Christine Hurley Deriso’s young adult novel, All the Wrong Chords, explores when one mixes sudden and inexplicable grief, with teenage angst, and falling in love. As predicted, it isn’t pretty. All the Wrong Chords follows Scarlett, dealing with the death of her big brother—her best friends. To cope, and to babysit, Scarlett moves in with her grandfather over the summer. There, she plans to lifeguard at the local pool and take it easy before she begins college in the fall. She did not plan on joining a band or falling for the lead vocalist. As she begins to (spoiler alert) realize that dreaming Declan might not be all he appears, she looks to her sister, her hometown best friend, and her new band best friend for guidance. But don’t worry, as her lust for Declan fails, Scarlett still finds love in this small town.

Overall, I really enjoyed Deriso’s novel. It was filled with emotion, but there might have been too much angst and egotism. I left loving who Scarlett fell in love with, but the too-happy ending and lack of physical feelings on Scarlett’s part, left me wanting more. To me, it also felt as though Scarlett’s character had not been completely flushed out yet. However, if you are looking for a great book on teenage grief and finding the right boy while finding yourself, All The Wrong Chords fills these requirements.

Scarlett, Scarlett, Scarlett. How many times in this book did I want to shout, 'grow the f*%$ up!'? Too many. This could be a great New Adult story, but instead it read (to me, at least) like an annoying Young Adult story. Don't get me wrong - I am a big fan of the YA genre, but in this case it just didn't do it for me. I think it's because I'm an adult who reads NA and YA, rather than a teen still stuck in that 'drama, angst, issues' stage of life. Flicking through the reviews, it seems I'm not the only one who didn't really get the book, but don't let that stop you from giving it a chance. My opinion is just that - mine, and an opinion. So I didn't like Scarlett. It wasn't all bad - Scarlett's sister Sara gave moments of welcome lucidity, and Zach was a great character. I just wish Declan hadn't been in the picture at all, though well done to the author for creating such a good villain.

I really like this book. It is sweet, sad and about music and family.
Scarlett really loves her brother and losing him was understandably hard on her. Staying with her grandfather for the summer is supposed to be good for both of them. On an outing with her grandfather soon after arriving, she meets Zach who invites her to play with his band. I loved Zach, his family and Scarlett’s grandfather. I was not a fan of Declan. Scarlett was a difficult character to like at times. She is very back and forth on one particular decision throughout a chunk of the book, which I found super annoying, but aside from her poor decision skills she was a teen trying to work her way through grief.

I liked this when I first started it but I had to force myself to finish this. I did not enjoy this book. The only enjoyable character was the grandpa. I can't enjoy a book when I don't like the characters.

E-ARC kindly provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wonderful coming of age story about death and moving on. I enjoyed this book so much, I resonated with the character because of the music. I also have a love for music so it was fun to read
Received a free arc for an honest review from net galley

I received an ARC from North Star Editions in exchange for a review.

Scarlett is staying with her grandpa for the summer to practice her driving - which isn't going very well. On her first journey she almost runs over someone - a guy named Zach who forgives Scarlett for the mistake and invites her and her grandpa to his band's gig that same night.

Scarlett thoroughly enjoys the band and gets asked to join them as a guitarist and sometimes singer. This however, doesn't seem to go down very well with the lead singer, Declan - who Scarlett has an all-encompassing crush on.

This novel may come across as a light-hearted story, but it does deal with some very heavy themes - drug overdoses, dealing with grief, ALS and coming out to your parents (although this isn't really dealt with).

I quite enjoyed this book - usually when a novel centers around a band it can be quite annoying and cringe-y to read about characters bopping along to music and reading lyrics embedded into the usual text. In All The Wrong Chords, this isn't the case - the lyrics flow well and are actually quite nice to read. And the band isn't unrealistic - they get local gigs, WORK HARD and practice almost daily. 

The only gripes I have is the main character and her indecisiveness between Declan and Zach - with Zach being the OBVIOUS CHOICE. From the moment Declan comes onto the page, he is obviously extremely self centered and just overall gross, but Scarlett (DESPITE several other characters saying how gross he is) continues to pursue him.

