I’ll admit that I like a good rock star novel. Maybe it’s left over from my teen years, when I adulated some musicians a wee bit much. Maybe I like the grand gesture of someone giving up all the things the world prizes – fame, fortune, and celebrity status – for things more lasting, like love, faith, and family. At any rate, here are some novels with rock star characters that I’ve enjoyed over the years. Oh, and I’m interpreting “rock star” loosely here. Country stars count too.

Relevant Fiction Reviews: Rock Stars – Novels featuring those who've made it to the top! Where do they go next and what *really* matters? #relevantfictionreviews Share on X Love and the Silver Lining by Tammy L. Gray
Anyone who’s done all the “right” things and seen their dreams dashed will relate to Darcy, whose world is upended by her parents’ sudden divorce and the cancellation of the mission trip she’s painstakingly planned.

Mired in grief, anger, and depression, Darcy needs a soft place to land. Her lifetime best friend Cameron (a guy) offers his place, but instead Darcy accepts the invitation of Zoe, sister of Cameron’s bandmate Bryson. Darcy is glaringly oblivious to the feelings of both Bryson and Cameron, and that leads to trouble.

Love and the Silver Lining may be Tammy Gray’s best novel. The characters are relatable and multi-layered, the attraction palpable, and Darcy’s job readying abandonment dogs for adoption dovetails nicely with her own healing.

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The Last Shot by Amy Matayo
As a writer, I may have been afraid to tackle this one: a romance instigated by a deranged shooter at a concert where the hero is both the star of the show and the target. But Amy Matayo makes it work, not minimizing the horror yet allowing the characters to develop an intimacy borne of tragedy but sustained by attraction and connection. I don’t know if any of my favorite authors get into a character’s head better. The characters sizzles with chemistry and a couple of heated kisses suited to a sex symbol country star and the woman who saves him – in more ways than one.

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The Whys Have It by Amy Matayo
Amy Matayo gets into a character’s head perhaps better than any author I read. She gets in so deeply that the quirks, the contradictions, and the repeated turns of phrase all work together to draw the reader deeply into their broken lives.

Sam(antha) is as likable a heroine as there is – strong, good-hearted, and willing to endure whatever life throws at her without growing cynical or cold-hearted. Sad and lonely, yes, but cold-hearted, no.

Then there’s Cory, whose modus operandus when it comes to pain is to run, chasing fame, money, women, and whatever temporal pleasure he encounters. Until he can’t run anymore.

And that’s where the heartbreaking beauty of The Whys Have It lies. In two broken people who suit each other despite all the pain in their pasts, chasing their heels into the present.

I so quickly grew attached to these characters that the book was hard to put down. Amy Matayo remains one of my favorite authors, a must-read.

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Infinity + One by Amy Harmon
“I can put this book down at any time. It’s different than Amy Harmon’s other books I’ve read.” That’s what I kept telling myself until I realized I was lurking outside my own bedroom door after 1:00 a.m. knowing I had to be up in under five hours but was intent on finishing the novel!

Amy Harmon creates wonderful characters who are simultaneously unique and universal. Take Finn Clyde. Probably not many ex-con/surviving twin/mathematicians in the reading audience, but plenty of people who know loss and loneliness. Or how about Bonnie Rae Shelby? Very few hillbilly singing/songwriting superstars, but lots of people who know how it feels to be trapped, not in control, or grief-stricken. That juxtaposition of ordinary and extraordinary makes the characters both memorable and relatable.

I love that Amy Harmon’s romances do not include explicit sex scenes for a host of reasons. When it became obvious **spoiler alert** that Finn and Bonnie were going to consummate their marriage I was anxious that it might degenerate into a description of parts and actions which, frankly, would have been a huge letdown. Instead, I was treated to about the most beautiful (non-explicit) description of married love I’ve ever read.

I thought I would be put off by the switch between the first-person and third-person point of view, but I wasn’t. It was seamless. As usual in Amy Harmon’s book, there are lots of interesting layers. There’s history, morality, action, romance woven all over the place.

Kudos, Amy! Another book that will stay on my Kindle indefinitely to be re-read and savored.

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One Night With a Rock Star by Chana Keefer
I read this book twice – an uncommon thing for me – back in 2013. Eight years later, it still holds a place in my heart. Without re-reading (again), I can’t say for sure how well it’d hold up to a reader who is now a writer, but I can say that this story of a wholesome faithful girl (Esther) with immovable convictions who influences a worldly rock star (Sky) inspired me in my own writing and hit all the right romance buttons, showing real human attraction and sexuality without comprising principles.

As I think about it now, I realize that One Night with a Rock Star got right what one of the most influential movies of my childhood, Grease, got wrong. Principles shouldn’t collapse for “love.” Love should rise to meet those principles. And maybe that’s why one reason why I loved this story so much. And who doesn’t love a rock star romance?

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One Night With a Rock Star: part deux by Chana Keefer
I loved One Night With A Rock Star so much I re-read it, something I rarely do. I eagerly looked forward to the sequel, Part Deux.

What struck me most about this book was the author’s willingness to take on evil, essentially freeing her hero of a demonic obsession. Not ordinary fare for a fairytale romance.

Kudos to Chana Keefer for her sobering and gripping depiction of the subtle manifestation of evil in our lives. My only qualm was what amounted to a lay exorcism of sorts, something I’d have preferred to seen addressed by a trained priest exorcist.

Part Deux reads more like a memoir than a romance in its storytelling. The upside is that the reader is further drawn into the lives of Esther and Sky, whose newlywed love is endearing. It’s a joy to witness (“offscreen”) the consummation and continuation of their married union and loving intimacy. It is real and sensual without become tawdry or in any way pornographic.

The downside to this type of storytelling is a rambling plot, which at times did not seem cohesive. It may be that I’ve become a more critical reader since I read One Night With A Rock Star, but this book felt less structured, lacking in foreshadowing, and therefore less satisfying. Again, the draw here is the characters.

There were some good subplots involving sex trafficking and the “adult” industry. The struggles of marriage, difficulties of superstardom, pregnancy loss, and incorporating faith into life with integrity and without compromise are all addressed. They are handled well, but I wondered at times if the author tried to tackle too much.

All in all, an enjoyable continuation of Esther and Sky’s love story.

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The One Who Rocked Away by Joanna Alonzo
The One Who Rocked Away is the second-chance romance of childhood friends Serene and Nolan. Serene is a pastor’s daughter with loving parents who has a deep experience of faith tied to her painting. Nolan’s parents are estranged, and he and his sister live in the shadow of their father and older brother’s addiction and eventual death.

Nolan benefits from the love shown by Serene’s family, but somewhere along the way, he puts Serene ahead of God as his greatest love, and bit by bit Serene and Nolan’s relationship begins to unravel despite their deep love for one another.

Enter the lures of fame and wealth for Nolan that eventually land him at rock bottom where (no surprise here) he and Serene can try again.

I liked the characters and the storyline well enough, and the ending resolved just as the reader would hope.

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And, from the days before my compulsion to review everything I read:

• Some Enchanted Evening by Clari Dees
• Fifteen Minutes by Karen Kingsbury
• Cowboy by Staci Stallings
• Her Minnesota Man by Brenda Coulter

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