Welcome to our stop for The Bad Decisions Playlist hosted by Rockstar Blog Tours!
Author: Michael Rubens
Pub. Date: August 2, 2016
Publisher: Clarion Books
Pages: 304
Formats: Hardcover, eBook
Find it: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Goodreads
Austin, 16, a self-described screwup, finds out that his father isn’t dead. He’s alive, and moreover he’s Shane Tyler, a famous singer/guitarist/song writer—Austin’s dream for himself. But Shane is battling his own demons, and Austin must figure out how to grow up on his own terms.
We all make bad decisions. There’s no time in our life that we have considered it to be perfect, or that every decision that we have made is top notch. And, this amazing book by Michael Rubens, showcases a character that anyone who has made bad decisions, with a lot of potential, can relate to.
In the book, according to the synopsis, sixteen-year-old Austin is always messing up and then joking his way out of tough spots. The sudden appearance of his allegedly dead father, who happens to be the very-much-alive rock star Shane Tyler, stops him cold. Austin—a talented musician himself—is sucked into his newfound father’s alluring music-biz orbit, pulling his true love, Josephine, along with him. None of Austin’s previous bad decisions, resulting in broken instruments, broken hearts, and broken dreams, can top this one. Witty, audacious, and taking adolescence to the max, Austin is dragged kicking and screaming toward adulthood with a series of events that make him realize it’s time to grow up.
This book’s character and realism really got to me and I was touched by the story. Growing up is never easy, and the novel showcases this fact as the character is strewn through a variety of experiences and situations that make us understand him more. I honestly don’t want to give anything away to readers, but I must say that this is certainly a must-read full of heart, humor and emotional moments.
The book was painfully realistic, and it gets so tough and hard to watch Austin mess up time after time. It was also hard to start to feel hopeful with him only to come crashing down when he made more mistakes…but in the end, who in life hasn’t made mistakes of their own and come out stronger in the end? Pick up this book and you will find yourself drawn to this world and realize that we all, in the end, are human after all.
I truly loved the book and gave it 4 stars…hoping you all decide to pick it up as well as a great summer read full of reality and heart.
Michael Rubens is the author of The Sheriff of Yrnameer and Sons of the 613. He was a producer for several years for the Emmy- and Peabody-award-winning Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and has written and produced for CNN, Oxygen, the Travel Channel and other networks. It’s theoretically possible that you saw him as the host of Eclipse Chasers: Ghana on the Travel Channel. He was also, for a very brief period, the World’s Least Effective Bouncer. He lives with his wife and daughter in Brooklyn, New York, and feels that the practice of writing one’s bio in the third person is somewhat questionable.
He is represented by John Silbersack at Trident Media Group.
Follow the Tour below!
Week One:
7/25/2016- The Cover Contessa- Guest Post
7/26/2016- Owl Always Be Reading- Review
7/27/2016- Once Upon a Twilight- Excerpt
7/28/2016- James and the Giant Book- Review
7/29/2016- Fall Into Books- Guest Post
Week Two:
8/1/2016- YA Book Madness- Review
8/2/2016- Curling Up With A Good Book- Guest Post
8/3/2016- Here's to Happy Endings- Review
8/4/2016- Books and Ladders- Excerpt
8/5/2016- Riddle's Reviews- Review
This sounds like an awesome book! Most children want to be like their father on personality terms but Austin wants to be who his father actually is, a guitarist. Amazing blurb!
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