Friday Reads: A Happy Accident by Evan Tyler

Disclaimer: I was contacted directly by the author with a request to review this book.  I received the eBook for free but any opinions about the book are my own.

First a synopsis:  A Happy Accident is a love story (inspired by Steven Tyler).   We first meet Bobby, the lead singer in a punk band at the end of 1979 and watch as he falls for Kindle.  Love at first sight as far as he's concerned.   Kindle is feisty and doesn't really believe him or his affections, having been the product of a relationship between her chambermaid mother and a guitarist in a band.  She is skeptical.   But days later, they are married simply because neither thought the other would go through with it.  Suddenly thrown into married life, rather than getting a quick annulment, they both take a wait-and-see approach and from it a simple love develops, but not one without complications.   Bobby's band is on the cusp of stardom and Kindle has aspirations of her own.   Throw in a few secrets and then add a baby into the mix and the story becomes complicated fast.  This is the first book or what I presume will be a trilogy.

This was a quick read for me...it is about 250 pages long and I liked how well the story moved.  Tyler developed the characters well and they soon come to feel like people you might actually know in real life.   I found it a bit hard to believe that any up and coming band would hang out in Manchester for a full year when they were right about to make it big...usually bands need to work their arses off a lot harder than that...but you could also see how Bobby was holding the band back with his sudden marriage.

I liked the story.  The only real beef I had was that, while it didn't really get too hung up on anything, it also avoided a lot of conflicts that could have enriched the story greatly.   For example, there is a promoter at one club that the band plays at who makes no secret of the fact that she wants to sleep with Bobby...but they are never really put into any compromising positions where it might affect Bobby's relationship with Kindle.   Not even when the same woman turns up as a student in same acting class as Kindle.

This book had a great story with a ton of potential.  I hadn't given much thought to the fact that it would be part of a trilogy so some of the sections felt disjointed, but only where it jumped ahead tot he future.  The author had contacted me based on my review for One Day and I can easily see where the comparisons can be drawn between the two.   I am looking forward to reading future books in the trilogy because this felt like something that is part of a bigger picture and I am willing to wait and see how that bigger picture unfolds.

You can pick up A Happy Accident in Paperback or for Kindle through Amazon