Review – I Would Die for You by Sandie Jones
Synopsis
From the New York Times bestselling author of the Reese’s Book Club Pick The Other Woman and The Guilt Trip comes an electrifying new novel.
Now: Nicole Forbes lives a quiet life in a small seaside Californian town with her husband and daughter. She is not expecting a writer to knock on her door asking for her personal insight into the downfall of the biggest British band of the 1980s—unveiling the threads of a life she put behind her years ago. The same day, her daughter goes missing and the school claims her aunt picked her up . . . but she doesn’t have an aunt. Convinced of a link between the two, Nicole is forced to revisit long-abandoned memories from her past to protect everything she now holds dear.
1986: Sixteen-year-old Cassie is obsessed with the hottest band in London, Secret Oktober. Harboring an intense crush on the leading man, Ben Edwards, she will do anything she can to capture his attention among the throngs of groupies at the band’s scandalous backstage parties. But when Ben discovers her older sister Nicole singing at a local bar one night, he can’t help but feel drawn to her, setting in motion a collision course that could tear their family apart.
Infused with the sounds of the 80s, this thrilling new novel from the inimitable Sandie Jones will captivate her readers, as she explores what the frenzy of fandom can lead to in this shocking blockbuster.
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Review
Sex, Drugs, Groupies, and Rock and Roll sum up this novel.
There are those fans who become obsessed with celebrities. Think back to Elvis and The Beatles, and you will have the same scenario with an up-and-coming band, Secret Oktober. The novel focuses on two of the band members, sisters Nicole and Cassie, and Cassie’s new friend, Amelia, at least for the 1986 flashbacks. In 2010, it focused on Nicole and her family. However, the past rears its ugly head when Nicole’s daughter, Hannah, goes missing after being picked up from school by an aunt. However, she doesn’t have an aunt that we know of. You can tell that Nicole is hiding something from her husband, Brad, but what? It takes most of the book to unwind the facts and the truth.
I enjoyed the dual timelines because they gave me insight into Nicole and how the events of 1986 impacted her life in 2010. Cassie’s character is depicted as an extreme groupie. She skips school and work, lies to her father, and believes she has a relationship with Ben from the band. A string of events doesn’t bode well for Cassie or her family, but the outcome is not disclosed until near the end of the book.
I wasn’t wild about the 2010 Nicole because she was still hiding her past, even from her husband. While events aren’t something to be proud of, why cover them up? I found it interesting that what she thought was the truth wasn’t quite correct. Perhaps that is why she hid the truth, avoiding the events and her role in them.
The book does leave a bit of a cliffhanger. While we can surmise what happens, it isn’t confirmed.
I was engrossed in this novel, and when I couldn’t sleep, I finished it in the wee hours.
We give this book 4 paws up.
About the Author
I’ve always enjoyed writing – in fact, English was pretty much the only exam that I passed with flying colours. However it took ten years for me to realise that I might actually be able to make a living from doing what I loved.
I worked as a journalist for the next two decades, interviewing celebrities from George Clooney to Justin Timberlake and Ozzy Osbourne to Dame Maggie Smith.
But it wasn’t until 2017 that I decided to try my hand at writing fiction – not with the intention of writing a book that would get published, but just to prove to myself that I had the dedication and willpower needed. Yet once I started, I couldn’t stop!
The result was my debut The Other Woman, which was a 2018 New York Times Bestseller and a Reese Witherspoon Pick. It also sold in fourteen other languages, and to say I’m still reeling from the shock of it all, is something of an understatement!
So afraid was I that it was just a fluke, I’ve had to work even harder to prove that it wasn’t. So followed four more titles: The First Mistake, The Half Sister, The Guilt Trip, and The Blame Game. And incredibly, my sixth novel, The Trade Off, was published in 2024.
