I loved this beautifully crafted book, packed with fabulous characters who I'm still thinking about long after the finish. This is a book that you have to treasure every word, savouring the story instead of racing through to the end. My book of the year so far, filled with love, despair, loss, hope, friendship and music.

After reading and loving The Versions Of Us a couple of years ago, I was excited to see a new literary novel from Laura Barnett. This one, Greatest Hits, is about a woman named Cass who is reflecting on her life and music career whilst putting together her Greatest Hits album. Each track represents a period of her life and the narrative flickers between the present and the past until the two merge at the end.

Defined by love, loss and suffering, Cass has experienced the worst of what we can all relate to which is what made this novel such a surprisingly dark read. In many ways, this also gave it a powerful effect. We can all relate to losing someone we love, through the fault of our own, or accident, or theirs. For many of us, music becomes the way we can process it. I spent the past two years as an editor for a music magazine where I read about people connecting with all sorts of music and one thing is for sure: it doesn't have to be a power ballad to be powerful. So, for Cass, her music is her escape and again the reader can relate to her - can almost become her.

Laura Barnett's execution was, once again, brilliant. She has a melodic style (that's the only way I can think of to describe it) and I felt lulled into the story as though it were a fairy-tale. The descriptions of the vicarage felt so traditional and slightly magical that they reminded me of Angela Carter's writing.

I wanted to love it, I really did. But I found that I struggled to immerse myself in the story during the first half because there seemed to be no conflict. Cass wandered through life, this happened, that happened, so what? It was only in the second half that I began to become emotionally tied to the plot and found myself feeling, well, miserable. Maybe if the first half hadn't seemed to go on forever, I might have loved it more, or maybe it just wasn't for me.

If you're looking for a well-executed literary novel that will take your heart and rip it to shreds, this is the one for you. I've seen so much love for this book already.

Every now and again a book comes along that wows you with its richness; Greatest Hits is one such novel. There can’t be many people who don’t have a soundtrack to their lives, those songs that were the background to early years, the songs we fell in love to and those that we obsessively listened to as we attempt to mend wounded hearts; for many of us there is a tune that can turn back the years to a distant time and place. Laura Barnett has taken this idea and turned it into a densely woven story.
Cass Wheeler is a singer songwriter and Greatest Hits is the story of her life, exploring through her own lyrics the key events in her life from the earliest days with her decidedly less than maternal mother Margaret and her father, the local vicar Francis, who would read to her from adult books to sooth her to the woman she is now, reflecting on her years of silence, having turned her back on music. For Cass there were no songs left to write and no music to fill her days.
Greatest Hits is supported by a wonderful cast of characters who in turn support Cass through her life, most notably Aunt Lily and her assistant Kim. With any book spanning decades the links to the past are most important and in true reflection of real life we also see that some people are in our lives for brief amounts of time, but nonetheless have a huge impact as was the case with her childhood friend, Irene, and perhaps more importantly Irene’s mother who provided the mothering that was bereft from her own life. All of these different yet vivid characters provide the supporting acts to Cass’s story.
Each of the sixteen long chapters are headed up with one of the titles of the songs that Cass is compiling of the music that reflects her life. Below the title we have some lyrics from the songs as well as the fictional release date and other recording details. We therefore dive back to the early days and those memories, whilst in the present we have some clues as to the tragedy that struck Cass and led to her disappearing from her successful music career at its height in the 1970s to the withdrawing from life as well as music in the early 2000s. This layering of a story is exceptionally well done and Laura Barnett weaves the past and the present convincingly with the brightness of the triumphs with the depths of despair not forgetting those more mundane or mixed emotions which all of us experience.
Despite not being a famous singer, and not having spent my life penning songs or living in the lap of luxury and only being born as Cass was releasing her early music, Cass’s life felt like one I could have been part of, so evocative were the descriptions and so rich in both characters and writing style. This is a book to wallow in with a story that transports its reader to a time and place far away. For those who really want to get the full experience a soundtrack is being produced with Kathryn Williams performing the songs contained within the book to be released in conjunction with this novel. But even without the added interactive element Greatest Hits is in my opinion a triumphant second book to follow up to  The Versions of Us which I also adored.
I'd like to thank the publisher Orion Publishing Group for allowing me to read an advance copy of Greatest Hits ahead of publication on 15 June 2017. This honest review is my thanks to them and the talented Laura Barnett for a fabulous read.

I would have enjoyed this book a lot more if it had been a bit shorter. The overall story was good and I enjoyed it. But I felt in places that the author took too long to tell that part of the story. I liked the idea of the story of Cass's life being told by her songs. I liked the way the book was put together and the story piece by piece.

I received this book from NetGalley in return for an honest review. I am not normally a "biography" reader so this was a little out of my comfort zone as it is a fictional biography but I was drawn in straight away. Cass Wheeler felt 'real', I so wanted to Google her!! All the characters were believable, you felt their joy and their pain. The idea of basing a book around an album of songs really worked, I wanted to hear these songs for real (and I will!!). Cass will stay in my mind long after the book is finished. Thank you Laura for writing it and thank you NetGalley for allowing me the chance to read it, I may never have chosen it. I will be recommending it to friends and family.

