If I had to sum up this complex book in one sentence I’d have to say that it is ultimately a love story, of sorts, but a really messy and gritty one. And I wasn’t able to land on the “this is a love story” designation until I had finished and sat back and asked myself “what is this book actually about?” So, you should know that going in.

These characters are multi-faceted. Sometimes you understand them, sometimes you can at least empathize, and in my case most of the time you really dislike them. Rarely have I found a book that I have truly enjoyed when I found the characters to be hard to like. This book was no different, which means that Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm wasn’t the book for me. But, I can definitely see why someone else would really enjoy it. The characters are fleshed out. The dialogue felt authentic. The pacing really worked. This author clearly knows what she’s doing, and does it well. Some might find the multiple points of view difficult to follow at times, but that’s something I usually expect with an ensemble cast of characters.

This book was good, and I’d recommend it to any reader who likes, or at least doesn’t mind stories with unlikeable characters. I’m just not that reader. Having said that, I still think this was an impressive debut and I’m curious to see what this author does next.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my review.

This book has an array of characters. Circus Palmer was a 40 year old trumpet player. His life is messed up. He refuses to be tied down to 1 woman. He takes off after his latest paramour is pregnant.. Circus has a different woman in every city he goes to play music. He has a fraught relationship with his daughter but finally shared his life with her in a meaningful way and learns to love himself and life.
As Circus ages, life catches up with him and he must pay the consequences. the book focuses mostly on Circus but takes the reader into the lives of some of the women who fall in love with a musician.
This was an engaging debut novel.
Thank you to Netgalley for the eARC.

I fought hard to get through the book but finally stopped at 22% mid chapter. I really wanted to love this book as the synopsis seemed incredibly interesting. Unfortunately, this one was a miss for me. I do not like to leave books unfinished so I may attempt to complete it at a later date and update my feedback but for now this is a DNF for me.

I struggled to like this book. It may be just that I couldn't relate to the culture it depicts. I didn't see redemming qualities in the two-dimensional character Circus. With no other reason given than he fancies himself a lady's man, he deserts his drummer, Maggie, when he learns she is pregnant. Trite, commonplace behavior, and consistent with how he's treated ther women in his previous life, including his daughter Koko.

Several times I contemplated giving up on this book, and finally I did. It failed to hold my interest, so I left it unfinished.

Laura Warrell's debut novel Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm is literary fiction based on a jazz musician.

Synopsis:
Circus Palmer is a forty-year-old trumpet player. He has a reputation as a ladies man and he fully lives up to it. Although Circus refuses to be tied down to just one woman, he does have strong feelings for Maggie, until she tells him she is pregnant. As Circus already has Koko, a daughter from his previous marriage, he leaves Maggie to deal with the "problem". Circus feels the solution is to find comfort in other women's arms, but will this plan work?

Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm has some very touching and humorous scenes. It is filled with delightful references to jazz music which are very enjoyable. At times, the book is difficult to follow due to the multiple characters. Additionally, it is challenging to like or feel empathy for Circus, the main protagonist. I liked the book, but did not find parts of it easy to digest due to the subject matter. Be sure to check the trigger warnings before reading.

Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm is available on September 27th. Congratulations to Laura Wardell on the publication of her debut novel. I look forward to reading more of her work.

Thank you, NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Pantheon, for sharing this book with me. I appreciate your kindness. My opinions are my own.

Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm tells the story of Circus Palmer and the women who cross his path. Circus is a semi-successful jazz musician with a lot of charm and lot of fraught relationships. As the story begins, Circus learns that he's gotten a woman pregnant, and promptly flees, which should tell you a lot about what kind of a person he is. The rest of the story, which is light on plot and deals with the aftermath of the pregnancy news and Circus's strained relationship with his teenage daughter Koko, unfolds through alternating points of views. These alternating POVs include the obvious choices -- Circus, Koko, Circus's ex-wife-- but also several short story-esque glimpses into the lives of various women with whom Circus is romantically or sexually involved.