I wasn't too sure on the book at first, but after a while I was drawn in, not wanting to stop reading, desperate to find out what happens next. I'd love to read a sequel to the book and see where Scarlett goes next and how she finds college and how her relationships go.
I liked how strong the characters were, they each had very different qualities that stood out. It showed that no matter how a person may act, you never know what's going on behind a closed door and how they are really feeling.

as the book started, I really enjoyed it. my enjoyment kind of went down hill as Scarlett chased an obvious douche. The end redeemed this book some, but all in all, it was a relatively mediocre read.

I received this as an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What a sweet story! Scarlett's story touches on so many issues: addiction, death, betrayal, love and learning to move forward. I love the reference of the cardinal through out the story. I have my own cardinal. Even though she is dealing with all of these life events, she keeps going. Very well written story.

I am all for a mushy-gushy YA book, but I actually felt like this was a little too much.
I'm not sure if the main character is actually so incredibly whiny and attention seeking, or if she
really is just doing whatever she can to get attention and keep her mind off of her brother's death but ugh!

I want to feel sorry for Scarlett and like her, but that really just didn't happen. She just ended up reminding me of those snobby girls in high school that you couldn't put enough distance between them and yourself.
With that being said, I do like the writing style.

I really enjoyed this book - in fact I read it in one sitting.

This story is set 6 months after Scarlett's brother Liam dies from a drug overdose. So she decides to move in with her Grandpa for the summer for a change of pace. She ends up joining a local band, and meeting a hot guy....

I thought Scarlett dealt with her grief in a believable way. Liam is not far from her thoughts for most of the book. In fact, I teared up a couple of times when the subject of losing a loved one came up.

I did feel like slapping some sense into Scarlett a few times, when she goes all ga-ga over a hot boy.. But, she is only 18 - and I'm pretty sure when I was her age, I would have done the same thing. I think there are some good lessons to be learned in this book - like listening to your gut feelings... If something doesn't feel right, then its probably not right.

Overall I really enjoyed this book - and I highly recommend it to anyone who loves stories about music, dealing with loss, and finding love.

*5 Stars*

ARC kindly received in exchange for an honest review.

Interesting read, and interesting characters. Makes you wondering if you really know your family and friends as well as you think you do.

Goodreads Synopsis:
Scarlett Stiles is desperate for a change of scenery after her older brother, Liam, dies of a drug overdose. But spending the summer with her grandfather wasn't exactly what she had in mind. Luckily, Scarlett finds something to keep her busy--a local rock band looking for a guitarist. Even though playing guitar has been hard since Liam died, Scarlett can't pass on an opportunity like this, and she can't take her eyes off the band's hot lead singer either. Is real happiness just around the corner? Or will she always be haunted by her brother's death?

My Review:
I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for a review.

I picked this book not only because I like books about bands or music in general, but also because it sounded really intriguing. Scarlett lost her brother Liam to a drug overdose, and her entire family is having a hard time coming to terms with it. She decides to move in with her grandfather for the summer to help him out, after all its just him all alone in his house, and lets face it maybe he shouldn't be driving anymore. She meets a boy, or two, or four, and joins a band called the beastings.

I don't know what I expected from this book, but it wasn't this. The main character Scarlett, although pretty lifelike, only cared about boys. The story just wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be, more so just about a girl and her boy drama. Half of it didn't even focus on the loss of her brother. Sometimes time would pass in the middle of a page without warning and I would be completely lost for a little while until I realized what had happened. I wanted to like this book, I really did, but it just didn't do it for me.

All in all, I don't regret reading this book, but it's not my new favourite.

Here's a link to amazon where you can purchase this book for yourself, and another link for the authors twitter if you have any questions.

https://www.amazon.ca/Wrong-Chords-Christine-Hurley-Deriso/dp/1635830109/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1503651033&sr=8-1&keywords=all+the+wrong+chords

https://twitter.com/CHurleyDeriso

Thanks for reading! Check out this review and more at my blog.
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All The Wrong Chords is told through the viewpoint of a young girl, who just lost her older brother to a drug overdose, and is spending the summer living with her grandpa. She finally gets reconnected with her music (she played guitar and sang with her late brother) with a band of all boys in town.

