Blog Tour, Review & Giveaway: The Brightsiders by Jen Wilde
The Brightsiders by Jen Wilde was just released this week and it was absolutely everything I could have imagined it would be! I am so happy to be a part of this blog tour and to offer up both mine & Christy’s thoughts below. Huge thanks to Swoon Reads and Forever Young Audiobooks for an opportunity to read and review, without influence, an early copy of The Brightsiders! Be sure to enter the international tour-wide giveaway as well!
The Brightsiders by Jen Wilde
Category: Young Adult, Contemporary Romance, LGBTQIA+
Publication: May 22nd, 2018; Swoon Reads
Purchase: Amazon, Book Depository, B&N, iBooks, Kobo
A teen rockstar has to navigate family, love, coming out, and life in the spotlight after being labeled the latest celebrity trainwreck in Jen Wilde’s quirky and utterly relatable novel.
As a rock star drummer in the hit band The Brightsiders, Emmy King’s life should be perfect. But there’s nothing the paparazzi love more than watching a celebrity crash and burn. When a night of partying lands Emmy in hospital and her girlfriend in jail, she’s branded the latest tabloid train wreck.
Luckily, Emmy has her friends and bandmates, including the super-swoonworthy Alfie, to help her pick up the pieces of her life. She knows hooking up with a band member is exactly the kind of trouble she should be avoiding, and yet Emmy and Alfie Just. Keep. Kissing.
Will the inevitable fallout turn her into a clickbait scandal (again)? Or will she find the strength to stand on her own?
Review:
[book rating=5/5]Kelly’s Thoughts & Christy’s Interjections:
The Brightsiders was the book my queer heart needed. I can only imagine how important this book will be to all the queer and questioning teens out there. If I had this book when I was a teen, I may not have hidden my sexuality for so long, I might have understood why I was scared to tell people I was bisexual, or why I still don’t identify as bi (but that’s a longer story, FYI-I choose queer for my label). I know this all might be a bit personal, but I really felt a real connection to this book, especially resonated with my younger self, as well as made me so happy to read. Having words like, non-binary, queer, bisexual, in a YA romance book was just beyond exciting.
–>Kelly’s excitement and heart-eyes was probably my fav part of co-reading this book.
Emmy is a drummer with The Brightsiders, a band that rose to fame pretty quickly. Being in LA and on the national music scene has put the band in the limelight and especially a target of the paparazzi. Her life is no longer private, and it seems no matter what Emmy does, it gets twisted and plastered all over the internet. Now Emmy isn’t innocent in a lot of the scandals, especially her most recent occurrence with underage drinking, and it put her and the band on blast with the record company execs.
–>tl;dr being famous sucks.
While Emmy tries to recover and redeem herself, she is woefully let down by many of the people in her life. She learns a very hard lesson that some people will use you for their own gain. She also has to work to change her own self-esteem and reevaluate why she feels the need to please everyone even at her own expense. Emmy learns that she needs to accept her shortcomings as well as learn from her mistakes. The business is cutthroat and if she wants to stay off the tabloids she needs to work on herself first.
–>Ok but the parents are legit the most awful. I love the message that family doesn’t mean the one you grew up with. We know this can be especially true for youth who identify as LGBTQIA+.
This book is not only is full of personal growth, but there is also the smoking hot queer romance. Set within a rockstar backdrop (swoon), the heat and love is off the charts. It was so sweet, yet so so hot! Plus…we even get song lyrics!! Seriously, the audiobook was amazing in this aspect because the narrator, Katherine Littrell, actually sings the lyrics!! Absolutely brilliant!
If you enjoy a good rockstar romance and drama, The Brightsiders is for you!
–>I loved that this is set with slightly older young adults! Plus the lyrics and amazing audio narration by Katherine make The Brightsiders a stellar option for your audiobook collection.
Author Bio: Jen Wilde
Jen Wilde is a writer, geek and fangirl with a penchant for coffee, books and pugs. She writes YA stories about zombies (AS THEY RISE), witches (ECHO OF THE WITCH) and fangirls (QUEENS OF GEEK). Her debut series reached over three million reads online and became an Amazon bestseller. Her next book, THE BRIGHTSIDERS, comes out May 2018, and GOING OFF-SCRIPT releases Summer 2019.
When she’s not writing, Jen loves binge-watching her favorite shows on Netflix, eating pizza, traveling to far away places and going to conventions in Marty McFly cosplay.
Links:
Goodreads ** Facebook Fan Group ** Facebook ** Twitter ** Website
Giveaway:
Print copy of The Brightsiders (INTL) ends May 31st
This sounds like such a well written, character driven read! Great review! 🙂
I’m so excited for this book! Sounds like I would really like this one.
It was so much fun, even though sad and dramatic at times, the life lessons and the hardships of being different really makes it a stand out story. Hope you enjoy it!