looking for is that it should be executed well.

    I think I am going to love this book too since I also just read a rockstar book weeks ago and it was awesome.

    Lovely review, Nara!

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    1. Yeah, I feel like I should definitely lower my plot standards as well! It's pretty difficult to come up with something revolutionary in contemporary romance, I suppose. That's a really good point- I think that's probably what I look for as well. Whether I feel the feels :)

      oo what rockstar book was this? I really haven't read too many of those!

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  3. I've been curious about these new Bloomsbury Spark books and look forward to trying one of them. I'm glad this was even better than you thought it would be! I love those pleasant surprises. Fluorescent orange hair? Ha, that's certainly interesting. You definitely make me want to pick this up now. Great review!

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    1. Pleasant surprises are the best! I love it when a book really exceeds your expectations :D
      Yeah I know right! When he first comes up, I was like o.O umm, okay.
      It's definitely worth a read! Hopefully now your expectations aren't too high haha

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  4. Awh, the love interest sounds so cute and sweet! Even if he is in a rock band. This seems like a NA I would really enjoy since it doesn't seem to follow the cookie cutter NA formula.

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    1. It's almost more of a typical YA formula, but perhaps ever so slightly racier (it's really not that explicit at all). I'm not sure that I myself would even call it an NA, to be honest, but that's what the publisher labelled it as, so that's why I labelled it NA as well :)

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  5. Lots of contemporary romances these days are so cliche and predictable. I think it's the next bandwagon that authors are jumping on. Oh wells! Thanks for your review.

    Jeann @ Happy Indulgence

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    1. It's still quite good! I mean, don't expect anything revolutionary, but still not a bad read!

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  6. This is a new book for me. I hadn't seen it before. Really glad you enjoyed it! I love this genre of books :)

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    1. It's part of the new Bloomsbury Spark ebooks :)

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  7. Haven't heard of this book before; nice qutoe

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    1. There are quite a few similar such quotes. I rather like them too :D

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