About the Book
Carlisa “Carli” Henton is a musician and songwriter hoping to follow in her father’s musical footsteps. But, biding her time until she makes it big in the music industry, she works as a junior account manager at a big-name media company to cover her New York City rent. Carli meticulously balances her work with her musical endeavors as a songwriter—until a chance meeting with rising star Tau Anderson sends her calculated world into a frenzy. Their worlds collide and quickly blur the strict lines Carli has drawn between her business and her personal life, throwing Carli’s reputation—and her burgeoning songwriting career—into question.
A smart, timely, energizing romance, Good Morning, Love shows us what the glamorous New York’s music scene is really like and takes us into the lives of a rising but somewhat troubled R&B star and a promising protégé who knows her job better than she knows herself.
With fresh and honest prose, Good Morning, Love examines the uncertainty of being a new professional looking to chase a dream while also trying to survive in a world that’s not always kind to ambitious women.
My Review
I was a little worried when I first started reading this one, because it started off slow and I wasn’t particularly connecting to any of the characters. We follow Carli, who lives a bit of a double life as a musician and songwriter. On one hand, she works as an accountant manager at a media firm and on the other, is an aspiring songwriter looking for her big break in the music industry. It was a little hard to understand that Carli seemed aching for her to be discovered, yet she already worked in the industry and had multiple chances of putting herself out there. The concept of self-sabotage wasn’t really touched on, which I think could have played for an interesting plot point. Just before the halfway point the story did start get more interesting, with the romance angles and Carli becoming more invested in the industry and some of the main players who came along with it. I still felt there were some plot holes or unfinished plot points along the way – Tau has very little boundaries which just seemed accepted because of his celebrity, the relationship between Carli’s parents seemed a bit out of nowhere and didn’t really have a conclusion, and even the ending with the mention of her sister seemed completely of out place and unnecessary. But through all that, it was interesting to get a backstage take on an industry I don’t know much about, how records are produced, singers are found, and all the politics that goes on behind the scenes. I ended up enjoying more than I initially thought I would.
3.5 stars
