Review: Live Out Loud by Heather Wardell

Goodreads:  Amy's a hobbyist songwriter with big dreams, but not the usual 'making it as a musican' kind.  No, Amy wants to honor her late best friend by finally starting the support center for teenage girls they'd dreamed of when they were just girls themselves.  She doesn't know where to start, but when one of her songs becomes an overnight internet sensation she sees a quick path to the money she'll need to make the center a reality.

As white-hot pop sensation Misty Will, Amy finds a whole new world opening to her and realizes she loves being on stage holding an audience spellbound.  She also loves how her young fans looking up to her and draw strength from her songs, but of course they don't know the awful thing she did after her friend died and how badly she could have used a support center herself.  She knows, though, and also knows that she simply has to leave her new pop princess identity behind and become Amy the center director she's dreamed of for eight years.

Kritters Thoughts:  Have you ever started a book and just couldn’t wait to find out what was going to happen to a character?  With Live Out Loud by Heather Wardell, I fell in love with Amy/Misty our main character from the beginning and from chapter to chapter I became even more intrigued as to where she was going to go next.  From the people that she was surrounded with to those who came in and out of her life, they were unique but shaped this character into the one she became at the end.  I always look to the extra characters because I enjoy seeing how they affect a character in both positive and negative ways. 

I am never a spoiler, but I will say that she ended up with a great guy, but the book didn’t just end there.  As some girlie books do, once the main character gets the guy, the reader is to find complete happiness in this solution.  Wardell didn’t end there.  She made her characters go through a little more angst before they found complete satisfaction in who they were and what they wanted in life.  Isn’t that true for all of us?  Sure when we get the guy we are happy, but no one is complete with just a relationship, you need more than that to be a whole person.

So off  my self-motivating rant – this book is worth the read.  If you enjoy following a character through self-exploration and being a sideline cheerleader as she finds what is truly important to her.    

Rating: absolutely loved it and want a sequel

Pages:  244

Oct-Dec 2011 Challenge: Melodious

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from the author.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.