Fifteen-year-old Delilah “Dizzy” Doucette lives with her dad and brother above their vintage record store, The Vinyl Trap. She’s learning how to spin records from her brother’s best friend, and she’s getting pretty good. But behind her bohemian life, Dizzy and her family have a secret: her mom is the mega-famous singer Georgia Waters. When this secret is revealed to the world, Dizzy’s life spins out of control. She must decide what is most important to her — the family she has or the family she wants.

Spin is so different all of the YA I usually read because there's no romance, no angst, just family.

*Book received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

Thanks to netgalley for an ebook copy of Spin before publication date.
Rating- 4 stars.

I loved the cover of this book with the main character depicted with a mass of curly hair.

While I was reading I pictured famous mother Georgia to sound like Adele, look like Carrie Underwood, with natural curls like Zendaya.

Dizzy is a teenager with musical parents who lives above a record store with her father and older brother, Lou. Having a DJ deck in store, her musical abilites soon shine, where she creates old school record mixing and sampling, and posts them online.
But having to also navigate teenage family dynamics Dizzy, and the people in her life, make choices and we read about their decisions and the after effects of them.

Fun contemporary Young Adult novel by an author who has written previously well received YA novels. Brings together music family and the bravery of overcoming secrets. Good setting and strong characters good to see a female DJ and the sense of the time in the Vinyl Trap record store was excellent.
Would definitely entertain this readership well

In Spin, we follow the alternating POVs of Dizzy—an aspiring DJ, Lou—Dizzy’s older brother who is struggling with his self-identity, and Ray—Dizzy’s dad, as they learn how to deal with the pieces left behind by their mother/SO when she left them years ago to pursue her singing career.

I loved the family dynamics, the little things/ moments shared between Dizzy, Lou and Ray. Each POV has something to offer, I wasn’t rushing to finish a chapter because I didn’t like the narrator. Although Dizzy came across as annoying to me at first, we get to see how much the whole family has matured in a small amount of time, especially Dizzy.

Like most contemporaries I liked, this was a fast read. Once the story started to pick up, I couldn’t put it down.

Thank you, NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

First off, this is definitely a type of contemporary that I enjoy - but is a new area for me. This book held strong similarities to On The Come Up by Angie Thomas. Musically inclined girl has a famous parent and she is trying to get her start in the music industry, and of course drama ensues. There were definitely enough differences to not feel like a carbon copy book.

Dizzy Doucette knows her mother is famous, but has been forbidden to tell her friends. Her father did not want her growing up with a famous mother, paparazzi following them around all the time. He wanted them to have a normal life, especially because her famous mother left them when she was very young. Dizzy desires to have a relationship with her mother, where her father and brother are resigned to the fact that it isn't going to happen. Dizzy holds out hope and gives Georgia the benefit of the doubt (whether she deserves it or not). Dizzy begins DJ'ing in her father's record store and is an instant hit - so she begins to use some old tracks of her mother's to build up her set. I won't give super spoilers, but this is a BAD idea.

The book also provides narration from Dizzy's brother and father. It is helpful to get those perspectives, as they do differ greatly from Dizzy's. It is an interesting family dynamic that is very endearing.

I did enjoy this book, I just found it underwhelming in the end. Colleen Nelson has excellent writing, the plot moved along nicely, and the characters were well fleshed out. The plot line itself was just lackluster. I wasn't excited to read it, and I didn't have problems putting it down at times. For this reason, I gave it a 3.5/5 stars.

For those of you who love Angie Thomas and On The Come Up, I would definitely suggest checking this out!

Spin is such a fluffy book about love, family, friendship and music. I enjoyed how we went through Dizzy's, Lou's and Ray's POV throughout the book, they all had their own distinct voices and we learnt a lot about the characters and the family.

The story and set up for Spin was amazing, the backstory was firmly in place.





The set up of Spin was great, with setting and backstory firmly in place. I especially enjoyed tracking down all the pinch points placed within the story.

