Today, we are a stop on the blog tour for Date with a Rockstar by Sarah Gagnon. Check out our review and look for the giveaway at the end.
Monet isn’t just another lust-struck teenager trying to win the heart of Rock God Jeremy Bane–she needs the prize money from his new reality show to cure her illness. Monet has Fluxem, a contagious disease that’s spread through saliva. It’s completely curable if you have enough money, which she and her single mother don’t. Now that she’s on the show, Monet has to work harder to keep her Fluxem hidden. She only has to keep the secret long enough to woo Jeremy Bane so he picks her as the winner. She doesn’t even care about the love part; the prize alone will change her life. But the real Jeremy Bane is nothing like she imagined. Monet finds herself fighting against feelings that make her want to give in to her attraction and Jeremy’s attempts for a kiss. The further she goes in the competition, the more impossible it becomes to resist him–and when the producers turn the tables and start digging up dirt on the contestants, Monet fears her secret will be revealed before she’s ready and ruin everything. The only way to win Jeremy’s heart is to tell him the truth, but confessing her disease could cost her the competition, the prize money, and him.
Date with a Rockstar by Sarah Gagnon features a Bachelor-style competition in a future world. Monet is a teenage girl who enters into the competition to win a date with famous rockstar Jeremy Bane. Although Monet is a huge fan of Jeremy’s music, the real reason she enters the competition is in hopes of winning the money portion of the prize so she can cure herself of the deadly disease she is fighting. Along the way, she has to deal with mean, catty girls, scheming TV producers, and her developing disease.
This was a very entertaining read. Monet is a relatable main character; if I was in her shoes and was fighting a deadly disease and didn’t have the money, I would do the same thing and enter the competition. She has a conscience and knows it’s not necessarily the right thing to do, but it’s her only hope for being able to afford the cure. Monet has had way more than her share of bad cards handed to her by life, but she keeps going despite that. You can’t help but hope that she has better things coming in the future.
One of the things I enjoyed most about this book was the relationship between Monet and Jeremy. As you get to know him, you learn that Jeremy’s a good guy behind the famous exterior: he decided to do the reality-show because the profits would go to support childhood cancer research and not because he was really looking for a girlfriend. Hard to find a better reason than that, right? Despite the fact that the other contestants feel like Monet’s beauty is a threat to them, I liked that his attraction to Monet comes from her personality traits and not just her looks. Their relationship really is built off of mutual interests and a friendship, and it was fun seeing that connection grow.
The futuristic world built in Date with a Rockstar is well done. The air is grossly polluted and the technology is way beyond anything we have today: “‘What’s that noise?’ Eleanor asks the bellboy. ‘The water purifier, ma’am.’ Oh, I understand now. This section of ocean truly is aquamarine because they’re cleaning it. Constantly, from the sound of it.”* Gagnon’s writing is very descriptive, and I could visualize everything as I was reading.
Date with a Rockstar was very enjoyable. It’s not groundbreaking but more of an escape from reality—and that’s not a bad thing! It’s slightly reminiscent of The Selection by Kiera Cass, in terms of the TV-show dating situation, but the characters and the world they live in is very different. I’d recommend this for a fun book this summer.
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Rating: 9/10
*Quotes taken from an uncorrected advanced copy.
Spencer Hill Press is giving away one Date with a Rockstar T-shirt and one paperback copy of Date With a Rockstar for the blog tour. Enter below for your chance to win!
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