Dylan Read, mega pop star, is haunted by the disappearance of her teenage best friend. Years later, Dylan is at the height of her fame when Kelsey’s body is found- forcing Dylan to deal with her secret past while balancing her fame and future.

Fans of Taylor Swift will love this one (although I thought the Taylor Swift comparisons were a little too spot on at times) and it was a quick read despite being unnecessarily descriptive.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This contemporary fiction novel is about Dylan Read, a successful singer-songwriter who reminds me of Taylor Swift. Dylan is privately haunted by the loss of her best friend who disappeared right before Dylan became famous. Dylan is proud of her accomplishments, but it's hard upholding her image. She also feels guilty that Kelsey never got the chance to pursue her dreams. Although Kelsey's death is always in the background of this book, the focus is on Dylan's music and her high school friendship with Kesley.

The book tackles a lot, including grief, imposter syndrome, the music industry (especially for women), and the price of fame. I would have liked it better if it had been more focused, but I enjoyed the peak into the music industry and the life of a young celebrity. Music fans will love the excerpts of Dylan's song lyrics and the details about writing and recording them. I like Dylan and her parents and her agent/manager Sloane, but most of the other characters are very unlikable, especially the men in Dylan and Kelsey’s lives.

I was surprised when the full story behind Kelsey's death was revealed. The abrupt timeline changes (often several times in one chapter) between Dylan's current life and her past are an interesting way to tell the story, but are sometimes confusing. However, the book is engaging and entertaining and I was rooting for Dylan to succeed in her career and in love.

I received a copy of this book from Mariner Books, MB Communications, and NetGalley, but my review is voluntary and unbiased.

When her long-missing best friend turns up dead, country/pop star Dylan Read has to carefully navigate her public and private reactions. We’re along for the ride as Dylan unpacks her past and the events that influenced her music throughout her career. Singer/songwriter Dylan Read calls to mind a fictionalized Taylor Swift, and the story reads like a memoir.

Parts of the story seemed a bit slow to me, and I felt a little lost each time I put down the book and picked it back up again. Ultimately, the way the old and new were woven together was logical and helped me understand how Dylan’s past influenced her decisions throughout her career.

I’m still not sure what, exactly, Dylan did wrong with Kelsey, and just how bad it was compared to the guilt she was clearly feeling.

While I appreciated the story and the writing, the book just felt a little emotionally flat to me. Seeing it compared to Taylor Jenkins Reid, I was a little underwhelmed.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy, in exchange for an honest review.

Once More From The Top by Emily Layden, this was a new author for me which I am always looking for. This book switches back and forth between past events and present day events. After the body of a body of Dylan's best friend in high school is discovered after many years what follows is a story line that at times for me I just didn't connect with. I am sure many will really enjoy the book, but it just was not that for me. I would still recommend to others because I know not everyone enjoys the same writing styles.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and Mariner Books, and I am leaving my review voluntarily.

Dylan Read has soared through every milestone to become one of the most notorious pop princesses. With that, comes the intense obsession of her fans, a total lack of privacy and unending media attention. As a “good girl” in the industry, the media has been waiting to write about her downfall since she started her career years ago.

When her best friend Kelsey, who disappeared years ago when Dylan was sixteen, is found at the bottom of their hometown lake, both she and the media must reckon with her shared past with Kelsey, and how much she influenced Dylan’s music.

Told in alternating timelines, @emilylayden slowly unfurls Dylan’s meteoric rise to fame, and the small town roots she started with. The story touches brilliantly on the pitfalls of fame, including but not limited to intense paparazzi, obsessed fans, nosy media, sexism, being the punching bag for a man’s wrongs, and how you can possibly stay grounded when your life is oversized.

Once More From the Top is beautifully written contemporary fiction with a hint of mystery threaded throughout. Fans of stories about fame and the unnecessary roadblocks women have to charge through will love this one!

I kept waiting for something to happen. Nothing really happened. What did happen was literally so close to the end that I was disappointed.

I wanted to love this book but I just kept waiting on a twist or turn that I never really got. Overall it was a decent read and well written it just lacked the mystery thrill I was looking for.

ONCE MORE FROM THE TOP is an addictive story. I liked the dual time-lines and the mystery that it entailed. It's well-written and I can see this becoming a movie. Overall, I highly recommend it.


Many thanks for my gifted copy.