Georgia was such an interesting character, we see her through all the main characters eyes and the public, Towards the end on the book we truly begin to understand the type of person she is. even though she isn't a main character, Georgia was still a big part of the book and I loved seeing all the layers of her be revealed.

The music was a big part of the book as well. I loved seeing how Colleen made it clear that the love of music can be expressed in so many different ways.

The ending was perfect, it was satisfying and very plausible. The racial diversity in the book as well was very well done.

I really enjoyed Spin and I highly recommend it to anyone, especially anyone who is just starting out in the Young Adult genre as it such an easy and quick read.

Thank you for the opportunity to review this book! I loved the idea of this book and the fact that the main character is into DJing but the pacing of this book has me skimming and not really connecting with any of the characters. I feel like there is a lot of repetition in this book that could’ve been condensed. The music elements are great though!

Delilah “Dizzy” Doucette is just another regular teenager. She lives with her brother Lou and her dad above their music store, The Vinyl Trap. But Dizzy has an amazing talent, she can spin. And she does it marvelously. Everything would be perfect if only her mom could be with them.

What happened to her? Well, she’s no other than famous singer Georgia Waters and she left her home to achieve a career in the music industry when both Dizzy and Lou were little. Now, fourteen years later, she is coming back to town to put on one final show.

Could this be the opportunity Dizzy has always begged for? Will she be able to meet with Georgia? If so, will her mother recognize her after all this time? Does she remember she had a family? Dizzy will get her answers, and along with her and her family, we’ll be starting a journey of self-discovery with the help of music and love.

Reading the story of the Doucette family was both entertaining and delightful. I appreciated that the author included not only Dizzy’s POV but also Lou’s and Ray’s, their father. This gave us a full understanding of how things happened and how it affected everybody in both their personal and family lives. The thing I loved most about this book was the role of music. Whether it was by singing, playing an instrument, spinning some mixes or just by listening to it, music was an invisible wire surrounding every aspect of the Doucette’s story. After all, the music got the family together, and music tore it apart. Will music be able to get them back together again?

Spin is a very well written and enjoyable novel, whose characters were just perfect for the story. Love and friendship are the keywords, and I am sure most of you will have a wonderful time while reading this book, I did and I hope you enjoy it too.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Dundurn for giving me the opportunity to read and review this amazing book.

Will come back to review near pub date

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review*

This is definitely an entertaining story and one I believe my students will really enjoy. The female protagonist is one that many young girls will connect to as she schemes to take control of her life, having grown up the only girl in the house with a father and an older brother. Unfortunately, I didn't really warm up to Dizzy, the female protagonist, as I felt she was too selfish and self centered even for a 15 year old caught up in adolescence. It's difficult for me to have any sympathy for someone who purposely destroys something that is precious to another person and doesn't seem to have any more regret than she would have if she had knocked an ice cream cone from someone's hand. But, I do understand how this was part of her process in taking control of her own life and was a way to demonstrate the depth of her desire to do that. Many young girls will relate to Dizzy and will be pulled into the fantasy of being incredibly famous instantly. That's quite powerful and a reason many young people will enjoy this book

I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Spin was a wonderfully fluffy novel about love, family, friendship, and music. I loved how Nelson didn't stay in Dizzy's POV but also explored Lou and Ray's, however, because of this the switch in perspectives happened often and was confusing sometimes. Yet most of the confusion is avoided because the three all have very distinct voices.

The set up of Spin was great, with setting and backstory firmly in place. I especially enjoyed tracking down all the pinch points placed within the story.

Georgia was also such an interesting character. She's depicted in so many ways: by Ray, Lou, Dizzy, and the public. It's not really until the end of the book until we truly begin to understand the person she is. Even though she's not a main character, she's still a huge part of the book and I loved how layered she was.

And the music. I thought it was great how Nelson made it clear that the love of music can be expressed in different ways - through singing, playing, plain listening, and mixing. Kudos for the racial diversity in the book, too!

The ending was perfect. It seemed plausible and satisfying without pushing my suspension of disbelief.

