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A Novel
by Ashley Winstead
Book Reviewed by:Perfect for fans of Daisy Jones and the Six and In Five Years—a beautiful, powerful, and transportive new novel about a music executive desperately trying to bring a rock band back from the brink, from bestselling author Ashley Winstead.
This is a love story, but not the one you're expecting.
When record executive Theo meets the Future Saints, they're bombing at a dive bar in their hometown. Since the tragic death of their manager, the band has been in a downward spiral and Theo has been dispatched to coax a new—and successful—album out of them, or else let them go.
Immediately, Theo is struck by Hannah, the group's impetuous lead singer, who's gone off script by debuting a whole new sound, replacing their California pop with gut-wrenching rock. When this new music goes viral, striking an unexpected chord with fans, Theo puts his career on the line to give the Saints one last shot at success with a new tour, new record, and new start.
But Hannah's grief has larger consequences for the group, and her increasingly destructive antics become a distraction as she and her sister Ginny—her lifelong partner in crime—undermine Theo at every turn. Hannah isn't ready to move on or prepared for the fame she's been chasing, and the weight of her problems jeopardize the band, her growing closeness with Theo, and, worst of all, her relationship with her sister—all while the world watches closely. The Future Saints's big break is here—if only they can survive it.
A novel about sisterhood, friendship, and the ghosts that haunt us, The Future Saints is "a mesmerizing look at grief, love, and the music industry that's so raw and emotional, you'll want to play it on repeat." (Laura Hankin, author of One-Star Romance).
Chapter 1: Theo
Saturday, April 13, 2024
The woman on the stage is haunted. I see it the moment she walks out, but no one else in the audience seems to have noticed—they're all still laughing and joking as if nothing's wrong. For a second, I forget that my career rests in this woman's hands. I'm rooted to the floor, mesmerized by how protectively she wears her aloofness, how obvious the vulnerability she's trying to mask.
I can understand why she wouldn't want to be here on this worn-out stage at the Hideout, playing a venue well past its prime in a California beach town too far north of Los Angeles to count as relevant. But this is also the only place she knows how to be—under a spotlight, her baby-blue Jazzmaster guitar strapped to her chest, living or dying by what the sound of her voice and the power of her words can do to a bunch of strangers.
It took effort to land in the same room as her. I'd had to cancel my meetings and fly cross-country into LAX, rent a car, and ...
It's always sunny in California, to the dismay of the Future Saints' lead singer Hannah Cortland, who finds the constant brightness almost insulting as she grieves Ginny, her sister, former band manager, and present ghost. After a small show, played to a crowd that barely fills the room, Hannah decides it's time to quit. But then Theo Ford appears: a new manager sent by the band's label to squeeze one last album out of them before letting them go. And his timing couldn't be better, because the last song Hannah performs that night, a new single that channels her grief and pain, catapults the band into a level of fame previously unknown to them. Ashley Winstead, celebrated for her thrillers and romance novels, dives for the first time into literary fiction with The Future Saints, a novel that has already been compared to the global sensation Daisy Jones and the Six. A readable novel that would make for a strong TV adaptation (and that sometimes feels written with that in mind), it explores universal, enduring themes while remaining firmly anchored in our current reality...continued
Full Review
(897 words)
(Reviewed by Alicia Calvo Hernández).
Annabel Monaghan, New York Times bestselling author of It's a Love Story
A heart tugging love story woven into a journey of grief, denial, and the relationships we'll do anything to hold onto. The Future Saints is not to be missed. Genevieve Wheeler, author of Adelaide
A haunting exploration of grief, self-destruction, and fame, Ashley Winstead's Future Saints is, unsurprisingly, a masterpiece. It has all the charm of her romances and propulsion of her thrillers, packaged up in a beautifully crafted, transportative work of literary fiction that's perfect for anyone who has ever had a complex relationship with family (biological or found), spent their summers at Warped Tour, or fallen in love with someone young and reckless. Fans of Daisy Jones and the Six will eat this one up! Katy Hays, New York Times bestselling author of The Cloisters
Absolutely electric. A wild ride through the highs and lows of fame, creativity, love, and grief. The Future Saints will pull out your heart and leave you begging for more. Almost Famous step aside: the new golden gods of rock have arrived.
In a bit of myth-making, it is often said that in 1969 Janis Joplin fell to her knees, tears in her eyes, on the final note of her Woodstock performance. There is no evidence that this happened, but the image persists because it captures something audiences believed to be true about Joplin: that she did not simply perform, but bled on stage. That same year, a journalist described her as follows: "Girl singers are supposed to be pretty, or sexy, or have warm and honey voices, but the girl from San Francisco by way of Texas has none of this. She is The Unpretty of pop music as she drops into an indelicate squat, pulls back the mic stand, and howls." And all this sounds exactly like Hannah Cortland the first time we meet her in The Future ...
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Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you'd rather have been talking
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