Thank you so much to Wednesday Books for sending me a copy of You’d Be Mine to read and review, and for letting me be apart of this tour. I was very excited to read this book because it sounded like a cute, fluffy, contemporary. Unfortunately, it fell flat for me. I had some issues with this book, but there were a few things I liked about it.
Issues: my biggest complaint were the time skips. Half of the time, these made absolutely no sense to me, especially in the first half of the book. Sometimes they would be at the star of the chapter, sometimes they would be in the middle of a paragraph, or in the middle of a scene that felt incomplete. Most of the time, there was nothing that broke them up or differentiated what was currently happening and the time skip. There would be page breaks with a symbol that would divide many time “moments later” was said. But then something like “3 weeks later” or a flashback would be in the middle of a paragraph or a scene that I didn’t realize was over. I mostly didn’t understand why there were don’t changes or dividing symbols for some time skips but not the others. This did get a little bit better in the second half of the book though.
The other biggest issue I had was how they managed to stay unrecognized the entire time. In some scenes these characters would be hyped up as these huge deals in the country music industry, but then in others they would talk about how no one ever recognizes them when they aren’t on stage. They talk about how Clay leaves all of his audiences at his shows in “puddles of hormones” and you can honestly tell me that he can go out in public and not a single person recognizes him? Not a single fan comes up to him? He’s never followed by paparazzi? If he has that much of an effect on his fans, surely someone is bound to notice him.
Things I liked: I did, however, like that it was a dark contemporary. Don’t be deceived by the cover, this book is VERY dark. I’m a fan of hard-hitting contemporaries, so I liked the darker aspects of this book. Also, the cover is gorgeous. I also liked that it dealt with the dark side of fame and being in the music industry, and boy did this book not shy away from that. It's important for people to know that these industries are not all glitz and glamour and that the celebrities we see all over the media everyday are real humans who have real feelings and are dealing with real issues. This book portrayed that fantastically. Overall, I would recommend this book if you like country music or if you enjoy darker contemporaries. However, please go into this book knowing the following trigger warnings: depression, alcoholism, drug abuse, death of a family member/parent, suicide, witness to suicide.

You’d Be Mine
By: Erin Hahn

After reading the first couple of pages I was completely invested in the story and read this book in one sitting. This story was sweet and cute but with a lot more depth and emotion than I thought I was going to get, but that just made the story more relatable and realistic.

I loved both Annie and Clay, throughout the book as they are both dealing with their own inner demons and challenges life throws at them. We see them grow, trying to overcome their difficult past and maneuvering themselves in the ins and outs of the country music industry while falling for each other

I am so happy I had the chance to read this contemporary romance and look forward to reading more from Erin Hahn.
I received a digital review copy of this book from St. Martin's Press - Wednesday Books via NetGalley

This book caught be my surprise. I couldn't put it down, and loved the plot line. How their relationship was intertwined with their careers was very sweet.

Annie Mathers is daughter to not one, but TWO famous parents. Doing everything in her power to not end up like her parents did, she wants no part in the country music lifestyle her parents had. But when an unknown and crush-worthy famous star shows up on her grandmother’s front porch, Annie finds the lifestyle she hated now hard to resist.

"And that, boys and girls, is the story of how stone-cold Annie Mathers found her lady parts."

Clay, America’s swoon worthy star, is exactly the kind of trouble Annie has been trying to avoid. This bad boy isn’t all that he seems.

"So, she sings like an angel, plays like the devil, pitches championships, and slays amusement park games. Is there anything you can’t do?"

Trying to go against all odds, they still find themselves attracted to the opposite. But is there more to each of them than what appears?

This would’ve been just the book I would’ve been looking for in high school. It contains the glamour, the hot bad boy, and the playful love that every teenager wants in his/her life. A perfect summer read for a carefree reader, I can only imagine sipping on some sweet alcoholic beverage by the pool reading this. The audience really gets to know the characters and join in on the country of their character development. This is a perfect read for someone who wants to get swept away and not have a care in the world while reading it!

