Book Review: This Beats Perfect!

As October always seems to be a bookish month, there have to be some book reviews by the Fuzzable- fam for you!

The one we jump onto this time: This Beats Perfect by Rebecca Denton.

Amelie knows: She wants to be a musician.
Amelie wants: To win the audition to finally share her music with more than only her SoundCloud- Followers!
All she does not want to face?
Her stage fright! She once lost the battle against it and she practiced the hell out of her guitar, to make sure, she’d be all set for the upcoming audition for this very big festival in summer.
What also isn’t on Amelie’s ‘not to do- list’?
Listening to one of the big boybands – names at the minute: The Keep!

But as life happens: Amelie’s Dad, a very well-known sound engineer, has to step in to work for them last minute and so she ends up backstage on her 17^th birthday at one of The Keep’s shows in London!

Even she is just there to celebrate her birthday with her dad, she comes across all the band members. Kyle, Charlie, Lee and Maxx.
She does not want it to happen, but a picture had been taken very quickly and even she thought, he would not do it: Charlie spreads the picture on Twitter while naming her ‘my girl.’
And an absolutely unrequested ‘celebrity- experience’ happens.
Including paparazzi in her front yard and fandom- madness online and also some days of real- life full of attention at school.

Maxx, on the other hand, wants to leave The Keep.
The completely manufactured band, touched up pop music, including glittery outfits and in sync- dance moves, are something he never wanted to sign up for.
Why he did it in his teenage years? Because he got asked to do so and he saw it as an option. An option he rather did not jump on, if he’s honest to himself.
All he ever wanted was to share his music on stage, only accompanied by his guitar.
All the media attention, the headlines, and the all pushed online attention is something he wants to get away from.
So, he decides, even he’s not allowed to, by contract, to travel to London and work with Amelie’s dad, Mike, to come up with his very own ideas.
With Max’ point of view in the story, we get a look into the other side of show business.
Of the pressure, the WANT the industry has 24/7 when it comes to news about one of the hottest topic for gossip to date. And we get one of many answers to the question ‘Why?’ a successful band member wants to leave the said band.

As Amelie is allowed to help Mike at the studio, one thing comes to another… Maxx ends up to be ‘Max’ all himself and Amelie starts to see him as the normal boy, he actually always was, away from all the glitz and the glam.
Overall, yes…The catchphrase on the front cover of the book is true: She really is NOT with the band!

To not give away too much, we will stop there.
Overall, it’s a very quick read, which you will simply enjoy, out of the fact, that you will be addicted to finding out what happens between Amelie and Maxx.
How Amelie will deal with decisions her mother made for not just her, but also her daughter along the way and how Miaise – Amelie’s best friend – holds everything together, the way best friends always do.

But just for another little sneaky peak into the story: There’s a moment Amelie will face her stage fright, there is a moment, she says to herself: Now or never and there is a bit of a teenage love story. Including all the not so nice thoughts and feelings like jealousy, the fear of having to live through a mistake, which won’t ever be able to be fixed again.
And a little treat for everyone who fell in love with Rebecca’s writing: The universe Rebecca created with This Beats Perfect continues in two more books!
Titled: “The Secret Beat”