Shotgun Lovesongs / Nickolas Butler. 4 stars

[LibraryCin]

Lee, Kip, Henry, Ronny, and Beth all grew up in a small town in Wisconsin. Henry and Beth got married, had kids, and are running a farm. Lee became a famous musician who misses home. Kip moved to the city and made lots of money, but also wants to come home – he has bought the old mill in town to fix it up and make something out of it. Ronny was a cowboy on the rodeo circuit, but due to some trouble with alcohol, he hasn’t been able to do that for a while, and many people think he’s “simple” now. The book starts off with Kip getting married, so everyone is home for the wedding.

The book changes perspective with each chapter; each chapter is named with the initial of the person whose perspective it is we are following. It also goes back and forth in time from what is happening now to everyone’s memories of what happened before.

I really liked this. I thought it did a good job of portraying small towns. I just wish Beth had had some female friends of her own – mostly she was friends with Henry’s friends, but there wasn’t much in the way of other women friends in her life. I didn’t agree with everyone’s decisions in the book (especially at the end), but overall, I really enjoyed the book.

[Book Concierge]

I'm so glad you liked this.

[Ellen]

I really enjoyed this book.

[Karin]

I remember when this book was all the rage on pbt when we were on Shelfari. It was only a 3 star read for me, but I did like it.

[Kimber]

My husband and I were at B&N and I saw this on a display table and picked it up based on the buzz it's gotten here at PBT -- my husband read the blurb while we were standing in line to pay, and he ended up reading it! He liked it. Like you, LibraryCin, he liked how it portrayed small towns (he's from a small town).

It's still on my TBR, but I'll get to it eventually :)