"If I had to choose my favorite, you’d be mine."

I have two great loves in my life: books and singing. I was so thrilled when I heard the premise of this book, because it combines my two loves. The fact that quite a lot of it also takes place in the city that I love as well was just icing on the cake. 

I absolutely loved Annie and Clay. They were both such strong characters, and when you put them together I felt like they just leapt off of the page. I enjoyed seeing how they both had trauma in their past and how they each dealt with it in such different ways. Even though they were both teenagers, I never felt like their problems were juvenile. At the same time, I also never felt like they were behaving differently than a typical teenager would behave. I thought that Hahn did an excellent job portraying how a teen would navigate the high-stress world of being a professional musician. 

I really loved all of the references to classic country artists. It gave the world a real feel of authenticity. I was able to connect to the characters in their love for these real-life classic singers, and it really immersed me in their world. I thought this was very well done. 

All in all, this book was fantastic. Believable and likable characters (fantastic supporting characters as well), and a well-drawn world made me fly through this book. I truly didn't want it to end! 

My Rating:

I gave You'd Be Mine 5 STARS!! If you are interested in country music and the world behind the scenes of touring musicians, this is a great pick for you!

I have to be honest, I couldn't finish this book.

The blurb made me think I'd adore it...as music romances are some of my favorites. But I found myself bored through most of the first third of the story and just couldn't stay engaged.

DNF 27%.

I am not a huge fan of country music, but this book makes me want to change that. (Or, I guess, makes me a fan of Clay and Annie, especially Annie and her band Under the Willows.)

Because holy crap, you guys, I love Annie. She's got a tragic backstory and this book is A Star is Born but sweeter. (Clay also has a tragic backstory, but while Annie is Striving to Move On, Clay is Surviving With Help From Girls & Booze. So yes, total A Star is Born, right?)

This story hits a lot of my favorite notes: famous people, love story, awesome friendships, grief. It never feels inauthentic or Lifetime-ish, which is very impressive considering again, tragic backstories.

I hope this becomes a movie. 

Recommended.

I’m not quite sure what I expected when I read this book, but boy it certainly wasn’t this. It’s intense, dark, yet hopeful, filled with places we’d rather not visit but is a stark reality in the world today. The only thing I can describe it as is Taylor Swift meets A Star Is Born. I gobbled up this book in 3 days.

Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for giving me a free, digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

Content warning: Drug and alcohol abuse, suicide (discussion of)

I really loved everything about this book. It was dark in ways I didn’t think it would go, yet there were always these bits that gave you hope for both Clay and Annie. This book just felt perfectly summery and had me longing (a bit) for my teenage days. If I had this book when I was a teenager, I have a feel it would have resonated with me more profoundly than it does now. There were times the plot did become repetitive, and that was just due to the nature of the summer tour. But the author allowed Annie and Clay to disappear, together or separate, as they revealed parts of themselves to each other. You saw their connection slowly creeping up on the both of them, and how they wanted bits and parts of each other but was still not quite sure. It was great to read, although Clay made me mad quite often, lol.

I did think some parts were unbelievable, especially in terms of Clay’s more illicit and illegal activities. I think some of this was glossed over, and I felt like we didn’t get enough of the meat of the issue. I wanted more showing scenes instead of telling scenes.

I loved all the characters! I loved Annie, Jason, and Kasey’s friendship; the growing romance between two side characters; and Annie and Clay together, not just as musicians but the blossoming friendship and romance between them as well. I found it really endearing and their notions about each other heart-breaking. Y’all know I’m a sucker for a good backstory and Annie and Clay have such heart-wrenching ones, I got teary-eyed when they both got emotional about their pasts! 😭 Annie was embraced by a warm family after what happened to her parents, which she didn’t take for granted. Clay, on the other hand, started out well, but wasn’t able to face the demons. Despite everything that happened to him, he was able to crawl out of it and know his boundaries.

