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A review by nahyee
An Everyday Hero by Laura Trentham
2.0
Publisher’s description: At thirty, Greer Hadley never expected to be forced home to Madison, Tennessee with her life and dreams of being a songwriter up in flames. To make matters worse, a series of bad decisions and even crappier luck lands her community service hours at a nonprofit organization that aids veterans and their families. Greer cannot fathom how she’s supposed to use music to help anyone deal with their trauma and loss when the one thing that brought her joy has failed her.
When Greer meets fifteen-year-old Ally Martinez, her plans to stay detached and do as little as possible get thrown away. New to town and dealing with the death of her father in action, she hides her emotions behind a mask of bitterness and sarcasm, but Greer is able to see past it and recognizes pieces of who she once was in Ally. The raw and obvious talent she possesses could take her to the top and Greer vows to make sure life’s negativities don’t derail Ally’s potential.
After Greer is assigned a veteran to help, she’s not surprised Emmett Lawson, the town’s golden boy, followed his family’s legacy. What leaves her shocked is the shell of a man who believes he doesn’t deserve anyone’s help. A breakthrough with Ally reminds Greer that no one is worth giving up on. So she shows up one day with his old guitar, and meets Emmett’s rage head on with her stubbornness. When a situation with Ally becomes dire, the two of them must become a team to save her—and along the way they might just save themselves too.
************
Laura Trentham’s “An Everyday Hero” is a sweet story about second chances, touching on the aftermath of war on veterans and their families. I know there are people who love this book based on some other reviews, so I will focus first on what I like before I talk about what makes this only 2 stars for me.
Greer Hadley has returned home to Madison, TN, after failing to become the superstar she thought she would be in Nashville. Too many stories make it seem like it’s easy to make it big, and this character has experienced the tough side of the music business — tending bar to make ends meet, pawning her possessions to pay the rent, NOT making it big and having to figure out her plan B.
I also like the realistic story lines of Ally Martinez and Emmett Lawson. Ally is a teenager acting out after losing her father in combat, and Emmett was the hometown high school football golden boy who lost his leg in combat and has returned home feeling the survivor’s guilt and not like a hero at all. Their emotions and reactions are exactly what you would expect from someone in their situation.
We know going into this (it is a love story after all) that Greer and Emmett will end up together, and I enjoy their interactions, although they feel a lot younger than their 30 years.
That’s the extent of what I like.
The main thing I don’t like is the author’s writing style. I like a good simile or metaphor as much as the next person, but this author is so over the top with them that it borders on ridiculous FOR ME. I started highlighting all the examples about 25% of the way through because they are so distracting, and some of them don’t even work well.
— “His face was a dark blob, and as if she were answering a Rorschach test, she said the first thing that popped into her head....”
— “Greer scooted back in her chair as if the guitar were weaponized.”
— “....anticipation burned through him like he’d injected whiskey straight into his jugular.”
— “Terrance was a bear of a man who attracted women like a beekeeper attracted bees, utilizing a smoke show to get their honey before leaving them with broken hearts.”
There is one glaring error that a book about a musician should not miss that I hope gets fixed in editing. The reference is to the song “Imagine” being by The Beatles. This was written by John Lennon long after The Beatles went their separate ways.
***SMALL SPOILERS AHEAD***
The other thing that doesn’t work for me is the way the author makes it seem like Madison and Nashville are so far apart. Part of Greer’s back story is that she doesn’t make it in Nashville. At one point, she pawns her prized guitar to pay her rent. And when Emmett goes to every pawn shop he can find between Madison and Nashville to buy back Greer’s guitar for her, it seems like it’s quite a drive — I imagined a couple of hours at least. But then I Googled it. Center to center, Nashville and Madison are 9.5 miles apart. Why on earth would Greer pawn her Dolly-signed Martin guitar to pay rent when she could have gone home?!?! I get that she was trying to make it on her own, but this was her prized possession, and I just couldn’t believe that she would make that kind of a sacrifice.
I also guessed long before the reveal that one of men that Emmett lost in combat turns out to have been Ally’s father. What I can’t believe is that Emmett doesn’t already know this since Madison is portrayed as a typical small town where everyone knows everybody else’s business.
