The writing is very…simple? It’s wordy and overly descriptive at times. It reads very YA, which obviously it is and that’s not a bad thing I do love the genre, but it’s telling-over-showing-and-lacking-depth YA writing, if that makes sense?

You have to suspend your belief throughout-Mia is in a small town and knows nothing about her mom, Tori Rose. So no one in this small town can tell Mia anything about her mom, a town DEDICATED to the legend and life of Tori Rose?! Small towns are NOSY AS HELL, you’re telling me not one person could’ve told Mia even the smallest detail…yeah right.

Also her mom died in 2006, if she was this great celebrity it would’ve been all over the internet how she died! Also I found it incredibly cruel and unbelievable that Mia’s grandmothers wouldn’t share ANYTHING about Tori. I know grief is different for everyone but withholding information about a girls mother- That’s fucked up and could’ve prevented Mia’s major anxieties/fears/commitment issues. 

The only thing about this that is mamma Mia is that there’s music and an absent father whom Mia doesn’t know who it is otherwise it’s more Daisy Jones meets I Kissed Shara Wheeler. 

The characters are all so flat and underdeveloped-I don’t know anything about them aside from Mia’s repetitive inner turmoil about leaving vs staying in her hometown. There’s not enough excitement or intrigue for it to hold my interest, I kept putting it down after only 5 minutes of reading, so I DNFd after 15% 

The romance Mia is involved in (trying to avoid spoilers) already happened a few times but it’s briefly mentioned as not turning out well. So it felt almost forced  to have them going back and forth with this crush if they tried several times without it working out. I wanted the bi rep and was so excited about it but this romance had zero chemistry because we are being TOLD everything without depth, or even simple actions.

 
Another thing-the lyrics throughout the book would make way more sense if we are told the type of music the bands play!! She’s a country singer, okay is she Dolly Parton? Reba McIntyre? Carrie Underwood? Loretta Lynn? GIVE ME SOMETHING 🫠

Also on the note of descriptions-everything was repetitive in terms of inner thoughts and Mia’s fears plus there were wordy tangents and info dumping. But we are never told the looks for the characters or the setting or their style of clothes; I couldn’t picture anything!

This book is infuriatingly incomplete and is making me rant!! AFTER ONLY 34 pages. It could’ve used a better editor