I didn't dislike this book, but I wouldn't say that I liked it. Scarlett, the protagonist, is way too obsessed with boys, and that theme just overtook the entire book. I get that teenage girls can be a little boy crazy, but this was excessive. She was constantly asking her bff about his love life, even when he clearly didn't want to talk about it. It seemed like nothing else really got though because of Scarlett's obsession with boys. Overall, incredibly predictable teenage romance. Nothing more, nothing less.

I was drawn the All the Wrong Chords by the cute cover and the interesting blurb. It was okay for the first few chapters. Even the ending wasn't too bad. But once the band became involved, the story turned into a jumbled mess. Most of my issues stem from the disjointedness, the one-dimensional characters, the inconsistent story line and the theme.

But the biggest annoyance was Scarlett.

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Scarlett Stiles lost her brother to a drug overdose. To deal with her grief and overcome the loss, she goes to spend the summer with her Grandfather. Within the first few chapters we are given good insight into the relationship between the siblings. It was caring, loving and sweet - you could tell they shared a very strong bond and a massive passion for music. Even the relationship between Scarlett and her Grandfather was sweet.

But that's where the good points end.

When the local band is introduced, Scarlett's personality reaches its downfall; she turns into an annoying blubbering mess who can't get over the hot lead singer. She can't stop whining about how the hot guys never notice her and how it was unfair because "she just wants the hottie for once" instead of the usual: the hotties always drool over my sister, Sara.

She's such a flat, one-dimensional character who couldn't decide what she wanted. Every time Declan was brought into the story Scarlett couldn't stop doing the following: falling in love straight away, hating him within the next few seconds, becoming defensive whenever someone told her the honest truth, whining about how he doesn't notice her. It never stopped. Scarlett was all over the place.

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I thought All the Wrong Chords would be about healing and overcoming familial tragedy. I thought it would be about Scarlett reconnecting with her brother through music, by finding happiness being in a band, spending time with her other family members, becoming a young woman and finding herself with light romance on the side.

It was all too much reading about Scarlett chasing after every hot guy within her vicinity rather than enjoying the fact she's in a band, making music and doing what she loves

This book is spot on! I can't wait to get it for my high school library! First of all, the characters had depth and believability. I understood their motives, which were well supported by the plot and background information. The main character, Scarlett, could be any teen who is drawn to the bad boy in spite of the overt and covert clues around her to stay far away from him. The storyline was well thought out and provided enough twists and surprises to maintain interest (hint, I speculated on the biggest surprise and was rewarded when I turned out to be correct.) The treatment of drug addiction and its stigma was well handled with sensitivity and a philosophy to not blame the victim. I highly recommend this title for all YA collections.

A fun engaging read about a guitarist struggling with live, love and death over a summer.

BANGOR BELLE BOOK BESTIES
2.5*
I received an arc copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for nothing but an honest review.

This story takes place after Scarlett Stiles, a young 17 yr old musican, has been left mourning the sudden death of her older brother Liam, who after a sports inury got addicted to the pain medications and passed by an overdose. Scarlett is spending the summer with her grandpa and i have to say i loved the relationship between both. During this time she meets a group of hot guys who have their own band, and Scarlett is instantly attracted to one in particular. Even though Declan is hot, he is totally unlikable and a player. The friction between him and other band members is obvious and becomes more so when Scarlett joins the band. The relationships with the family and dealing with their loss, was at times quite emotional.

This book started well for me, i was intrigued as to how it would go and i really enjoyed the first few chapters. Unfortunately once the band came into the story it also went a little downhill for me. Scarlett became a whinney little girl. Although at times there were some good elements to the book, it just seems to have a lot of missing elements. Conversations between Scarlet and others, were at times difficult to navigate and jumped from one scene to another. At one point Scarlett was talking to a friend in hospital and the next sentence she was in Zach’s car and talking to him. This happened many times, and i am hoping that maybe before publication some good editing might occur. What started out for me, being an emotional story about love and loss, turned into a jigsaw. I was quite disappointed, but i think the basics of a super story are there, but unfortunately for me in its present form it just didn’t work for me.