Greatest Hits is the fictional biography of singer/songwriter Cass Wheeler, Britain´s answer to Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez. The novel interweaves her life story with her original songs, starting with her birth and difficult childhood, leading to a heart-breaking event which leads to her becoming a recluse in her mid-60s.

I loved reading this book. It affected me so deeply that during Cass´s lowest moments, I was crying with her for 30 long minutes. I read the book, whilst sitting in my own orchestra rehearsals (when I wasn´t playing) and somehow the combination of listening to music whilst reading about Cass, was an incredibly beautiful feeling.

I´m overjoyed at finding a new author and look forward to reading `The Versions of Us` and any future writings of Laura Barnett. I am also keen to read 'The Greatest Hits' again with the music of Kathryn Williams playing at the same time. I was so surprised to hear that Barnett managed to collaborate with Williams to produce a soundtrack to the book. I haven´t had this experience since 'An Equal Music' by Vikram Seth, so I am incredibly excited hear the new album.

Thankyou so much NetGally for the opportunity to read this book. I probably wouldn´t have bought the book and with this chance, I have found a new author whose work I truly love.

Successful singer-songwriter Cass Wheeler disappeared from the music scene ten years ago after a personal tragedy. Now, she is preparing to release a ‘greatest hits album’ and sets aside a day to listen to all her tracks and select which ones to include. Behind each song is the story of an important event in Cass’s life – from her mother abandoning her in childhood to her first love affair and her early steps into the music industry – and as Cass remembers the past she struggles with the reminders of all the things she has lost over the years. However, as she delves deeper into her own memories and confronts her regrets and mistakes through her songs, she discovers that some things she had thought gone forever may still be with her.

This book was extremely immersive, and as the narrative spans the entirety of Cass’s life from childhood to old age, the reader really feels like they get to know the main character inside out. Her life, told in the past tense as the present-day Cass looks back on the memories invoked by her music, is a rollercoaster of triumphs and highs interspersed with devastating lows and very rarely makes for a tedious read. The author has clearly done her research, and as the years pass in Cass’s life the reader becomes enveloped in the atmosphere of the music industry – both the glamour and excitement of being a singer but also the dark side of drugs, loneliness and the way Cass must sacrifice a ‘normal life’ in order to pursue her dreams. The background characters were also interesting, particularly Cass’s troubled husband Ivor, but unfortunately due to the introspective nature of the novel you never really get to know them or understand their feelings as well as I would have liked. The build-up to the tragedy that led to Cass’s retirement from music is cleverly constructed, so that you almost know exactly what is coming from very early on in the story but it still strikes a hard blow when you eventually get to it. I found these sections of the book particularly emotional and actually quite upsetting to read, which demonstrates how well they had been written.

Initially, I found Cass a bit of an unsympathetic character despite her various troubles and, especially in the descriptions of her early life, she came across as quite irritating and selfish. However, as the book progressed through her life I began to feel sorry for her, and present-day Cass almost seemed to reflect on her young self in the same way as I had. My major criticism of ‘Greatest Hits’ would be that, although it was enjoyable and engrossing to read, nothing really seemed to happen in the ‘present day’ Cass section and the whole novel never really lost its reflective feel – like a greatest hits album, it was good but didn’t really give us anything new.

Overall, this was an excellent novel from an obviously talented author from whom I would definitely be keen to read more. It has only just missed out on a perfect five star rating and I would still highly recommend it to anyone looking for a story in which they can lose themselves.

Daenerys

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

A very enjoyable story about the life and times of a fictional singer songwriter. Recommended.

A heartfelt book that I enjoyed even more than her first

Singer/Songwriter Cass Wheeler is making a greatest hits album and taking a trip down memory lane - she's picking the sixteen tracks which have defined her life.

She's understandably a bit scared as she's had her fair share of heartbreak and sadness as well as intense happiness and love. Each chapter captures a period in her life and includes song lyrics. I was totally engrossed and found it a fascinating and interesting read. Highly recommend.

I didn't think I would say this at the start as I was really struggling to get into the book but what a good slow burner that was to read. Initially I preferred reading about the old stuff in comparison to current day and eventually you see why the author has written it that way. My only criticism of doing it that way, in some chapters it was hard to work out what was old and what was current.

Laura Barnett’s The Versions of Us was one of my favourite books of 2015; so much so I have a copy in both Hardback and Paperback. So it was with much excitement and a little trepidation that I entered into Barnett’s second novel Greatest Hits. How will she create such a heartfelt story, one with as many twists and turns as she did before? But I needn’t have feared. Greatest Hits is a completely different story, but in it’s own way, just as fantastic as The Versions of Us.

