The Mixtape

3.25 stars.

When I saw The Mixtape as one of my Amazon First Reads selections, I chose it right away. It’s a romance about music, and you all know how much I love that combination. It also didn’t hurt that it had glowing reviews. But The Mixtape was kind of a mixed bag for me. I’m just going to jump right in with what worked for me and what didn’t work for me.

What worked:

The main characters, Emery and Oliver, were fleshed-out and layered, and I felt like I knew who they were.

Emery’s daughter Reese was adorable and funny and a great addition to the story.

The mental health representation was on point. It felt real and heart-breaking. And Emery’s neighbor/therapist was the therapist everyone hurting should have. She was supportive and gave great advice.

I loved Oliver’s parents and their romance. They are every couple’s goals.

I enjoyed all the songs and artists referenced and the way they were tied into the story.

What didn’t work:

The antagonists in the story were a little too over the top for me. They were almost like stereotypes, with no redeeming qualities, which is plausible but came across as unbelievable. While Oliver’s parents were perfect, Emery’s parents were the complete opposite. More of a gray area would have given the story more depth.

At about the 60% point, it started to feel like the book became overly descriptive, telling more than showing. Especially with the romance.

This is probably just my own bias but the love scenes didn’t seem to flow naturally from one scene to the next. They were jarring, taking me out of the story.

And finally, there were too many epilogues. I don’t know if any epilogues were even necessary.

But all of my dislikes are things that could have been fixed, so there is quality within the pages.

From what I’ve read from other reviewers who didn’t necessarily love this one, they did love Cherry’s previous books, so I would definitely pick up another book by the author.

Check out my reviews and playlists at A Book Wanderer

⭐⭐⭐⭐️ / 4 stars

A highly emotional rockstar romance full of angst, loss, and abuse but also a tremendous amount of love.

Emery's daughter stole the show for me and Oliver had me smitten from the get-go.

There were a couple of "bedroom" scenes where some of the phrasing just didn't feel like it flowed with the tone of this book and had me slightly wincing, but overall it's a great read.

Gorgeous book. Deals with so much real issues like generational trauma, walking away from toxic family members, never giving up on yourself.
It is a lovely read

There was a slow build at first of the two MCs getting used to each other. There then was some ruffle of feathers that was so funny. Then to them being deeply bonded friends that was so beautiful.
I love their little intimate moments of bonding, and of course the way they became a solid system for each other was so wonderful as well.

I can't wait to read another book by Ms. Cherry.

When I'm with my book club, I really try to give romance selections a chance despite how much I can't stand them (they're such a magnet for terrible writing), but I was turned off from the first go. Cliches I don't mind, as it's really hard to write outside of them but to hit a good number of cliches poorly, that's where I do mind. Her writing was a poor reflection of many already tired tropes, and I couldn't get past it. The descriptions of the characters were flowery and confusing to me as they probably were to the writer given that one of the character's descriptions changed a few times during the book without context How does Reese's hair change from wavy charcoal (help) to tangled brown hair. I was terrible at art in school but I'm pretty sure charcoal and brown aren't synonyms.

All in all: I tried but I couldn't. Very disappointing book.

Just a warning that I wish I knew before I started reading this.... There's some erotic material in the book that I wasn't prepared for. Besides that, there were some themes from the book that resonated strongly with me. It's reassuring to know that there are others out there like me that battle with depression. It's not a constant in the hole feeling but it's up and down pretty often. The down is really dark. But reading this book made me feel a little better. I enjoyed this book quite well. It wasn't my favorite but I would recommend it. The story is very well written and sucks it's readers in and holding them in until they finish the book. It was very hard to put the book down to resume my life.