Greatest Hits by Laura Barnett covers a myriad of difficult topics and each of them is impressively and sensitively dealt with. This beautifully written book was a pleasure to read and has definitely made Laura Barnett an author I will look out for.
It has been ten years since singer/songwriter Cassandra Wheeler last produced an album. Ten years in which she has secluded herself from a world she felt was too painful to live in.
Now Cass has decided the time is right to being out a greatest hits album with some new material included alongside it. A retrospective look at her life via the medium of song, in particular, her favourite songs. The sixteen songs she picks are songs from defining moments in her life and make for an enthralling read.
She thinks‘I could forget today, couldn’t I? Just lie here, under the covers. Draw them up over my head and sleep. She thinks, No. You have done too much sleeping. Today is the day you wake up.’
One of the first memories Cass introduces us to is the first time she performed in front of anyone other than just her family and a few close family friends.
Laura Barnett has a unique writing style, one that pulls the reader in and keeps them immersed until the last minute. I like the way the songs are peppered throughout the book and the lyrics are brilliant. Common Ground and I Wrote You a Love Song.
She was born Maria Cassandra Wheeler in April 1950. Her father, Francis was a preacher and used to give inspiring sermons at his Sunday service. One of her most treasured memories from her childhood involved spending evenings with her father while he read to her.
Her memories of her mother were much more complicated and painful. Their relationship was always off balance but it was changed forever when Cassandra was around ten and her mother walked out on her and her dad. Contact after that was sporadic and stormy.
She was first introduced to music when her mum’s friend Irene taught her to play the piano. Her love of music really grew though after her mum left and she went to stay with her aunt Lily and her uncle John.
John and Lily played all their favourites to her and introduced her to a number of musician friends. Also, they treated her like an adult and gave her the space to be the person she wanted to be.
The biggest influence in her life, and the cause of most of the issues she had to face, was Ivor Tait. A man she both loved and loathed over the years. Their relationship was certainly a tumultuous one.
This book was impossibly alluring and definitely one I would recommend.

I really struggled to engage with this book; I guess I would rather read a biography of a real musician. It was obviously well-researched but I didn't find it compelling, personally. Thank you for the opportunity to read it.

Spent the first half of his book expecting there to be a plot. Once I realised that the story was not going to develop further I actually quite enjoyed it. The flashback scenes however are quite confusing. It's difficult to tell when the story refers back to the past again.

I enjoyed the way Cass' story was told in this book with song lyrics prompting her reflections on different stages in her life. It was also interesting to discover at the end that these lyrics are now fully formed songs which can be listened to.
However, I did feel Cass' story wasn't really a unique one and didn't shed any new light on the era or the difficulties of fame. Sadly I also struggled with the author's style at times and some of her sentences seemed never ending!!

Although the sections about Cass as a child were quite good (if sad), I struggled to engage with the present day part of the story. I found the references to the songs a bit dull and it was hard to work out who some of the characters were. Sorry to say I gave up and did not finish the book.

This is a fictional biography of the British singer and songwriter Cass Wheeler. Cass was a successful musician and then she had a breakdown. Cass Wheeler is taking a journey back into her past. After a silence of ten years, the singer - songwriter is picking sixteen tracks that have defined her -sixteen key moments in her life - for a uniquely personnal Greatest Hits album. In the course of one day the story of Cass's life emerges. The highs and lows of music, friendship, ambition, love and great loss.

What a unique idea. To write the story of your life through songs. We all have a song that we remember good and bad times. I loved this book. A good read with some good music from the 1960's and 1970's

I would like to thank NetGalley, Orion Publishing and the author Laura Barnett for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Some writers are good at writing about life, this was seen in Laura Barnett’s debut: Versions of Us. In which Barnett told a story with three versions of a life, each shaped by one chance encounter, being told three times with one minor change, this sent Barnett’s characters in vastly different versions of themselves. In Greatest Hits, Barnett has narrowed her focus down to one person, Cass Wheeler, who is a singer-songwriter. This narrower focus has strengthened the emotional journey that Laura Barnett takes her readers.

Cass Wheeler, after years living a secluded life, has decided to come out of retirement. Cass has finally decided to release the songs that meant the most to her during her career. Over the course of Greatest Hits, we get to follow Cass down memory lane as she revisits sixteen tracks. Although this isn’t a straightforward biography of Cass’ life. Instead, we see the momentous points in time that led to the songs being written, as well as following Cass during the day, as she gets ready to launch her album. Throughout Cass’ reminiscence, there are portentous hints that lead up to Cass’ present-day.

At no point in this story did I feel that Cass wasn’t believable as a character. She has lead both a hard life, but also one with a sense of joy and freedom that few people will get the chance to experience. Cass at her core is strong-willed, but she is also racked with crippling self-doubt, both of which lead to conflict throughout the story. Cass can also alienate other people in her life, as they try to help her when she is struggling to hold it all together.

