Every time you hear that song by Jenna Voris was a most anticpaited reads of mine and I'm so happy to let Penguin Teen & Netgalley know that I loved this one!!! It was right up my ally which is weird cause I generally don't love dual timelines but for some reason this book worked out for me! Before I forget to share my. rating it was a 5/5 stars for me and here is why!
This has an amazing cast of character so we follow two different timelines from the 1960's and from present day of our main character Darren. We also follow our celbraties of this novel: Deckel! Deckel is basiclly like Taylor swift and that's all I can picture while reading her pov! Not only does this book has 2 different timelines but it had me in my feelings a lot throughout this novel! One minuet I was smiling, the next I was laughing and then towards the end I was crying but also mad at the ending!! Its so hard to talk about spoilers for this one without telling u what happened but I cannot wait to read more ya contempoaries from Jenna Voris!!(:

Thank you Netgalley & Penguin Teen for letting me read this sweet, fast paced coming of age story. There were Evenlyn Hugo vibes with a Dolly Parton-esk character (though I don't believe Dolly is any where near that self absorbed).
When Darren hits the road to find Decklee Castles time capsule she never expects to discover herself.
This is a queer coming of age story. About accepting who you are and where you come from without hesitation. A story about love, loss, and a lesson about sacrifices. Wonderful & gripping.

I hate country music and I hate this book. 2.5 stars! No really, this book is literally The Last Love song. I know they probably didn't know they were both publishing the same book but come on.

Every Time You Hear That Song is the perfect YA coming of age romance that explores the topics of bisexuality, growing up queer (in general and in a small town) and the struggles of living in a small town that you feel too big for.

This book follows our two main characters, Darren and Decklee, and their lives as they navigate the challenges in their lives. Darren is a teenage girl who loves journaling and is devastated by the death of her favorite country music star, Decklee. She feels like there is something better for her outside of her small town called Mayberry, so when news of Decklee’s passing brings forth a scavenger hunt spanning across the U.S., Darren can’t refuse. We follow Decklee as she roadtrips and goes through a phase of self discovery regarding her sexuality and feelings towards Mayberry. Glimpses into Decklee’s life are also given throughout the novel which allows us to understand her as a character and what it was like for her growing up queer and trying to make it in the music industry in the 60’s and 70’s.

Although this book was not what I’d initially pick to read, I’m glad that I did. Jenna Voris’ writing felt like a breath of fresh air and I found myself captivated by Darren and Decklee’s stories. I’d definitely recommend this to anyone who wants to begin reading!

I could sing this praises of this book forever and it wouldn’t be long enough! I love scavenger hunts, country music, sapphic plotlines, and things going wrong, so I was all over this book. As the self-identified president of the Jenna Voris fan club, I’m beyond ready for her next book!

I loved this so so much. I loved the yearning to get out of the small town that raised you, the loving tribute to country music, the time capsule race, how complex and difficult a figure Decklee was, the hard but realistic romance (in both timelines). Just a true gem of a book!

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the arc of this book. all opinions are my own.

This was fantastic. I really enjoyed it! I'd recommend it.

This was beyond good. Great if I must say. I can’t wait to rave about this to everyone. If you are looking for a good book, pick this up.

Everytime You Hear That Song by Jenna

I really enjoyed this one!
Especially when a RomCom book includes a mystery type treasure hunt for a time capsule for a famous singer that just passed and a cash prize is at stake! What?!
Doesn’t that sound epic!?

I sure enjoyed the nods to another famous singer who also loves making her fans figure out puzzles and clues! (Cough cough Taylor Swift)

I loved the journey and character growth that happens through out the story as well the duel pov which I typically don’t enjoy (makes it hard for me to keep information given straight) but it was done perfectly in this and felt it was key!

This book was uniquely its own and I loved EVERY MINUTE OF IT!🫶🏻
Add this to your TBR STAT!

Adding Jenna Voris to the list of auto buy authors!

Thank you so much to Penguin & Viking for an advance copy of this book!