This book was such an enjoyable read. Hahn takes you into the bright and dark lights of country music. I loved how she captured grief and healing. She didn’t leave us broken and hopeless either. As I said before I read this book in 3 days, which tells you how much I enjoyed it and how much of an easy read it was. This book has the perfect mix of things I wanted when I was a teenager (maybe not so much the country music part), and it really makes me feel a bit nostalgic for some reason.

I received a review copy from St. Martin’s Press/Wednesday Books through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review and this in no way affects my review. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

You’d Be Mine was a book I remember going “oh that looks interesting!!”, saying I couldn’t wait for its release, and entering giveaways for.

What I got was not so quite that.

I ended up calling this one a DNF at 41% because it still hadn’t made me feel anything. I really wanted to keep going and do my best to give a fuller review but I’m working on telling myself it’s ok if I don’t finish.

You’d Be Mine I believe is supposed to be about a romance between two country music singers that develops through a summer on tour. Now, I’m a sucker for celebrity romances so I was kinda excited to find another one. One of the biggest problems with this novel for me was that 41% in, we had no sort of romance happening and nothing else happening either. Sure we got the whole press thinking they were and the constant “ooh his eyes” or “ooh she’s challenging me to be better” but that’s all we got.

I got not attachment to any of the characters whatsoever. None of them made me want to care or keep going.

I even skipped towards the end and tried to see if anything had improved but it still felt stale.

This was a book I had high hopes for but fell really short on keeping me involved.

4.5 stars

I soooo enjoyed this one! Refreshing and unexpected and a little bit darker than you might think!

I’ve been eyeing my ARC of You’d Be Mine for months, and I’m really happy to say that this book pulled through. I might even stretch that to say that this book pulled me out of an impending reading slump, which is always wonderful.

You’d Be Mine was much more than just a sweet romance—it took a look at the darker side of the country music scene as two different country sensations came together for a tour over the summer.

It was just entertaining and filled with tension and made for a really enjoyable read, and I honestly don’t have a lot of criticism for it. It’s definitely on the older side of YA and has a bunch of crossover appeal, and I found it to be a great book to lose myself in.

One of my favorite parts was how the characters knew they weren’t ready for a romance.

Yes, Hahn already brings so much delicious tension with the characters themselves and their interactions and lingering gazes, but she also loads on the romantic tension with the way that the characters both waited to start something.

You’d Be Mine is almost a waiting game of sorts—you’re waiting for the characters themselves to heal enough to be ready for each other, which makes it different from 2010-era YA romance where characters would just jump into a romance when they obviously weren’t ready and didn’t have their own personal issues sorted out. I like how Hahn shows that the characters know they need to sort out their own issues before committing to someone—and the added benefit is how it makes the book all the more tense (and satisfying when the end comes).

It’s not only a good message for readers (don’t do things when you’re not ready emotionally), but also hopefully indicative of a budding theme in YA romance fiction. I liked this a lot, and I think this was a really fresh and different thing Hahn is adding to the genre.

The country music setting is so charming.

You can probably tell that I’m very much not a country music follower, but Hahn not only makes it interesting and understandable to any reader—country music lover or not—but also lets it add charm to the story and the romance.

Most people know that I’m a huge sucker for a famous person trope (*cough cough this book*) and You’d Be Mine fulfilled that and made me swoon with the song lyrics that Hahn wrote and the distinct regional quirks of the characters and setting.

So much fun.

It tackles more than just romance.

I mean, I talked about how the characters had their own issues to work through, and this was a huge part of the book. While the romance was mixed in, each main character, Annie and Clay, had their own demons to battle.

This is also the part where you might want to check out the content warnings about how intense these get, because Clay developed an alcohol problem after his brother died and Annie was the one to find her parents dead. They each have their own demons they’re struggling with, and I liked how Hahn both gave the characters arcs outside of just the romance, and also touched on some darker topics associated with the country music scene.

It’s not all just Southern charm, and there’s some darkness hidden inside too.

Honestly, I don’t have anything bad to say. This book was fun and entertaining and refreshing.

Although You’d Be Mine touched on some darker topics, it ultimately was a really enjoyable story that let me get out of my head and just enjoy the characters and country music scene.