The book's structure is a perfect match for its story. Circus does a lot of downright terrible things (running away after learning about a pregnancy, disappearing from his daughter's life, cheating...), and the rotating cast of narrators does not let him fully off the hook for any of them. In showcasing the voices of those whose lives only briefly interact with Circus', Warrell makes it easy for the reader to understand that Circus's actions have consequences-- and that the other characters have unique, complex things going on in their lives that have nothing to do with Circus. I also found the book relatively easy to follow for all the perspective switches -- key plot details are revealed in subtle yet clear ways, with small lines that tie up loose ends between chapters and mark the passage of time.

As with any book with multiple narrators, some are better than others. While some stories leap off the page with romantic, cinematic dialogue or characterizations that are detailed, observant, and memorable, other stories feel underbaked, unnecessarily dark, and cliched (a woman whose identical twin sister marries her now-ex-husband? Really?). I had some trouble accepting the book was set in 2013 as some of the characters, particularly Circus, feel a little retro in their words and actions-- though the more I think about it, the more this feels like a character trait as opposed to a flaw in the writing.

The writing, on the whole, is stellar. It's dynamic and evocative, with great passages about music and love as well as keenly observed, realistic details about human behavior. I was captivated by the writing and could easily imagine what tone and feel this story would have if told on screen or, perhaps more fittingly, stage.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and look forward to seeing what Warrell writes next!

This is a musical novel about Circus, a jazz musician, who plays the trumpet and finds a home in the arms of the women who lust after him. The novel tells the story of the trail of broken hearts Circus leaves behind but the most broken hearted of them all are his ex-wive and teenage daughter, KoKo.

There is an elaborate way that daughters challenge their fathers to expand and learn the intricacies of human connection. KoKo longs for a deeper, more meaningful connection with her father and he misses every opportunity to form an emotional bond. That is, until an unexpected life event thrusts him into active parenthood where he can no longer evade responsibility.

Circus starts off as an emotionally vacant protagonist and his relationship to his daughter, and the woman he eventually realizes he loves, forces him to mature and ultimately leads to a better outcome for these characters. I enjoyed how musical this book was written and the poetic language that truly reflects the power and unpredictability of jazz music.

Thank you to the publisher and the author for the E-arc copy.

I wish I loved this novel more: Laura Warrell is a talented prose stylist and the premise was instantly enticing.

But--for me--this was a tale peopled by characters who never quite reached out to ensorcel me, so I never fell under their spell.

Many thanks to Knopf Doubleday and to Netgalley for the opportunity of an early read.

Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm
by Laura Warrell
Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2022
Pantheon
Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC of this book. It was not a good fit and I did not enjoy reading it. I will not be recommending it or purchasing it for our library either.
For some readers who like reading about personal drama again and again and again, this book might be a good fit for them, for me, I found Circus pretty slimly, the story to be sex-obsessed, and overall, I found the whole story just depressing, with nothing hopeful or encouraging in it.
2 stars

Definitely not one that I could recommend to fellow readers. It was a laborious difficult read for me. Too many unlikeable people. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the DRC in exchange for my own opinion.

I received this book as an ARC and this is my review. This book is loaded with flawed characters but more than one is unlikeable. The story is sad with missed opportunities and lost chances. It all hangs together like an uneven tapestry. This book would appeal to readers who want to experience the onslaught of the result of a lifetime of selfish behavior as it lands squarely on the person who deserves it.

I really liked the concept/plot of this novel, but I just couldn't get sympathize with the main character. I found him so annoying, cocky, and insufferable. I couldn't root for him or his daughter. He's just a selfish and immature man-child. There was no depth to him, very one-dimensional. I thought the writing was decent. Overall, I just couldn't get into the story. I really struggled with this one.

I wanted to like this book, and man I did not. I didn't like or connect to any of the characters and I didn't want them taking up space in my brain. If there's one or two characters in a book that I don't like, that's not a deal breaker for me, as long as there are characters I can connect with. I didn't have any connection with any of these characters and it just because a chore to read this book.

Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm is about Circus, a philandering, striving jazz musician, and all the women in his life through the years, including his daughter Koko, who has her own coming-of-age story in these pages.

I appreciated the characterization of Circus, even if his actions were at times cringeworthy and confounding to the point of wanting to shake him. Too, the details of the women he loved and left are intriguing. I’d like to have seen their stories filled in even more, to have gotten to know them more outside their longing for and loathing of Circus.

I appreciated how Circus and Koko both come into their own over time. Circus’ growth, after living with so much restlessness and self-sabotage, was welcome and unexpected. The father-daughter relationship is probably one of my favorite parts of the novel. Recommended for readers who enjoy stories about men behaving badly and/or character-driven novels.

My thanks to NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for the advanced reader copy.

Story is about Curtis Palmer, a jazz musician who is more attached to his instrument than to the relationships with women he has in his life. Character development is good, and story line is moderately interesting. I expected to enjoy this book more than I did.

Received this novel as a preview copy. I am not sure if I would have picked this up off a bookshelf at a book store. Not sure why, but I wanted to be honest about that.

The first chapter was a fraught with wanting to give the book up versus moving on more. I stopped reading it for a week. I then skipped the second chapter and went to the third. That helped for me.

Dense with characters and situations it was while reading was too much for me. The main character is a musician named Circus. His love life is one for sure. I felt badly for each and everyone one of his relationships. This was what made the difficult decision for me to not really like this book. These were strong women taken by Circus. It made me really sad.

The author’s lyrical and musical writing was beautiful. So there is that.

This was a complicated read and not easy for me, but I did finish it. Complex relationships (some very messy) and a complicated list of characters to follow made this a read that I had to force myself to read and complete.

I am grateful for the opportunity I had to read this book. I am always very interested to see what creative authors who have completed writing programs like Ms Wardell have put out as debut novels (I think this is just that?) But I hesitate to say this, this book was too much. This is not a breezy easy read, not because it’s subject matter is hard, just a lot to keep track of. The book will ruffle some readers because the characters are not particularly likeable… but they are in a way because they are so complicated and complicit in their enabling behaviors. This enablement is difficult to read and have empathetic feelings for them because as a reader nothing is more frustrating (at least to me) than not having a single nugget of “something” to hold onto to root for the characters. It serves the story but not the reader.

Would I suggest it? I say maybe. If you are looking for a book dense with characters and lovely lyrical writing that are taken of and that take advantage of one another with the guise of love, than this is for you.

I enjoyed the book, but it was all over the place. It was difficult keeping track of all of his different women. I wanted more of an explanation about what happened to Pia after she left. But, I felt the author told an interesting story.

“You got everything you could want in your world. You want some kid messing it up?”
Circus’s daughter, Koko was what he needed. All the main characters find what they need in Laura Warrell’s debut novel. In the process of the sweet rhythm of life Koko was able to grow into a woman. A wonderful coming of age story for everyone involved.
Now if everyone who picks it up could figure out what they need with the help or hindrance of what life confronts them with.

I impulsively snagged this novel when I got an email from NetGalley that it was available to "Read Now", and regretted that choice very quickly into reading this one.

I had a hard time connecting with the characters and found Circus to be so gratingly annoying, I certainly sympathized with the women who crossed his path. The writing was well done, but maybe I was in the wrong place to read and enjoy this novel in the way the author was hoping. All in all, I was left contemplating what the point of the book was and just frustrated.

Thank you to Pantheon and NetGalley for the electronic ARC of this novel for my review.

I loved this book. It was not a run of the mill romance. It was real and gritty. There were highs and low and all the in between. The characters were written so well and felt like real true to life characters. I found myself wanting to Google search Circus and Jazz. I think I can truly say there is nothing I did not like about this book. The pacing was great, the story line great all around excellent novel. I got this on NetGalley for a review and I will let many know bout it when it comes out.