Listen country music is all the rage right now! Yes, I'm aware that its always been popular but within the last couple months there has definitely been a spotlight on it. And I am sure when a certain blonde pop star re-releases her country debut, the genre will be buzzing. But that leads me to this gem of a book!

This was such an enjoyable YA read told in two timelines and two POVs. I thought the premise of this was interesting and I thought the chapters were really quick. The book kicks off with us learning the passing of country superstar Decklee Cassel after battling brain cancer. At her funeral there was going to be a time capsule reveal but instead a scavenger hunt was planned for fans to win a whopping $3 million dollars. Enter Darren Purchase who grew up in the same town where Decklee came from and grew up listening to her music. She knows all about Decklee and thinks she has what it takes to solve the scavenger hunt. She recruits her co worker Kendall who has a car on a roadtrip she'll never forget!

Decklee falls in love with her best friend/songwriter Mickenlee Hooper and the book goes through their love affair starting from 1963 until present. I am always fascinated to read stories about the start, during and end of a music career. My heart broke for them because they just wanted to be able to open but knew that Decklee could lose it all. Darren is coming into her own self. She admits out loud that she likes girls all while falling for her co pilot Kendall. I won't spoil the ending but it felt very believable for the age. There was a moment between Kendall and Darren that really struck a chord with me. They are talking about wanting to leave their hometown - Darren doesn't want to feel stuck there and Kendall loves his town and will never leave. It just reminds me of all the people who I've gone to school who couldn't wait to leave and I just never understood it because my family were all here and I just love where I'm from.

If you are looking for a quick queer YA romance with all the country music vibes - give this one a read!

I really liked this book like a lot. It was emotional and adventurous but the focus and main topic of this book are the characters and it was a good choice to doing two different point of view between the present and the past. We see parallel of the two characters and their differences and how there is not always pure characters but gray and no good person in stories and it felt real and raw. With her point of view we could easily know more about Decklee, her story, selfish and love feelings. I really liked the travel that Darren and Kendall did. We could sei the character develomp of Darren and their relationship as they build it more close as much they go far away. Another think I liked was the writing, it's simple but the sane time draws you in and made the reading fanteria and enjoyable.
Some things i didn't like as much at other things is maybe the ending, as is not I didn't understand it because i think it could be have a differenza outcome but it felt rushed and less soaked on feeling as the rest of the book.

This was such a lovely novel!! It had a slightly awkward start but a gorgeous finish. It took me a bit to get into it but once I did I was hooked! I don’t listen to country music, but I still got a lot out of this novel. I also loved the treasure hunt plot line, it kept it really engaging. Overall a really fun summer novel filled with a lot of love and music! 4.5 rounded up.

🌈Queer rep: Bi/pan main female character in a M/F relationship, FF main relationship. Secondary gay male character, MM relationship. Brief mention of a trans girl.

4.5/5 Stars

17 year old Darren is an aspiring journalist. Her favourite country singer, Decklee Cassel has passed away, but left a string of clues for her fans leading to unreleased music and a cash prize. Darren takes off on a road trip with her coworker, Kendall, to be the first to find the clues.

I haven't read too many road trip stories, but I really enjoyed this one! I listened to this on audio, and I think the narrator did a great job bringing these characters alive. This is told in alternating timelines between the present road trip, and flashbacks to the 1960s through out Decklee's career. I thought the hunt for the time capsule was fun, but I was more invested in Decklee's chapters. She wasn't a particularly good person, and is very flawed, but I couldn't help but root for her as her career progressed. It broke my heart watching her have to keep her true self hidden, especially when it came to Mickinlee Hooper. Their relationship was very toxic, but I couldn't help wanting them to work out. I loved both timelines and loved how they subtly wove together through finding the clues, and then getting a flashback of how it was relevant to Decklee's career. I thought Darren and Kendall's romance was sweet, and I liked watching their relationship grow as they searched for the clues.

The ending was such a surprise to me, but I loved it so much. I'm definitely going to be looking for more road trip stories in the future!

