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Published Apr 2024
320 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Paperback Original.
Publication Information
Dumplin' meets Daisy Jones & the Six in this split-POV love song to country idols, romantic road trips, and queer love.
They say never meet your idols. But nothing about digging up their deepest secrets.
Seventeen-year-old aspiring journalist Darren Purchase has been a lifelong fan of country music legend Decklee Cassel, who's as famous for her classic hits as she is for her partnership with songwriter Mickenlee Hooper. The same Mickenlee who mysteriously backed out of the limelight at the height of their careers, never to be heard from again. Now Decklee's televised funeral marks the unveiling of her long-awaited time capsule. But when it's revealed to be empty, a trail of scavenger-hunt clues unfolds, leading to a whopping cash prize for whoever finds the real capsule. Darren knows there's a story there—and she's going to be the one to break it. Even if it means a spontaneous road trip with her coworker Kendall.
Flashback to 1963, when a young runaway Decklee has her sights set on fame and glory. As she claws her way to the top over the years that follow, it's Mickenlee's lyrics that help rocket her to stardom. But as their relationship evolves beyond the professional, it threatens everything Decklee has worked for. What else will she sacrifice to hold on to her dreams?
Told in alternating perspectives, Every Time You Hear That Song is a queer coming-of-age story celebrating country music, complicated women, and living authentically. There's more to Decklee's story than Darren ever could have guessed, but the real story she has to tell is her own.
"[A] layered exploration of ambition, partnership, and journalistic ethics told via evocatively rendered dual POVs...Voris (Made of Stars) teases out tension between a longing for privacy and a desire to live and love out loud in this messy, complicated search for community." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Discoveries of love, legacy, and self take center stage in this musical tapestry of a novel." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Though readers can't hear it, 'Whiskey Red,' the fictional ballad at the novel's heart, hits all the right notes—longing, excitement, the anticipation of inevitable heartbreak—and this classic coming-of-age tale blending a puzzle mystery with country music and romance does too." —Booklist (starred review)
"Jenna Voris beautifully explores the high and low notes of fame, showing that there's no shame in wanting people to know your name, but the choices you make to reach that goal are what really matters. A must-read for anyone who loves layered characters, true-to-life personalities, and country music!" —Jason June, New York Times best-selling author
"I absolutely loved this romantic, page-turning adventure about loving people and places who cannot love you back on your terms. If you've ever tried to make yourself smaller for a world that was never meant to contain you, this book will be a balm to your soul."—Dahlia Adler, author of Home Field Advantage
"Every Time You Hear That Song is the literary equivalent of hitting the open road with the windows down and the radio blasting. A powerful, moving anthem for anyone who's dared to dream big and grow new roots while discovering the meaning of home. After devouring this book, I'm officially in my Jenna Voris era."—Brian D. Kennedy, author of A Little Bit Country and My Fair Brady
This information about Every Time You Hear That Song was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Jenna Voris writes books about ambitious girls and galaxy traversing adventures. She was born and raised in Indiana—where she learned to love roundabouts and the art of college basketball—and now calls Washington D.C. home. When she's not writing, she can be found perfecting her road trip playlists and desperately trying to keep her houseplants alive. Every Time You Hear That Song is her sophomore novel, after her debut Made of Stars.
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