It’s another blitz day! Thanks again so much to Rachel for including me on this blog blitz. Be sure to click on the banner for the rest of the schedule and more information. I mean, I know you know the drill but just in case, I might as well tell everyone, right? Right.

Tensions are building on the notorious Holds End estate.

The local community centre is fighting for survival and the murder of 15-year-old Lewis Matthews remains unsolved…

Wannabe teenage singer, Bill Robinson, just got out of hospital after surviving a vicious attack. He thinks he knows who attacked him…and why. When a violent feud escalates between him and local thug Charlie McDonnal, Bill vows to find the killer and help save the community centre by taking part in the local singing contest.

How can music bring a shattered community together? And can Bill keep his own demons at bay long enough to win the singing contest and find out who killed Lewis Matthews?

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Chantelle Atkins was born and raised in Dorset, England and still resides there now with her husband, four children and multiple pets. She is addicted to reading, writing and music and writes for both the young adult and adult genres. Her fiction is described as gritty, edgy and compelling. Her debut Young Adult novel The Mess Of Me deals with eating disorders, self-harm, fractured families and first love. Her second novel, The Boy With The Thorn In His Side follows the musical journey of a young boy attempting to escape his brutal home life and has now been developed into a 6 book series. She is also the author of This Is Nowhere and award-winning dystopian, The Tree Of Rebels, plus a collection of short stories related to her novels called Bird People and Other Stories. The award-winning Elliot Pie’s Guide To Human Nature was released through Pict Publishing in October 2018. Her next YA novel A Song For Bill Robinson will be released in December 2019. Chantelle has had multiple articles about writing published by Author’s Publish magazine.

Disclaimer: I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Rachel’s Random Resources and Pict Publishing for this free copy. All quotes in this review are taken from the Advanced Reader Copy and may change in final publication.

You know that whole saying “don’t judge a book by its cover?”

Doesn’t the cover of this book look like it’s going to be such a sweet contemporary book possibly about a musician or something?

Yeah, we’re wrong, buddy.

While it does deal with an aspiring musician, it also deals with an unsolved murder and the musician surviving a brutal attack. Nothing rainbows about it, really. It’s actually pretty sad when you think about it. There is an aspect about healing and hope intertwined in this novel, through the love of music, and I am all for that. I don’t know how many times I’ve been able to heal from my pain through certain songs or musical artists. Then again, I never had to deal with a violent attack or something like that in my life directed at me, but certainly the death of someone I know and love.

So there were a few aspects on here that I could totally relate to, and while there were others that I couldn’t, I was still able to fee an emotional connection with Bill, and just wanted him to have all the good things to come to him. I just couldn’t imagine a lot of what he went through, honestly, and I don’t know if i would have been able to survive a lot of the trauma that he went through if I were in his shoes. Major kudos to him, and and for doing his best to stay sane, stay grounded, and just stay hopeful in a world like that.

Be prepared to cry a little bit when you read this, and while some people have been said to get a little confused about the beginning, just try to keep pushing on until at least halfway. You got this!