I’d definitely recommend to contemporary romance lovers who like a bit of a backstory to their characters and more angst less fluff, as well as anyone who might have a slump coming who thinks this book sounds awesome!

I look forward to what Erin Hahn writes next.

I fell in love with the country music scene in You'd Be Mine. Erin Hahn did a wonderful job of bringing that scene to life. Annie is an amazing singer who is trying to escape the past of her parents legacy. She is really trying to be her own person, with her own career and doesn't want anything to do with her mother's legacy. She is also struggling through grief and where her life should go. All of this felt so real, I could feel her pain, and her happiness.

Clay was a bit tough to like. Typical famous person antics, booze and girls. He pushed people away by being a jerk. He is struggling through his own grief, but was not handling it well and while he was surrounded by people who care, no one stepped up to help him deal (to be fair, he was good at covering it). By the end, it was impossible not to root for him to find his happy and what he wanted out of life.

My favorite part of You'd Be Mine was Fitz (Clay's friend and bandmate) and Kacey (Annie's cousin and bandmate). They were THE CUTEST. I could have read a whole book about them. They had chemistry and seemed like such a fun couple.

Clay and Annie also had chemistry, but it was more subtle, mostly because of the baggage they both carried. Annie and her parents, Clay and his brother. They worked through it as things progressed, but not too fast. I loved their banter through song. It was clever and perfect for them. I found the ending of You'd Be Mine to be perfect for them and completely realistic.

Clay Coolige is a celebrity, a well-known singer with a bad boy image. His label challenges him to invite Annie Mathers, daughter of legendary singers, to be part of his summer tour or they’ll drop him. However, Annie is not a fan of limelight and exclusively performs in her Youtube channel with her band.

You’d Be Mine is one of my most anticipated books in 2019. After reading its synopsis, it intrigues me a lot and decided to request the book thru Netgalley. Once approved, I couldn’t conceal my excitement and instantly read it.

Clay is cool, hot and has alcohol problem. But most of the time I don’t get him. I can’t connect with him. I don’t know if he is grieving or not. I understand Annie was traumatized of what happened to her parents, but she acts opposite of what she is saying. Characters are okay. I don’t hate them, but I don’t like them either.

I enjoy reading slow-burn romances but this one did not do some justice to it. Clay and Annie’s push-pull drama is not to my liking. I couldn’t feel the chemistry between them. It did not touch to my heart that much. In addition, I don’t know if it’s part of my adulting but I discover some problems to be silly or small. That Clay and Annie make a big deal on that. And those major or serious problems that needs to be addressed was ignored. Plus, this book includes overmuch drama. And it is too much for me.

On the bright side, I love the lyrics of each song that Clay and Annie composed. This book also reminds me of A Star is Born. Further, You’d Be Mine introduces me to listen to songs of Johnny Cash and June Carter.

You'd Be Mine is the perfect summer read for fans of A Star is Born, country music, and young adult. Annie and Clay have great chemistry but they also have wonderfully complex stories individually. While this is a swoon-worthy romance there's plenty of angst and tragic backstories that fleshes out Annie and Clay that felt very real. There's also a dive into the country music industry and touring which was interesting to see. Alongside Annie and Clay the other members of the cast are well-developed enough to be likable while not overshadowing the main characters.

Like all the good country songs, You'd Be Mine has crooning lovers, tragic tales, southern sass, and everyone having a good time.

TW: alcoholism, drug abuse/overdose, grief, trauma, suicide

With a cover as stunning as this, you'd expect the inside to be more than a cheesy, frivolous romance between two grieving and famous country singers. Instead, all you get is a severely underdeveloped story with bland characters and a lot of references to country artists. This book follows two different country artists, one fairly new to the scene and basically Shawn Mendes, one the daughter of a famed country duo who tragically died when she was a teenager. Annie is the opener for Clay's summer tour, and naturally the two of them start to fall for each other from the very start.

Except it was an entire book of "s/he loves me, s/he loves me not" and let me tell you, it got old real quick.

