Shauna's 4 stars Goodreads review of Colin Preston Rocked And Rolled

This book was a pretty quick read. What actually slowed me down a bit was stopping to listen to the referenced songs. I'll admit I am not the biggest Beatles fan but taking the time to listen as I went through the book did help to get me more into Colin's head. That did a lot to increase my enjoyment of the book. If you're not familiar with music from the '60s, the frequent references may prove to be a bit of a stumbling block.

The characterizations are well thought out (love the cat on the leash) and if you've been to college or just around a lot of college kids, you're pretty much guaranteed to know your own version of Colin, Jasmine, Karl, and Liz. Maybe a Chester and, if you're lucky, a Mrs. Vesquez too.

My biggest litmus test usually ends up being whether or not I actually care about the characters by the end of the book (I usually don't) and I did. Is this book going to be required reading for literature classes? Probably not. It's not an earth-shattering kind of book and it's not meant to be. It is, however, a great summer beach read and an impressive entry for a first-time author. I sincerely hope that Mr. Murray continues to turn out new books. If the first is this good, I can't wait to see a second one!

(From Shauna's 4 stars Goodreads review, Read from May 05 to 09, 2011)