Greatest Hits is an immersive reading experience, which takes us through the life of fictional singer Cassie Wheeler. A famed star, whose music and personal life had been at the forefront of the media for years before she disappeared from view, everyone is wanting to know when her next album will be released. As a middle-aged Cassie returns to her studio for the first time in years, she listens to and chooses the songs that best chronicle her life’s road as she takes herself and the reader down memory lane.

Laura Barnett writes with such an understanding of human emotion that in the space of 400+ pages, as a reader you feel as though you too have experienced all that Cassie has. She no longer becomes a character that you are reading about, but another part of you that you never knew you had. Throughout Cassie’s life, through her loves, losses, successes and failures, all are expressed through Barnett’s powerful prose, and the meaningful lyrics of the songs that Cassie chooses as those that have shaped the person she is.

Greatest Hits is a reading experience that melds music and literature in a way that few people have achieved before. With lyrics by both Barnett and singer-songwriter Kathryn Williams, readers can also hear the sixteen of Cassie’s records in song on Williams’ album Songs from the Novel Greatest Hits.

5 Stars!

I had never heard of Laura Barnett before having read the synopsis of this novel deciding to request it via NetGalley. However, I then looked her up online and found so many people seemed to have loved her first novel ‘The Versions of Us’ that I must say I was looking forward to reading her latest release.
Now while I did enjoy reading this book, the story did not ‘grab me’ as it seemed to so many other readers. The story seemed to wander too much and I think it would have held me more if there had not been as many characters that just seemed to drop in and out of the story. Now I usually like books that have a lot to do with music, and the basic premise of the book, about a fictional singer coming back after a long break, is a good one but as I have said I found that there was something missing from this one.
That said I may have to look up her previous novel to see if I like that one any more.

As a one time pro musician this had the feel of authenticity about it. I worked as a musician through the 60's and still remember the kind of scenes that are portrayed here. I thought the writing was excellent but some of the time slipping confused for a moment but that seems a modern fashion. The main character had the fragility associated with someone in her position, a Kate Bush career gap and a loyal following that made the comeback worth it. I also liked the style which seemed very fresh and quite new to me in a laconic way. As Bill Wyman once said, "Be careful about meeting your heroes...Chuck Berry was a hero of mine and when I met him he was a c...!" Those people really existed back then, the drugs the booze the sex.

This review is written with thanks to W&N, an imprint of Orion Publishing Group, and Netgalley for my copy of Greatest Hits.
Cass Wheeler is a famous singer, who rose to prominence in the 1970s. It has been ten years since she last recorded anything, but she has now decided to break her silence and release her "Greatest Hits." Over the course of one day, she selects the songs for the album, remembering where she was and the circumstances under which each song was written.
Greatest Hits is Cass' story, thus it makes sense that the novel should be written from her perspective. Barnett develops Cass' character very effectively, and I found that for the majority of the novel, it was very easy to put myself in Cass' shoes, and I was transported to the various locations where she lived and worked: her aunt and uncle's home, the flat where she lived when she got her first record deal, and even the van in which she travelled on tour. This demonstrates the thorough research that Barnett has done, not only into the music industry, but the various issues that affect Cass throughout her life. However, at times, I felt that the difficulties Cass faced were so many that several of the issues were not given enough space so that they could be explored in depth. As a result, the novel felt quite heavy in places, and this made it difficult for me to engage with the plot: it did not progress at the pace I would have liked.
Greatest Hits is set over the course of one day, and the novel is structured using time as the day progresses. As Cass chooses tracks for the album, she reminisces on her life, giving the reader insight into her past. To reflect this, the narrative switches from past to present frequently. Whilst I appreciate that the tracks are integral to the plot, I feel that the structure made the novel appear disjointed and this prevented me from fully engaging with it.
I like the premise for Greatest Hits and appreciated the insight into the music industry in the 1970s; however, I am slightly disappointed that for me, the novel did not live up to its potential.

'Versions of Us', Barnett's debut novel, was one of my favourite books of 2016. It was a primary factor in why I started my blog, because I just needed to share my love for it. I was lucky enough to meet Barnett at the Oxford Literature Festival last year, where she talked about her follow up novel 'Greatest Hits' and I was instantly excited by the concept. The ARC of the book sat in my TBR for months though as I was too scared to start it. I had such high expectations and I really worried that it wouldn't meet them.
'Greatest Hits' is a brilliant and original read. Cass is a vivid character and her life story is absorbing, re-told as she listens to the greatest hits of her musical career. As the narrative develops, we get a stronger understanding of present-day Cass and what she has been through.
I enjoyed this book and the beautiful blue edges alone would be enough for me to recommend it. Did it surpass my love for 'Versions of Us'? No, but I'm not sure anything could. Barnett is a talented author (and is super lovely to boot) and 'Greatest Hits' is an excellent read.