Both POVs were pretty indistinguishable, and neither of the main characters had much to them besides their tragic backstories. And let's not forget the side characters, of whom I only knew the names of and what instruments they played. They had zero depth. The whole story felt surface level, with some heavier subjects touched on, they way you would touch a cake to see if it was done cooling.

Needless to say, I LOVED the epilogue and was very engrossed in the first 1/4 of the book, as well as how the title was incorporated into story. I thought Clay would be the perfect soft boi and have amazing character growth, and I thought Annie would be a strong female dealing with the sexism of the country music industry. Instead, Clay adopts his original name of Jefferson, which had me rolling my eyes each time because honey, that name is NOT romantic, and Annie hid behind her guitar the whole time. And each time they had a romantic scene I would cough out of secondhand embarrassment. Ugh, I am so disappointed with how much I disliked this book.

I so wanted to love this book, but I just never found myself getting into it, despite several tries.
I will give this another try at a later date! Thank you for the advanced reader copy!

I'll be honest and say that I did not know what this book was about when I requested it. I've been on a big romance kick lately and I loved the title and cover so I took a chance and was given a copy. When I started it, I wasn't sure about it since the main characters ranged from the age of 18 to 22ish and from the beginning, I could tell it would be angsty. I was not wrong about that. The tragedies and loses that Annie and Clay experienced would break anyone but they were still standing, still trying to find a way to cope with it all. Both of them were hurting and angry at the hand life had dealt them and Annie dealt with it better on the outside but still had demons but Clay was using booze and women to deal with his. I cried by the end of this one because the author made me feel for both of these characters. She made me care for them so much that I just wanted to hold them both and tell them it would get better one day. Annie's story gutted me and is what finally opened the floodgates that were threatening throughout most of the book. Erin Hahn did a masterful job slowly telling both of their stories and showing the persons behind the masks they used to hide.

I loved Annie and Clay. Together they were magic and chemistry that was undeniable from the first time they were on stage together. Separately they were two broken people--each believing they weren't good enough for the other. I loved the slow burn of their relationship and the fact that Clay had to clean himself up and start working on himself before he could ever be enough for Annie. I loved Fitz and Kacey so much. They were adorable together. I loved Jason too. The five of them together created a family of friends that had each other's backs and performed masterfully together. This book gave me all the feels and had such strong characters, writing, and plot. I enjoyed it immensely!

*** 3.5-4 Stars **
Publication Date: April 2, 2019

I ended up enjoying this read wayyy more than expected. It reminded me a lot of Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga in "A Star is Born" but on a PG level with teenagers. Very cute story and Annie is so likeable! Clay and Annie are both country music singers, with Clay having a more established brand at the beginning of the story while Annie is starting out from a significant You Tube following. There is romance and heartache and overall just a good read that I recommend!

Special Thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for allowing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

When I first read the description of You'd Be Mine, I was reminded of When it's Real by Erin Watt. I enjoyed that book, and while I always hope similar sounding books to those that have appealed to me in the past will also be winners, sometimes expecting a book to be like another can end up hurting my overall thoughts of the new one. In this case, I enjoyed You'd Be Mine for being unique in its own right even though it did end up having similarities.

So what are the similarities between these two books? Both revolve around the music industry and a bad boy who needs the girl to fix his image. How are the two different? In You'd Be Mine, Annie is also a musician. She has quite a tragic past that has kept her from the music industry until now. Annie and Clay are in the country music industry versus more rock/pop of When It's Real. Clay also has some tragic events spurring his bad choices whereas Oakley didn't have as much history (some, but not as much) driving his bad boy image.

Annie was a sweet girl. She's been through a lot in her young life. Her parents were both country music stars and seeing what the industry did to them kept her from pursuing her own music for a long time. Yet she couldn't stay away because music is in her soul. She's not a solo artist. Her cousin and her best friend complete her band. She does seem to have an insta-attraction to Clay, but the two don't have a fast path to a relationship. There's definitely a slow build.

