This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
Reviewed by Susan Lobban
While her husband is constantly travelling and preoccupied with his work, Kellie is left trying to juggle her work with raising two kids. She is a celebrity reporter and always chasing gossip, but there’s one piece of news she’s keen to keep quiet – her ex is none other than AJ Dangerfield, lead singer of top rock band Danger Game.
Andy/AJ was her first love, but that all seems a lifetime ago, especially as Kellie is now married to straightlaced workaholic Curtis. Over the years she has tried to not reflect too much on her past, but the fact that her son has Danger Game’s posters on his wall certainly doesn’t help matters. Working in the world of celebrity gossip is no hiding place either. When AJ unexpectedly gets back in touch, it could cause life as Kellie knows it to come crashing down around her.
“If two past lovers can remain friends, either they were never in love or they still are.” I had never heard the book’s opening quote before, but I really loved it. Kellie has had no contact with her first boyfriend Andy since they broke up years ago. We meet her in present day and she is a married celebrity reporter with two kids and Andy is now AJ, front man to chart topping Danger Game. They are living completely different lives, but their jobs mean they are bound to cross paths at some point. In the end it is AJ who finds out where Kellie is, and he is keen to meet up again as if no years have passed at all.
To begin with I did find this book a little hard to get into as it flitted back and forward between the past and present day. During that time, however, the Australian setting maintained my interest, as it made a refreshing change from the usual locations in women’s fiction. Once I got used to the book I looked forward to finding out more about the young lovers’ past and how they ended up apart. I preferred the past recollections to the present, as the young Kellie seemed feistier and more self assured. Kellie in her 30s seemed to have lost herself within her family. At first I was sorry for Curtis because I felt Kellie was being too hard on him for working away, but then the flashbacks began to explain a lot and revelation after revelation showed his true colours.Don’t Mention the Rock Star reads like a classic rock ballad full of love, lies and regret. If you are bored of New York and tired of LA then head to Oz, where love is just as complicated.
8/10