A couple of things I have to criticize, however, are the few infodumps there are within Spin (one that I can remember clearly was Dizzy's backstory on Maya). Also, Dizzy's trip to see her mother - getting to the concert, going backstage - was too easy. Even though this is acknowledged in the book, it still didn't seem believable.

All in all, I quite enjoyed Spin and would recommend it to those who are just about done with Middle Grade and want to start exploring Young Adult fiction.

Rating: 3.8 stars

An entertaining slice of YA centered around vintage record store "The Vinyl Trap" and the family that run it. Father, Ray, is an old hippie who likes nothing better than to jam with his friends and share music recommendations with his customers. Brother and sister, Lou and Delilah, help out with the family business, but have aspirations to fly further - Lou into education and Delilah as DJ Dizzy.
And their mother? Well, she's an global superstar, Georgia Waters, who abandoned her family as her career took off, and whose management paid them hush money to remain a secret as they didn't fit in with her megastar image.
"Spin' focuses on Dizzy's coming of age, as she finds herself as a DJ, gaining a name for herself by making remixes using her Dad's private recordings of her mother, as well as trying to find out her own identity by reaching out to her mother and forcing her hand to acknowledge that she is in fact the mother of two amazing kids.
While the story arc is relatively predictable, there are a few good curveballs thrown in here and there to keep the reader on their toes. Dizzy isn't the most sympathetic of heroines - at times she's a really selfish brat, but I guess that's part and parcel of being a teenager...
All in all, I found it an entertaining read, especially as I spent my teenage years working in the local record shop where I grew up, and which bears some resemblance to Dizzy's slice of musical paradise on earth.

Spin is a coming-of-age novel about 15-year-old Delilah “Dizzy” Doucette, whose father owns a record store and whose mother happens to be Georgia Waters, the most famous musician on Earth. Except Dizzy isn't allowed to tell anyone about her mother, who left when Dizzy was one year old and has only visited once,

There is no shortage of fictional randomly-running-into-and-or-related-to-a-celebrity stories, but I greatly enjoyed Spin. The chapters are short and alternate between Dizzy, her brother Lou, and her father Ray, and every character seems well fleshed out and interesting. It was a pretty feel-good book with an interesting cast of characters.

I was excited about this book from the start! (I mean look at the cover!) Plus, books about music combine my two loves (reading and music) and they are a match made in heaven. Colleen's writing kept reminding me of Nicola Yoon, I don't know if it was the first person narrative that switched from character to character or the brightness and ease of the prose.

It took a few chapters for the conflict of this story to become evident, and it may be harder for some teens to relate to the struggles in this book because of how fantastical some elements are, but I think we can all learn something from these adorable and amazing characters. They are what drew me into the story.

Dizzy and her brother Lou were abandoned by their Mom when they were very young so she could go in search of fame and fortune and not be tied down by them. She is now a famous singer and is coming to perform in their home town for the first time in 10 years. Dizzy's Dad owns a Vinyl Record store that hosts DJ nights and both Dizzy and her brother Lou work at the store.

Dizzy is fierce and creative and she believes she needs to know her Mom to know herself, she starts using her DJ talents to sort through her emotions through music and uploads it for the world to hear. She begins to gain internet fame thanks to the help of another local DJ. Some of the tracks include irreplaceable recordings of her Mom from before she was famous, and that may lead to trouble for Dizzy and her Dad if her Mom or the record label find out!

Lou loves reading is struggling to figure out life after high school. Does he continue in the same old life and the current status quo, or is there something else for him. He doesn't feel like he has found his passion like Dizzy's DJ skills, but he knows there has to be more for him then working at the record store for the rest of his life. He finds himself on a local college campus and sneaks into a English lecture (because of a girl) and slowly, his future begins to take shape in his heart.

By the half way point I couldn't put it down and had to know what happened! I was thoroughly entertained and loved getting to know Dizzy and her family and friends. Props to Maya her BFF for being a true friend and willing to sacrifice something important (to her) for the sake of her friend. Definitely gave me all the feels towards the end of the book!