Clay struggles with being who the world wants him to be and who he really is inside. He's on a downward path and no girl can save him from himself. Thankfully I appreciated this being the case. While we certainly have people in our lives who help us on our way, the work is always ours to do on our own.

In the end, You'd Be Mine was an enjoyable read for me. It was exactly what I needed at the time. I've been in a slump for a couple of months and I needed a relationship driven book to move me forward. You'd Be Mine gets 4 Stars. Have you read You'd Be Mine? What did you think? Let me know!

You'd Be Mine was such a fun book! I really enjoyed the characters, the summer music tour, and the songs the author included throughout the story. Someone should definitely record those songs so we have something to sing along to!

Books like this always bring out my Texas twang. It's so hard to read a southern drawl without actually doing it in my head, and then it just pops out in conversation. I thought I had kicked the habit years ago, but apparently not! I also loved the terminology and phrases the author used (like janky and such), because you don't see them too often in other books.

County music isn't really my jam these days, but it was absolutely perfect for this book. I enjoyed learning about Annie and Clay's (Jefferson's) history, and would love to revisit their world in the future. I really want Jason to get his own book, because I'm curious about the beach he found one summer during band camp. Who did he go with? What happened? There seemed to be more to Jason than his goofy exterior, and I want to know what it is!

Kacey and Fitz were adorable together, too. I even liked Lora for a little bit, and thought her role was essential to the story, even if she eventually made me angry. Trina and Connie were awesome tour managers, and we see that they care about the people they work for. We may not get too many details about them, but they felt real and honest.

Everything about this book felt authentic and believable. Annie's grandparents, both her and Clay's interactions with fans, and their performances on stage. I liked that Annie always kicked her shoes off and really embraced herself despite her growing popularity. She knew who she was, and who she didn't want to be, and she tried very hard to keep those two things separate. Clay's family is equally complicated, and I'm happy we get to see some closure for him as well.

There was very little angst in You'd Be Mine, and the drama was kept to a minimum. It was a story about two people struggling with their identities, despite having very recognizable names. They're teenagers in the spotlight, so their mistakes are public knowledge, and their personal lives are hard to keep a secret. I thought both Annie and Clay handled themselves very well, and were honest about their faults (at least to themselves).

Overall, this book was about friendship, family, and a love of music. The characters were mature and memorable, and the story made me smile nonstop! I recommend this book if you're looking for something summery and sweet!

Originally posted at Do You Dog-ear? on April 5, 2019.

This book came to my attention while I was browsing Netgalley. I thought it was going to be a fluffy contemporary YA romance and since that's my YA jam, I requested it. The book was a lot deeper than I was expecting but I thought the entire story was pretty solid and I'm glad that I read it. I enjoyed getting to know both Annie and Clay, seeing their relationship blossom on the road and I just liked it all.

Country Superstar, Clay Coolidge is spiraling out of control. It is obvious from the very beginning that something happened to this guy and he's not handling it too well. On the verge of losing his summer tour, Clay has to get an unsigned artist that his label is anxious to sign on board to be his opening act if he wants to go on tour. So he flies out to meet Annie Mathers.

Annie's going through her own shit, dealing with the death of her parents and it's probably not a good idea to go into the same business that they were in but music is a calling for her and she's really good so when Clay comes knocking, she goes where the music takes her.

It's only natural that on a tour, you get close to the people that are on the tour with you. Clay and Annie were drawn to each other and I thought that Hahn handled their relationship well. Clay could come off as such an asshole, an irresponsible one at that but I never wanted to give up on his character. I thought he came into his own in a real and believable way and I really enjoyed getting to know him but I also really enjoyed getting to know Annie too. Their romance was pretty great too. It wasn't the main focus but I still enjoyed it. I loved seeing them grow together, closer and closer in friendship until he couldn't survive her just as much as she couldn't survive him. :)

I'm a huge country music fan so I enjoyed this and adored the song "You'd Be Mine" too. This book is big on friendships, hardships, and growing pains and if you're into deep contemporary YA's, I recommend you try this one out because it's an enjoyable read with great characters, heavy themes with a satisfying ending. Check it out!