When her marriage to a handsome actor ends after only a few months, she chooses to put her pain into her music. She writes what is essentially an album of breakup songs, each one inspired by a different relationship. The lead single, “Until You,” becomes an instant hit, with her ex-husband publicly discussing how he inspired the song.
The truth is, though, the song is about her college boyfriend Max, a fellow musician who decided to stay home and run his family’s retirement home instead of pursue their romantic and musical dreams together. Now 10 years later, Riley shows up to ask Max if she can tell the world that he inspired her song. His counteroffer is to play the song on tour with her.
As they travel across the country, the song sounds great but it’s not authentic because there’s no connection between them. Both are fighting to keep their feelings in check, afraid if they pursue love again, it could shatter them forever.
I’ve seen many people refer to this book as the “Taylor Swift story”; even one of the blurbs on the back cover says, “This one is for the Swifties.” For me, knowing these things made it difficult for me to separate the main character from her alleged inspiration.
This character isn’t particularly likable. She’s immensely cynical and seems to view love—its beginning and ending—as nothing more than musical inspiration. Obviously there is more to her than meets the eye, but while I enjoyed the book, I found it hard to get fully absorbed by Riley’s story.
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