Thanks to NetGalley and Mariner Books for the advanced reader copy

The premise of this book intrigued me but the execution was only so-so. I had no real interest in the main character and was more curious about the dead girl, which is a problem when she isn't the main character.

I loved this book!!! The main character reminds the reader of Taylor Swift, both in her musical journey and her lyrics. This is a fun book to read. It’s told in dual timeline but I would have like to see a header separating the timelines as it was a little when the timeline suddenly switched. It didn’t prevent me from enjoying the book but it would be nice to have.

Once More From the Top tells the story of Dylan Read, a Taylor Swiftesque musician. Her present day story begins when the body of her teenage best friend, Kelsey, is found 15 years after Kelsey’s disappearance. This story is intertwined with the history of Dylan’s rise to fame and also her tragic friendship with Kelsey. Both timelines are equally fascinating and sad.
This books moves very quickly and expertly combines a really interesting behind the scenes look at fame as well as a beautiful and tragic coming of age story. I really, really liked this book. Emily Layden writes the inner world of girls so beautifully and is definitely a writer to watch. I’ve seen absolutely no hype about this book at all but it definitely deserves to be on all the best books of the fall lists.
Thank you to Netgalley and Mariner Books for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Everyone knows country turned pop star, Dylan Read, and her fanatics called Readers. What they don’t know is about her childhood best friend who vanished before Dylan’s fame, and influenced her music and life.

A great music fiction that honestly really reads like a memoir. It has a missing person backstory that comes more into play in the latter half. The story is in first person narration, leading to the memoir feel, but also giving a genuine look at celebrity life and how it is to feel like just a normal person, but to be idealized as more. I especially loved the poetry and lyrics, which fans often read into way more than the writer did.

“I had gotten so good at playing by the rules that I couldn’t even break them when I tried.”

Once More from the Top comes out 9/10.

I could not put ONCE MORE FROM THE TOP down! I already know that it will end up being one of my favorite books of the year. Emily Layden's debut, ALL GIRLS, is another fave of mine—I still think about it often, even though it's been a few years since I read it—so I was especially excited to receive an ARC of her latest! Meet Dylan Read, an award-winning pop star who has a knack for storytelling, whether it's crafting the lyrics for her latest hit song, or creating a narrative about herself, her life, and her career that will satisfy her fans, her team, and the public eye. Everyone thinks that they know absolutely everything about Dylan Read, but they're about to be proven wrong—because what they don't know is that Dylan's childhood best friend, Kelsey, disappeared the year before Dylan rose to fame. Now, 15 years later, as Dylan's career reaches new heights, Kelsey's body is found at the bottom of their hometown lake. As Dylan seeks to unravel the mystery of Kelsey's death, she's also forced to face the past they shared, the influence Kelsey had on her music and career, and the secrets the duo kept—from everyone else, from each other, and maybe even from themselves.

This was such a beautifully written, insightful, and gripping story! Emily Layden has such a talent for characterization and really immersing readers in Dylan's world. While Dylan is clearly inspired by some musical legends (Taylor Swift comes to mind), she still feels like her own unique figure, with so much depth and complexity to her. While the mystery aspect of the narrative was so fascinating and well-done, I especially loved how character-driven the story was—it had this quiet, introspective quality to it that had me invested throughout. Another definite highlight was the care and effort Layden takes in developing Dylan's career and her journey as a musician, even in the seemingly smaller details, like her song lyrics. Sometimes in books, fictional lyrics can feel almost cliche or sort of shoehorned into the story, but that wasn't the case here—the snippets of the songs were really well-crafted, and also super believable. It was easy to understand why Dylan's music resonated with so many fans! I honestly wished I could listen to the music described in the story, too, from the songs Dylan and Kelsey worked on together, to the albums Dylan created. ONCE MORE FROM THE TOP also tackles some interesting themes—the influence others might have on your art, the distance you can feel from someone who's supposed to be your best friend, the price of fame, the ways in which guilt can affect a person's life—and they all blend together in such a satisfying, engaging way over the course of the story. Needless to say, I would highly recommend this one! I think so many different types of readers will find something to enjoy in it. I can't wait to see what Emily Layden writes next! Thank you to NetGalley and Mariner Books for the ARC.

