And love wounds with such simplicity: YOU'D BE MINE.

You'd Be Mine by Erin Hahn

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Clay Coolidge is a country music superstar. He sings successful songs about girls and drinking and trucks. But he has a bad boy reputation and pattern of behavior to go along with his good looks and soon his record company will only keep him under one condition: if he agrees to do his summer tour with Annie Mathers. Mathers, meanwhile, is the daughter of Cora Rosewood and Robbie Mathers, also known as country music royalty. Annie grew up in country music. As she states, she knew the words to "Coal Miner's Daughter" before she learned her alphabet. But her parents died when she was a teen, and she turned away from music, living with her grandparents on their farm. But snippets of Annie's music with her band, best friend Jason Diaz and her cousin, Kacey Rosewood, have made it on the Internet, and they are wowing everyone. Annie agrees to join Clay's tour, because--no matter how hard she tries--she can't stop loving music. But she doesn't want a relationship with anyone in the music industry. It's what tore her parents apart. Still, the more time she spends with Clay, she can't help but see beyond that bad boy "trucks and girls" persona. And she wants to know more.


"Either you tour with Annie Mathers or you don't tour at all. I'm willing to take the loss on your contract. We have plenty of eager young talent ready to fill your spot."


I was so excited to read this book, because I love country music with all my heart, especially some of the older music that Hahn weaves into this book. I read this on the heels of WHEN IT'S REAL and couldn't help but compare the two. I fell hard for REAL. My reaction for MINE varied, though I still enjoyed it a lot; for sure, the two--while romances--are very dissimilar in many ways.

This book has some really dark tones to it, and both Clay and Annie are struggling with some major demons. Each have dealt with some major sadness in their lives, and Annie's past with her parents is honestly just awful. As a result, this isn't a light, fluffy romance, and it has some surprising emotional depth to it and its characters. Annie, especially, is really easy to like and to root for.


"Everything in me speaks music with a fluent tongue. Surely it's genetic, but my parents certainly haven't done me any favors. If anything, their deaths nearly killed the music in my soul."


As I said, I quite enjoyed the music aspect of the book. Not just the country music part, but the overall fact that the book is centered around a tour. It's really fun to get glimpses into tour life--especially since everyone is so young. Pretty crazy how much responsibility and freedom they all have. There's also a lot of songwriting and emotions displayed through songwriting, which I loved. (Side note: As a child, I always dreamed of being a country singer-songwriter. This was probably due to my intense love of Mary Chapin Carpenter, which lives on to this day. Alas, I cannot carry a tune or read music, so this dream has yet to come to fruition.)


"That's the glorious thing about music. It speaks to the very heart of things in the most absolute and obtrusive way."


The one hard thing for me was that the book got rather repetitive in the middle with both Clay and Annie going on about how they were wrong for each other. It seemed to stall the plot for a while, as I felt like we were waiting for a bit for something to happen. Yes, we realize each was damaged, but it seemed like the book hit on that just a little too much/too often for a while.

Still, this was a really good read. It's very emotional and honestly heartbreaking at times. If you're a music buff, I think you'll enjoy it even more, because of all the musical scenes and songs woven into the book. The characters are very real and go through a lot. There's no insta-romance, and you will root for Annie and Clay, even though you'll want things to move along a bit in the middle. I totally cried at the end, which is a major sign that Hahn did a good job. 3.75 stars, rounded to 4.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher and Netgalley in return for an unbiased review (thank you!); it is available everywhere as of 04/02/2019.

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