Tracing The Stars

This book starts off with a promising premise and set-up, and a great well-rounded character in Beth. I loved the idea of the camp and Ali's music. I was looking forward to Ali and Beth finding each other and Beth's character growth as she learned to trust and love again after a bad break up.

I was a bit let down by the lack of camp in the book. I thought there would be more interaction with the camp kids and camp activities - instead they were just background... way in the background, and only for the first 25% of the book. Afterward, the story follows Beth and Ali's relationship as Ali is on tour. The hardships of a long-distance relationship can be great to explore. Unfortunately, I found myself falling asleep at the tour-bus wheel.

Despite the name - Jolt - I didn't feel anything energized, lustful or intense about the book, the story or the characters. After 40%, I found myself skimming and trying to find interesting points of character development, conflict or progress. I am not sure if it was the writing style, but the dialogue and story dragged and dragged everything else down with it.

Beth was a great character to begin with, and I loved her internal conversations with Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson. I thought that was great and really made her character unique. Ali remained a bit 2-D throughout the novel, and I actually had a better hold on the side character Val. The other characters were simply story-props.

It's a nice story with a good leading character, but it just fell flat for me and didn't have that jolt I was hoping for. 

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.