I enjoyed reading Once More from the Top by Emily Layden. Dylan Reed is a musician who quickly rises in fame. The novel's chapters alternate between the present and her past, which is more complicated than she'd led those around her to believe. This book was full of secrets Dylan kept buried inside her, trying always to keep her friends and family from finding out her past. When the body of her high school best friend, Kelsey, is found years after she disappeared, Dylan returns to her hometown for the funeral and faces all the memories she's fought to forget, as well as the people she left behind. The mystery of what happened to Kelsey kept me turning the pages.
Dylan's character reminds me of Taylor Swift, something I've noticed from other people who've also reviewed this book. I'm not a big fan of Taylor, but I think you might enjoy the story even if you're like me. I did find all the music references that Emily Layden put in the book added to my reading experience, and I'd love to listen to a playlist based on the book. I also enjoyed learning about the music industry.
Thanks to Mariner Books and Cindy Burnett's Thoughts From a Page Early Reads Program for the advanced copy of this book!

It was not a bad book, don't get me wrong. I enjoyed many parts and was very curious as to what would happen and how things would be uncovered. It had the tension building the way that you want a novel to. My biggest issue is that there were just as many times where I was tired of the explanation of a song or album. Detail is, of course, important in a novel, but telling me too much takes away the images I get to create in my mind. If there is time before release, I would absolutely cut this book down a bit. I bet you could cut 50ish pages out of over-explanations.

Would still recommend to read, especially if you're curious to look inside the world of a musical celebrity.

I love books that give us a look at the lived experiences of celebrities - these behind-the-scenes peek at what it's really like to be a pop musician or a movie star will always land on my TBR. However, when it's obvious that the book is inspired by one specific celebrity, it pulls me out of the story, and unfortunately that's what happened here.

Dylan Read is a global superstar, with her roots in country music but who made the jump to mainstream pop. Sound familiar? It's obvious that her career trajectory is heavily informed by Taylor Swift's biography, and as a big Swiftie, it made it hard for me to concentrate on the plot, because I was constantly taken out of the story. I really wish that the author had been slightly less obvious, or had done more of an amalgamation of famous musicians' experiences.

That being said, the book is an interesting premise. The novel opens with the discovery of a body, 15 years after a teenage girl disappeared. We learn that this girl was a close friend of Dylan's, and that she was instrumental to getting Dylan started as a songwriter and performer. Dylan pursues a career in music after her friend's disappearance, and the novel shifts between Dylan's career trajectory and her high school years, giving us perspective on her origin story. You can tell fairly early on that there are hidden truths waiting to be uncovered, but the book doesn't reveal the full picture until the very end.

If you're not a dedicated Swiftie, you will probably enjoy this story. However, the career touchpoints are simply too clearly rooted in real life for me to ever lose myself in the plot, and I struggled to enjoy myself as a result.

4 stars

I loved this book! The switching from past and present was done well and I was really into the story the whole time.

I think there is a lot of Taylor Swift inspiration for Dylan Reed and any Swifitie would enjoy finding those details/similarities.

It’s a light read and fast paced, and does give Daisy Jones and the Six vibes. I enjoyed going through Dylan’s past throughout the book, not only her developing friendship with Kelsey into high school but her also her music career from the beginning.

Thank you to NetGalley and Mariner Books for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Dylan Read has reached the level of superstar-stardom where her every move is breathlessly reported by the media and weighed for its intent. So when it is reported that someone from her past was not just missing for the past 15 years, she was indeed dead, Dylan must carefully consider how to react. That the missing girl was her childhood best friend has impacted Dylan’s life and her music profoundly.

Once More From the Top by Emily Layden tracks Dylan’s swift rise to the top of the country and billboard music charts and into a megastar while also examining the past relationships that got her there. There is a melancholy tone to the novel, a mournfulness that is especially present as Dylan imagines Kelsey’s reactions to many of her thoughts, mentally dialoguing their interactions.

This really wasn’t the book for me. The writing was solid and the character of Dylan was well executed, but the dissection of all of her songs and the long descriptions were not really of interest for me. I do think if you are really a big music fan, this story would be right up your alley.

I received this free advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review and feedback.

This book was so propulsive - I absolutely tore through it. I thought it was overall well rounded and didn’t reduce its characters to stereotypes, but the glaring similarities to Taylor Swift took me out of the story at times. I think it would have been more successful if it had been less obviously based on her career.

I loved this. Well-crafted fiction about the life, love life, and career of Taylor Swift, plus insightful commentary on fame, particularly as it is experienced by women. Much food for thought (and discussion) here.