At its heart, Greatest Hits is all about the life and times of Cass Wheeler, although there are other well-rounded and unique characters, you rarely get to see what happens to them when they are not affecting or being affected by Cass’ life. Even with this focus on Cass there are a number of standout characters including Cass’ Aunt Lily, who always seems so carefree and cool; Ivor, the boyfriend and “bad boy” guitarist who gets her started on her road to fame, Ivor is so eloquently described that you know that whatever happens between him and Cass is going to be epic; last but by no means least is Kim, who is Cass’ rock in both good and bad times. These are just a few of the people who are part of the framework that makes Cass’ life so vivid.

The structure of the book is captivating, each chapter is titled after the tracks on Cass’ Greatest Hits. Track One is titled Common Ground, one of the first songs Cass ever writes. With this track, you can see that Cass channels her emotions into her songs. Some of the Tracks start in the present, with Cass gearing herself up to listen to a song, while others lead us straight into the past allowing us to see the events that led to the song being written. This allows Laura Barnett to slowly fill in the details of Cass’ life, as little by little details are revealed.

Another thing that makes this book so interesting is that Laura Barnett has teamed up with singer-songwriter Kathryn Williams to make the songs in this book a reality. More information on how to access this album can be found here: http://kathrynwilliams.co.uk/. At this time I haven’t listened to the whole album, although you can listen to Common Ground on Williams’ website, which I appreciated as it gave a new dimension to the story being told. Both the book and the album are due for release in Mid-June, so I don’t have to wait too much longer for the full album.

Greatest Hits is an evocative story that hits hard as you follow the ups and downs of Cass’ life. By the time I reached Track 15 I was in tears, I felt more exhilarating and connected to a story than I have in a while. Greatest Hits is an accessible story that may not be for everyone, but if you want to read a story that could easily be identifiable as being written about a real life musician from the 20th Century, I don’t think that you will be disappointed. Greatest Hits is one of those books that is hard to put down, and when you finish you will want to read again. I feel that this is a truly impressive novel, following a very strong debut.

Probably not the right time or mood - I didn't make it far into the book, found it sort of boringly depressed and didn't trust it to pick up later. Sorry!

Did not finish – for whatever reason, I wasn't able to connect with the characters or story, and was unable to complete the book.

Sometimes, rarely, you start a book and it envelops you straightaway. You know that you will follow the adventure to the end and enjoy every last word. Well for me this is one of those rare books; the characters became real their situations believable and it was easy to become immersed in their life stories.
Cass Wheeler singer songwriter, born 1950, looks back on her life and chooses her music tracks which highlight a significant event or chapter in her life. From an unhappy childhood through troubled teenage years and her emergence onto the music scene, each chapter or track is carefully constructed. Looking back from her 60 plus years Cass begins to understand, forgive and maybe just start to live again.
My only adverse comment would be that sometimes it was difficult to keep up with all the different characters, especially those from the music scene.

A different way of looking back over a life. Each chapter begins with the lyrics of a song and then the chapter expands the theme.
At first I found the characters confusing, but as the story became chronological, it became clearer, and I became involved in Cass's life story. Despite this, I did feel it dragged a little in parts.

Cas Wheeler sets aside a day to listen to the songs that she made as a successful artist, each song bringing back memories of her life. She relives the trauma of her early years when her mother deserted her and her father, her father's retreat into grief and her discovery of music. Her failed marriage and the tragedy of her daughter's life cause her continued pain as she blames herself for her child's demise.

As Cas recalls her life she thinks of more recent events; how she has fallen in love but has pushed the man away, and she fears it is too late to reconcile. Listening to her music is a healing process and by the end of the process she seems ready to move on. As the reader I was willing her on to make the right move, and wishing her a happy ending. This brilliant book keeps up the suspense right to the end - a top read.

Laura Barnett has certainly succeeded in following up on the success of Versions of Us. This is equally good and original.
The novel is built around songs from the Greatest Hits album by the fictional Cass Wheeler. The 16 tracks lead us through Cass's life from a child through to global success as a singer songwriter and into her later years. They lead us through her childhood and teens, through to early years as an emerging artist through to international stardom, love, marriage, motherhood. Surprisingly, even though this is obviously without sound, there is a sense of the music that forms the backdrop to her life. Definitely recommended.

I loved this. The structure is simple but effective, the story so affecting (it did make me cry) and there was so much to relate to in terms of mistakes, the burdens of sorrow and anger, parenthood and the redemptive power of music. I think I need to reflect on it some more before posting my review online but I wanted to say immediately how much I loved it. Thank you for letting me read it.

Very unique with the song lyrics and who wrote and produced song. Even had a discography at end of book. At one point during reading I stopped and googled Cass Wheeler to see if she was real.
I really enjoyed it, good story that spread over a lifetime, only reason not 5 stars was because it dragged a bit at the end. Worth a read.