Laura Barnett's previous novel was a stunning book with narrative threads that thoroughly repaid the attention required to follow them. This book relies on a simpler technique but it is no less effective. Cass Wheeler's catalogue of greatest hits ties together the strands of her life and reflects how her experiences shaped her character and the life she leads. In many respects, Cass's life is full of achievement and recognition, but the day-to-day will ring true to Barnett's readers, just as Cass's lyrics do to her fans.
Greatest Hits proves that Barnett can live up to the promise demonstrated in Versions of Us and will be an original and compelling literary voice in years to come.

I couldn't put this book down. It gripped me from start to finish. Everything wove together to create a vivid and compelling read

I really wanted to like this book. I very much enjoyed Laura Barnett's previous novel, "The Version of Us," but alas, this one just didn't sing to me.

The premise is intriguing: Cass Wheeler, a famous singer-songwriter (to my mind a fictional combination of Kate Bush, Stevie Nicks and other players to be named later) is compiling her "Greatest Hits", forcing her to look back on her life and career. Each chapter features a song that alludes back to a particular time in her life. The present action happens over a course of a day, but the songs span a lifetime.

What I did love, however, was the unique collaboration that Barnett made with real life singer-songwriter Kathryn Williams, who wrote a soundtrack for the album. Surely, that is a first. I was lucky enough to see them both at the Greenwich Book Festival. Having not known Williams before, I'm now a big fan. Her songs are beautiful (both for this novel but also other albums) and her voice is transcendent.

I'm not quite sure why the novel fell flat for me, but it did.

(I was given a review copy of this novel via NetGalley in return for an honest review. I feel bad about the three stars, but that's what I think it deserved.)

Greatest Hits by Laura Barnett, is a story about Cass Wheeler, a successful singer/songwriter who compiles an album of her 16 songs, her greatest hits that highlight key points in her life. Over the course of a day she reflects on the music and the songs that formed the background of her life, a retrospective that leads from childhood to present day in her quest to find peace with herself. A bittersweet novel, filled with loss, longing, strong friendships and original songs written by an award winning songwriter. The novel feels more like memoir than fiction and will appeal to non music and music lovers.

Haven't tried out the soundtrack with this as yet. The book is laid out extremely well however it takes a bit of time to get used the narrative and slew of characters.

Glad I read it though.

At first I found Cass Wheeler unsympathetic and, frankly, irritating. The details of her life story aren’t particularly fresh and new – they feel like they’re drawn fairly mechanically from the lives of various great female singer-songwriters of our time - but they’re woven together plausibly and with some skill, and gradually Cass and the book grew on me.

One of the issues with a novel about song-writing is that, on the page, lyrics interrupt the flow and tend to read as rather banal. However, to address this Laura Barnett and musician Kathryn Williams have co-written an album setting the book’s lyrics to music. I would recommend reading and listening simultaneously (the songs are available on Spotify), because most of the songs are beautiful, haunting even, and bring the novel to life in a really interesting way, literally amplifying the emotions and atmosphere.

I first came across Laura Barnett with her wonderful debut novel, The Versions of Us (which I reviewed back in summer 2015), which looked at 3 different versions of one couple's life in a Sliding Doors-style narrative. Her follow-up book is just as steeped in the 'what if' that we all ponder as we grow older: this time we sit with a famous singer-songwriter in her sixties (picture a British Joni Mitchell with maybe a touch of Stevie Nicks perhaps) as she listens to her back catalogue, letting her personal history wash over her, and prepares to relaunch career. It's one of those books where you get so wrapped up in the characters life that you end up almost yelling at the page when you see them heading down the wrong path, anticipating the pain that lies ahead for them. It's quite an affecting story and, as a female reader, I felt it was a reminder to trust your own instincts and put yourself first in your own life story (something I think we are conditioned not to do as partners and mothers). If you love music history and the idea of a fictional biography, then this is one for you.

What an excellent book this is. I was completely immersed in it from start to finish. The pace was just right, the characterisation excellent, the story interesting and the ending satisfying. I loved the whole premise of an aging music great looking back on her life and career and picking songs for a retrospective album of old and new. The weaving of her life story round the songs and the gentle forward and backward movements in time that gave glimpses of major events but kept us guessing is compulsive. I loved the portrayal of life as a major celebrity, the lack of fabulousness about it but the need to keep on creating and performing. This is so readable and yet so well written that I am recommending it to everyone I talk to.

Loved the idea and going to seek out the album now. Felt like I wanted more of Cass' later life than her early one, but as a memoir of an artist it was brilliant - I felt like I knew her inside out.