The final resolution wasn't everything I wanted it to be, but I think it mirrored what would happen in real life if this was based on a true story.

Thank you to the author and Netgalley for giving me an eArc in exchange for an honest review! My Instagram post will be up later tonight!

It sounds amazing, but I am unable to download and read it as it is not available for kindle, which is the only way I can read ebooks.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in advance of its publication in exchange for an honest review. Spin was a very quick read that I enjoyed quite a lot. It is about a girl trying who dreams of being a DJ.
She has a constant heartache hanging over her head regarding the loss of her mother in her life. The book is incredible well written. It is the first book I've read by this author and I am interested enough to seek out anything else that she has written. Dizzy is a pretty unique character with an equally unique 'voice". She makes you want to root for her. Some points of the book did seem to meander a bit as far as pacing goes but still a very strong read.

Children always think that a missing parent, one whom they have never met, is somehow magical. That if they only met them, if they only knew them, that their life would be complete.

This is how Dizzy is. She feels if she could just get to know her mother, who is a famous singer, but who also has abandoned her, and wants nothing to do with her, or her family, that if she could just get to see her mother and talk to her, that it would all be great.

Of course, it wouldn't be much of a story if it all worked out, now would it.

Very well written novel, told in three voices, Dizzy's, Lou, her brothers, and her fathers.

Highly recommend it. Well written, and a good read.

Let me start by saying this cover is beautiful! So simplistic yet so pretty.
I enjoyed my time reading this, I got through it super fast thanks to multiple teachers being absent today.
I'm very much interested in buying a finished copy upon this books release and also reading more from this author.
And again, I love this cover so much.

Thank you to Dundurn and NetGalley for this giving me an opportunity to read this e-arc.

Spinning records is Dizzy’s escape from everyday life and she’s good at it. Dizzy, her brother and father are keeping a secret: megastar singer Georgia Waters was once a part of their lives. She is Dizzy and Lou’s mother. But Georgia left them to pursue her singing career and now she’s back in town for a concert.

Spin is told through three perspectives: Dizzy, Lou and Ray. It flowed nicely and I loved how I got to see how Georgia Waters affects the three of them. The characters all have a strong voice. Ray met Georgia through music. He was a saxophone player and she, a singer. They toured together before she got famous, fell in love and had two children, Lou and Dizzy. His song is of the past, regret, heartbreak, and even joy (through the love of his children).

Lou runs his dad’s record shop, The Vinyl Trap and he does it well. But he wants more. His dad has the shop, and Dizzy is good at spinning. Lou wants his own life away from music and one that doesn’t involve Georgia Waters. His song is about the future and wanting a steady life he builds for himself.

Dizzy is good at spinning records and wants to be a famous DJ someday. She loves the limelight, loves the stage, just like her mother did. When Georgia Waters comes to their city – she knows it’s her chance to finally meet her mom. Her father and brother tell her she will be disappointed. But Dizzy is young and impulsive. Her song is vibrant and a cry to the mom who left her. She blends their melodies together, regardless of what the consequences may be. Dizzy doesn’t want to be a secret anymore.

I really appreciated how Ray and Lou let Dizzy make her decisions, even when they give her advice, they don’t force her to do anything. When consequences from Dizzy’s actions threaten their way of life, this family grows, learn, love and support one another throughout the story.

This is a wonderfully written story of a family trying to find their way out of the shadow of Georgia Water’s mega stardom. It explores the emotions going through the people who she hurt and left behind. The author spins the melody of the past, present, pain, love and forgiveness into this heartfelt story.

I want to thank Netgalley for providing me with this book in exchange for my honest review.

I’m obsessed with this book!
The synopsis really intrigued me and after reading it in one sitting I can say this is honestly one hell of a read!
The story is told by 3 characters and I really loved getting into the mind of each of them it made the story so much more gripping.
I loved the plot and felt like I got to know the characters really well I can’t say I loved it enough.
This book is defiantly a new favourite for me!
5 stars.