AUTHOR: Giles Fraser
PUBLISHER: Matador Books
PUBLISHING DATE: May 28, 2021
PAGES: 336
SOURCE: ARC
FROM GOODREADS: How do you survive when a lucky break turns out to be the worst thing that ever happened to you?
Nick Hunter is about to find out. He made a colossal mistake when he was barely out of school and now his whole world is in jeopardy as he races against the clock to save his family and his business from disaster.
In 1979 Hunter heads to London, and a squat in Notting Hill, with dreams of musical success. With his fellow squatters he forms a band and they record four short songs before tensions and misunderstandings drive them apart. Nick lies and tells the record company the songs are all his own work. Six years later one of the songs, Let’s Fly, is picked as the soundtrack to a blockbuster movie and Nick makes a fortune in royalties.
In 2017, Nick, his wife Sam and daughter Jen now live in the house opposite his old squat. His successful gig economy, online food business is about to go public, but someone is on his back. Nick is in massive debt and the heavies are closing in. Disasters are befalling the business just at the wrong time. Then Sam is snatched and, with a price on her head, Nick must come up with the money or lose her. With his life and family on the line – and just days to play with - Nick has to stop whoever is destroying his life and come clean with those he loves in order to hang on to everything he holds dear.
Nick Hunter is about to find out. He made a colossal mistake when he was barely out of school and now his whole world is in jeopardy as he races against the clock to save his family and his business from disaster.
In 1979 Hunter heads to London, and a squat in Notting Hill, with dreams of musical success. With his fellow squatters he forms a band and they record four short songs before tensions and misunderstandings drive them apart. Nick lies and tells the record company the songs are all his own work. Six years later one of the songs, Let’s Fly, is picked as the soundtrack to a blockbuster movie and Nick makes a fortune in royalties.
In 2017, Nick, his wife Sam and daughter Jen now live in the house opposite his old squat. His successful gig economy, online food business is about to go public, but someone is on his back. Nick is in massive debt and the heavies are closing in. Disasters are befalling the business just at the wrong time. Then Sam is snatched and, with a price on her head, Nick must come up with the money or lose her. With his life and family on the line – and just days to play with - Nick has to stop whoever is destroying his life and come clean with those he loves in order to hang on to everything he holds dear.
MY THOUGHTS: When the book opens the reader sees the main character, Nick, down on his luck after having lost everything. We are then transported back into the 1970's where we learn Nick used to be in a bad which eventually split up and then he made some pretty questionable decisions as life progressed. Little by little the story unravels and the reader gets a good picture of what exactly led to Nick's miserable position when the tale first opened.
While I never really loved Nick as a character, it was interesting to see what happened to him. I love anything related to music so the parts about Nick and his band were extremely enjoyable, even if everyone made some stupid decisions along the way. I also really liked how Fraser portrayed Nick - flaws and all.
This was a relatively quick read and I would not hesitate to pick up another book by this author in the future. If you like coming of age stories and don't mind a somewhat depressing scenario along the way, then I'd highly recommend Let's Fly.
RATING: 4 PAWS
This seems really different from your usual read, but I can see why you wanted to try it. I love music centric stories too, and the 70s setting sounds like fun😁
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