I've read several other books by Jenn Bennett and have always enjoyed them, so when I saw this one, I thought I'd give it a whirl. And I did enjoy it, despite there being a few things about it that bugged me.
Jane is the daughter of a chauffeur to a wealthy music producer and as such, she's lived a fairly privileged life in the big houses and summer homes he owns. The summer house is at a lake town that is sleepy and quiet most of the year, but bursts into a hive of activity each summer as they host a legendary music festival.
The family behind the festival are the Sarafians, and Jane has long had a crush on the oldest boy, Eddie. A couple of summers back, she and Eddie were at the town dam listening to music from a nearby club when Jane fell in and nearly drowned. Now she suffers from aphasia, a disorder where she can't always find the words she wants. But, on the plus side, since the accident Eddie has been attentive to her and she has been enjoying their long-distance relationship and looking forward to spending time with him at the lake over the summer.
So, it's a surprise when Eddie shows up at the airport when she arrives and says he's heading to the Philippines on business for his dad. And when Jane wanders into the local vinyl store and meets Eddie's brother, she's surprised by his intensity. Eddie has always been competitive with his brother and has never spoken kindly of Fen, so Jane is shocked by how likable this black-sheep brother seems to be.
Fen has long had a crush on Jane, and no more so since he pulled her from the water when she almost drowned. And now she's back, and Eddie isn't there to overshadow him with his sweet talk and charm. That he and Jane begin falling for one another is inevitable.
This was a good set up for a romance, the two brothers making two out of three points in a love triangle, but the fact Eddie left town in the first chapter or two, made it less effective. I would have liked to see the brothers actually compete for Jane's affections, rather than Fen winning basically because he was there. I also failed to see what was so great about Jane that she had both brothers falling all over her.
As a POV character, Jane was pretty thin. She didn't have any real goal in the story and just kind of drifted through it. There was some backstory about her possible parentage, but she didn't;t even seem that curious to find out if Mad Dog was her real father or not.
But it was still a fun read that kept me engaged all the way through. The music festival setting in the background could have been played out more - that, for me anyway, was interesting, but it never really got used.
So, if you like sweet romances and love triangles, this one might be for you. It's not perfect, but it's not a bad way to spend a few hours.
But don't just listen to me. Here's the blurb:
Eighteen-year-old chauffeur’s daughter Jane Marlow grew up among the domestic staff of a wealthy LA rock producer, within reach of bands she idolizes, but never a VIP. Every summer, Jane and her father head to the Sierras to work at the producer’s luxury lodge at Lake Condor—a resort town and the site of a major musical festival.
The legendary family who runs the festival are the Sarafians, and Jane’s had a longtime crush on their oldest son, Eddie—doltish but sweet. So when a long-distance romance finally sparks between them, she doesn’t hesitate to cross class lines.
But Jane’s feelings about Eddie are thrown into question after she returns to the lake and reconnects with his alluringly intense brother, the dark horse of her placid summer plans. A fellow lover of music—and hater of the game—Fen Sarafian has been ousted from the family and is slumming it at a vinyl record shop. He burns for Jane like a house on fire and will do anything to sabotage his older brother, even if it means taking a wrecking ball to a multi-million-dollar music festival. Or Jane’s heart.
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