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A review by fiction_aficionado
The Last Shot by Amy Matayo
5.0
Wow! I knew I wouldn’t want to put this down once I started, and I was so right. This was an intense read. Riveting and oh-so-good kind of intense. Amy Matayo always creates fabulous characters who draw me in, but there’s something extra magnetic about Teddy Hayes and has been since the beginning of the series. Sure, he’s got the whole country music superstar vibe—a man who knows he’s adored and plays up to it—but there’s always been this sense that he knows the fame thing isn’t real, if I can quote Julia Roberts from a certain movie. He’s just “a guy who likes music and figured out a way to make money doing it” with all the same annoying habits as the rest of us—and the same vulnerabilities, as it turns out.
And that’s what really upped the wow factor to this book—the vulnerabilities Matayo explored and the way the characters worked through them. The first part was full of suspense, with Teddy and Jane hiding for their lives in the pitch darkness of a closet under the stage Teddy had been performing on only a minute earlier. I loved the delicious irony in the way the physical darkness stripped away all outward trappings—looks, fame, wealth—and allowed them to be “seen” by the other in a clearer, more elemental way than they would have been had they met in broad daylight.
The second half of the story delves into the emotional aftermath as Teddy and Jane try to step back into the lives they had been living prior to the shooting, and this is where Matayo’s trademark raw authenticity shines. Teddy’s struggle to take to the stage again is heart-wrenching, but Jane helps him take baby steps towards overcoming his paralysing fear and guilt in what becomes a deeply satisfying story of the kind of love that goes so much deeper than physical attraction and right to the very core of what we all ultimately crave—to be seen and to matter, just as we are, weaknesses, warts, and all. And while the tone of the novel is definitely aimed at the general market, there are several times throughout the story that Matayo points to a God who is waiting to offer exactly that kind of love, no matter where we’ve been or what we’ve done.
All that is to say: Wow! Fabulous read! When’s the next one out?
I received a copy of this novel from the author. This has not influenced the content of my review, which is my honest and unbiased opinion.
And that’s what really upped the wow factor to this book—the vulnerabilities Matayo explored and the way the characters worked through them. The first part was full of suspense, with Teddy and Jane hiding for their lives in the pitch darkness of a closet under the stage Teddy had been performing on only a minute earlier. I loved the delicious irony in the way the physical darkness stripped away all outward trappings—looks, fame, wealth—and allowed them to be “seen” by the other in a clearer, more elemental way than they would have been had they met in broad daylight.
The second half of the story delves into the emotional aftermath as Teddy and Jane try to step back into the lives they had been living prior to the shooting, and this is where Matayo’s trademark raw authenticity shines. Teddy’s struggle to take to the stage again is heart-wrenching, but Jane helps him take baby steps towards overcoming his paralysing fear and guilt in what becomes a deeply satisfying story of the kind of love that goes so much deeper than physical attraction and right to the very core of what we all ultimately crave—to be seen and to matter, just as we are, weaknesses, warts, and all. And while the tone of the novel is definitely aimed at the general market, there are several times throughout the story that Matayo points to a God who is waiting to offer exactly that kind of love, no matter where we’ve been or what we’ve done.
All that is to say: Wow! Fabulous read! When’s the next one out?
I received a copy of this novel from the author. This has not influenced the content of my review, which is my honest and unbiased opinion.