cover image More than Music

More than Music

Elizabeth Briggs. CreateSpace, $12.99 trade paper (310p) ISBN 978-1-4996-0799-4

Predictable but sweet harmonies characterize Briggs’s new adult debut, the first in the Chasing the Dream series. Maddie Taylor is a rising college senior with a particular gift for nearly flawless musical recall. She joins a friend’s band for a reality-show audition, thinking it’s a temporary arrangement until they find a new full-time bassist. The fine print, however, has her staying for much more than one song. She reluctantly gives up a prestigious internship to follow her rock-and-roll dream—and soon she’s falling for the band’s intense lead vocalist, Jared. Will they be able to traverse the quagmire of a televised music competition while maintaining their integrity as a band and as individuals? The scathing indictment of reality-show consumerism and the well developed characters carry an otherwise unexceptional plot. For all its music-scene edginess, the tale is a well-worn standard that gets lost in overplayed details and manufactured intensity. Agent: Kate Testerman, KT Literary. (BookLife)