Thursday, March 22, 2012

#Strut by Bruce & Carole Hart (#Favorite #Book #Spotlight)

She's not going to stop till she's rocks to the top.
Ignored by her police chief father and feeling betrayed by her older brother, Bryan, seventeen-year-old Holly Hanna devotes all her energy to realizing her dream of becoming a rock star.
****
"Ladies and Gentlemen...Holly and the Heartbreakers!"

The kid, riding the tiger, grabs the microphone, pumping it up, taking it higher, making it hotter, rounding the bend and racing for home.

They say I'm bad,
But you know better.

Arranging her hair with a shake of her head, so that it falls about her shoulders, the kid spins around, spreads her legs wide, props her fists on her hips, beaming a knowing smile and sings—

And baby, baby, baby
I'm your hearts desire.

The spotlight snaps off.

The stage is black.

The crowd sits a moment, as if they were stunned and catching their breath. And then they go totally wild!
****
From the same husband and wife team that gifted me with Sooner or Later, Waiting Games, Now or Never and Cross Your Heart (I never got to read Breaking Up is Hard to Do), Bruce and Carole Hart's Strut rocked my world as a young adult.

Holly Hanna is 17 years old and all she wants is to be a rock 'n' roll star. And then she meets Jasper Rollins, a young and sexy rock star from the 60s who just happens to be a ghost. Holly soon discovers that the women in her family sometimes have the psychic ability to see ghosts and about how unfinished business sometimes keeps souls from moving on.

Jasper is certain his unfinished business has to do with becoming a famous rock star, so he sets out to help Holly and her band win the Cobblestone Inn's Amateur Nights Playoffs and the Showdown for a record deal. If he helps rocket her to the top, he will be able to reach the great beyond.

The thing I love most about this, is not just that the main character's name is Holly (my IRL name) but she was also a redhead (like me) but also because of the poignant definition Holly's aunt gives her about Jasper's "unfinished business," though neither Holly nor Jasper take heed to it in the pursuit of her rock star career aspirations. Her aunt's explanation that our "life's destiny" is this- that

"...in each lifetime, every soul needs to love and be loved, to know the sorrow of a love that isn't meant to be and the joy of a love that's returned in kind."

I cry every time I read this book. It doesn't sugar-coat coming-of-age. Bruce and Carole Hart handled adolescence in their novels with realism and heart. Their stories always amazed me with how easy it is to love the characters and cherish them as though they were real people you might know in your daily life.

This novel is young adult fiction and does have mild to mature language and situations. I think it is a wonderfully fantastical story that young adults, even now could relate to and would enjoy tremendously. If you can find it, I highly recommend it.

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