Thank you Macmillan Publishing for this book in exchange for an honest review
Synopsis:
Astrid Bell
Dutiful daughter. Classical singer. Secret pop songwriter. And suffering from stage fright.
Jacob Skalicky.
Trust-fund kid. Indie singer. Immensely gifted performer. And refusing to sing again.
Are they polar opposites? In his grief and fury at the world, Jacob certainly thinks so.
But when Jacob loses everything and Astrid uncovers a shocking family secret, they may need each other to make sense of their lives.
Review:
The Astrid Notes is based around two main characters.
We have Jacob who is suffering the loss of his friends and band mates that all died in a car accident. Suffering with survival guilt Jacob is losing his way in life and giving up on his dreams of music and singing. Living in a dark state of mind, Jacob is bullied by his father to leave his love for music behind.
We also have Astrid, an opera singer with extreme stage fright that also struggles with family issues at home.
To be honest, I found both home/family situations for both characters uninteresting and a little extremely played out. I think the characters and their struggle with music would have sufficed as a great story.
With the two POV you go over heavy topics like death, depression and the pressure from those you love. The characters and their fears and hopes are strongly introduced from the first few chapters, straight off the bat you know our two characters deeply which builds with the rest of the story being built.
Though this has dark elements, I wanted it to be slightly darker to aid that eye-opening appeal but overall this was a rather enjoyable book.
Side note: That cover is GORGEOUS!!!
Rating: 4/5
Publisher: Macmillan Publishing
ISBN: 9781760552213
RRP: $18.99 AUD