BookSparks Fall Reading Challenge Review: Rock Angel by Jeanne Bogino

Title: Rock Angel
Author: Jeanne Bogino
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Prashanti Press LLC.
Publish Date: September 16, 2014
Source: BookSparks Fall Reading Challenge

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "Shan is young, beautiful, talented, and addicted to heroin in Rock Angel, a novel that follows her meteoric rise to guitar goddess stardom in the 90’s. She is discovered in New York by a handsome, arrogant musical genius named Quinn, and sparks fly between them when he hires her as lead guitarist of his band. Although Quinn is accustomed to bedding a different groupie every night, he can’t ignore his deepening feelings for his new band mate. From gritty Greenwich Village clubs to L.A.’s Troubadour; gigging and touring the country to the cover of Rolling Stone, Rock Angel is infused with the passionate music and intense sexual chemistry of Shan and Quinn. Shan must work out her personal demons and learn to trust Quinn enough to love him, but still remain true to the music that has always been her salvation."

My Two Cents:

In "Rock Angel," Shan is a teenager who is running away from her difficult family life and goes to New York where she's discovered by Quinn, a full-fledged rockstar. At first Shan and Quinn don't exactly get along. She thinks that Quinn is a control freak and Quinn thinks that Shan is much too young to know what's good for her. All of this is complicated by Shan's addiction to heroin. This is a story of music, passion, and love set during their rollicking 90s.

In a lot of ways, this book feels very realistic. I really liked how the author was able to create characters who seemed like they could've been real. Shan is definitely a broken character. She, as I mentioned before, is ready to get away from a horrible family life and getting herself into a lot of trouble along the way. Quinn is the quintessential brooding musician who is just a little stuck on himself and stuck on his music. These two very different people come together to form a very interesting relationship, that I loved watching grow. The book covers a few years so we really get to see a lot of changes firsthand.

Being someone who will not musically talented myself but enjoys music all the same, I really enjoyed the musical aspect of this book. The author did a really good job of capturing the changing landscape of rock music during the 1990s. I loved reading about how the band in the book gets ready to tour and all of the places they play in as well as the general atmosphere that they make their music in.

The writing of the book was pretty good. There were a couple parts that were a bit stiff but overall, I thought this was a good read on a volatile relationship between two very talented musicians.