Charm City Rocks

 

Author: Matthew Norman
Title: Charm City Rocks
Publisher: Dell
Date Published: 06/06/2023

Read Dates: 03/15/2023- 03/18/2023
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

📖 I received a gifted e-book ARC. The following is my honest review✍🏻

While I don’t just read romance, when it comes to ARC’s I limit myself to requesting romance books. I’ll say up front that, while I really enjoyed Charm City Rocks, I feel it was miscategorized.

There was a romantic storyline, but this book had many other plot lines that often seemed of equal importance and so many points of view offered (the two main characters, their respective children and their ex’s and the new spouse of one of those ex’s) that calling it a romance seems a little misleading. I can understand, though, how labeling it as “fiction” or even “contemporary fiction” might feel too broad.

I did very much like this book, whatever category it does or doesn’t fit in! As a romance, it would be a closed door romance- there is discussion of sex but nothing more than kissing on page.

What I loved about this one:
✔️ All the points of view: while confusing at first, once my brain caught up to the writing style it really worked!
✔️ A “later in life” romance plot line: at 39 I’m reluctant to call a book with characters in their early 40’s late in life but I suppose that’s what it is!
✔️ The complexities and intricacies of balancing love, life, and family, especially with both main characters having children with former partners

All said: this was well worth the read and I’ll definitely be looking into Matthew Norman’s previous books. Charm City Rocks is set to publish on June 6th 2023 and I can already think of a few people I’d recommend it to!

When a single dad meets the former rock star crush of his youth, everything they thought they knew about happiness and love is thrown into chaos in this hopeful, heartwarming romantic comedy

Billy Perkins is happy. No, for real. It’s kind of his thing, actually. And why wouldn't he be? He loves his job as an independent music teacher and his apartment in Baltimore above a record shop called Charm City Rocks. Most of all, he loves his brainy teenage son, Caleb. Although not the world’s most traditional parent, Billy has plenty to teach his son about art and manhood before Caleb goes off to college.

Margot Hammer, on the other hand, is far from happy. The former drummer of the once-famous rock band Burnt Flowers, she’s now a rock and roll recluse living alone in New York City. When a new music documentary suddenly puts Margot back in the spotlight, she begins to realize how much she misses her old band and the music that gave her life meaning.

Billy has always had a crush on Margot. But she’s a legitimate rock star—or at least, she was—so he never thought he’d actually meet her. Until Caleb, worried that his easygoing dad might actually be lonely, cooks up a scheme to get Margot to perform at Charm City Rocks.

It’s the longest of long shots, but Margot’s label has made it clear that any publicity is an opportunity she can’t afford to miss. When their paths collide, Billy realizes that he maybe wasn’t as happy as he thought—and Margot learns that sometimes the sweetest music is a duet.