Enjoyed this book! Truly a mix Daisy Jones and the 6 with a scavenger hunt and Evelyn Hugo vibes. LOVED the dual timeline and ALL of the queer characters.

The premise of this book was really promising and I really liked the country elements. It was a sweet read. However, something about this book didn't quite work it for me... It was a but slow for me...

Every Time You Hear That Song is a YA story where we see two young women embark on the same journey 60 years apart. Darren Purchase has always felt a strong kinship to country music icon Decklee Cassel: both are from the same small Arkansas town, Darren wants to leave town as soon as possible, and Darren also suspects the pair may also share being queer. When Decklee dies, she leaves a message to her fans that she has one final album for them-if they can follow her clues to find it. Finding the songs would give Darren a final part of the artist she loves, a once in a lifetime story for her journalism instagram account, and money her single mom needs to pay for her cancer bills. On the quest with her coworker Kendall, Darren hopes to find the lost songs- but also ends up finding a sense of understanding she hadn't expected.

The story features similarities to The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Huego in that it tells the story of the hardships of a queer celebrity in the mid to late 1900's. Both of these books will get tagged in the romance genre, but I would consider this having less romance between the two characters in the past timeline and the romance between Kendall and Darren in the current timeline is pretty minor. Much like Evelyn Huego, there is a twist in the story that took me by surprise (although looking back through previous passages there are hints of it laid out). Overall I enjoyed this book, I liked all the pop culture references in the present timeline but I found the story in the past timeline hard to follow at times. I didn't get the full sense of what Decklee's goal for herself was outside of being at the top of the industry, and I wished there was a better sense of closure in her story since the events of it leave me with somewhat of a sad feeling.

Thank you Penguin Young Readers Group and NetGalley for an advanced readers copy of this book.

While normally I enjoy dual timelines, something about this one was hard to really lose myself into. Partly I think it was a pacing issue, but also I think bouncing around between the two meant I never really felt I knew all that much about either of them. When I step back and look at what I read, I do enjoy it, but in the moment of reading, it was hard to immerse myself and sometimes dragged. Overall, I did enjoy it, but I do wish some parts of the execution had been better.

THIS BOOK. I love it so much. My little country music loving heart can’t take it and I love the mystery of trying to figure out the time capsule. The singer in the novel, Decklee,’s story reminds me a lot of Dolly’s. Also, the journey to romance. Ah. Give me more Jenna. Thank you.

Frankly, there was no way I wasn’t going to love this book. Sapphic Dolly Parton-esque country singer throws a posthumous treasure hunt for fans to find her last album? I was hooked before I even started reading. A dual POV split between Decklee Cassel’s rise to stardom in the 60s and superfan Darren’s quest to win her treasure hunt in the modern day, the pacing never once faltered. If anything, I’d have liked to spend more time with Decklee, although the glimpses of her career’s pivotal moments were more than sufficient to paint a picture of both her professional and personal life. In the present, Darren’s road trip with co-worker Kendall was at once lighthearted and deeply emotional. Her desire to escape Mayberry for good while slowly, inadvertently falling back in love with it felt so true to the experience of growing up in a small town, with an added layer of depth from her queer identity. Some of the plot milestones were slightly predictable, especially the final twist, but this only made the experience of piecing together the puzzle so much more satisfying. Overall, this was an absolute blast of a road trip/treasure hunt/historical music novel, one that would be just as much fun adapted for the screen in the style of Daisy Jones and the Six.

I enjoy the premise of this book and the idea of two teenage girls in different timelines discovering more about themselves and finding a place where they can live authentically. However, I ultimately felt like some parts were not fully fleshed out and I wasn’t sure what message about small town life the current timeline meant to leave us with. I found myself drawing numerous comparisons between this book and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid, from the actions of the characters in the historical timeline, to the dual POV with a young reporter as the current timeline’s main character. Teenagers who haven't read Reid’s adult novel may connect better with this story. The best takeaway from this book is perhaps to reflect on how one’s actions affect others. A secondary purchase for YA collections.