I am certain there will be plenty of readers who will absolutely love this book. As I said, the story itself is a sweet one that I would have enjoyed more if not for the author’s style.
Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advance digital copy in exchange for an honest review. This title will be available on February 4, 2020.
When Greer meets fifteen-year-old Ally Martinez, her plans to stay detached and do as little as possible get thrown away. New to town and dealing with the death of her father in action, she hides her emotions behind a mask of bitterness and sarcasm, but Greer is able to see past it and recognizes pieces of who she once was in Ally. The raw and obvious talent she possesses could take her to the top and Greer vows to make sure life’s negativities don’t derail Ally’s potential.
After Greer is assigned a veteran to help, she’s not surprised Emmett Lawson, the town’s golden boy, followed his family’s legacy. What leaves her shocked is the shell of a man who believes he doesn’t deserve anyone’s help. A breakthrough with Ally reminds Greer that no one is worth giving up on. So she shows up one day with his old guitar, and meets Emmett’s rage head on with her stubbornness. When a situation with Ally becomes dire, the two of them must become a team to save her—and along the way they might just save themselves too.
************
Laura Trentham’s “An Everyday Hero” is a sweet story about second chances, touching on the aftermath of war on veterans and their families. I know there are people who love this book based on some other reviews, so I will focus first on what I like before I talk about what makes this only 2 stars for me.
Greer Hadley has returned home to Madison, TN, after failing to become the superstar she thought she would be in Nashville. Too many stories make it seem like it’s easy to make it big, and this character has experienced the tough side of the music business — tending bar to make ends meet, pawning her possessions to pay the rent, NOT making it big and having to figure out her plan B.
I also like the realistic story lines of Ally Martinez and Emmett Lawson. Ally is a teenager acting out after losing her father in combat, and Emmett was the hometown high school football golden boy who lost his leg in combat and has returned home feeling the survivor’s guilt and not like a hero at all. Their emotions and reactions are exactly what you would expect from someone in their situation.
We know going into this (it is a love story after all) that Greer and Emmett will end up together, and I enjoy their interactions, although they feel a lot younger than their 30 years.
That’s the extent of what I like.
The main thing I don’t like is the author’s writing style. I like a good simile or metaphor as much as the next person, but this author is so over the top with them that it borders on ridiculous FOR ME. I started highlighting all the examples about 25% of the way through because they are so distracting, and some of them don’t even work well.
— “His face was a dark blob, and as if she were answering a Rorschach test, she said the first thing that popped into her head....”
— “Greer scooted back in her chair as if the guitar were weaponized.”
— “....anticipation burned through him like he’d injected whiskey straight into his jugular.”
— “Terrance was a bear of a man who attracted women like a beekeeper attracted bees, utilizing a smoke show to get their honey before leaving them with broken hearts.”
There is one glaring error that a book about a musician should not miss that I hope gets fixed in editing. The reference is to the song “Imagine” being by The Beatles. This was written by John Lennon long after The Beatles went their separate ways.
***SMALL SPOILERS AHEAD***
The other thing that doesn’t work for me is the way the author makes it seem like Madison and Nashville are so far apart. Part of Greer’s back story is that she doesn’t make it in Nashville. At one point, she pawns her prized guitar to pay her rent. And when Emmett goes to every pawn shop he can find between Madison and Nashville to buy back Greer’s guitar for her, it seems like it’s quite a drive — I imagined a couple of hours at least. But then I Googled it. Center to center, Nashville and Madison are 9.5 miles apart. Why on earth would Greer pawn her Dolly-signed Martin guitar to pay rent when she could have gone home?!?! I get that she was trying to make it on her own, but this was her prized possession, and I just couldn’t believe that she would make that kind of a sacrifice.
I also guessed long before the reveal that one of men that Emmett lost in combat turns out to have been Ally’s father. What I can’t believe is that Emmett doesn’t already know this since Madison is portrayed as a typical small town where everyone knows everybody else’s business.
I am certain there will be plenty of readers who will absolutely love this book. As I said, the story itself is a sweet one that I would have enjoyed more if not for the author’s style.
Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advance digital copy in exchange for an honest review. This title will be available on February 4, 2020.