I am delighted to share my review today for Run Rose Run by Dolly Parton & James Patterson. It is a fabulous literary pairing and a cracking read. I also treated myself to the CD that goes with the book, after all the lyrics are mentioned throughout the book! The CD is a mix of a modern country sound as well as a more classic country, ballads and some nice bluesy numbers.

My thanks to Penguin for granting my request to read this title via NetGalley.

From America’s most beloved superstar and its greatest storyteller – a thriller about a young singer-songwriter on the rise and on the run, and determined to do whatever it takes to survive.

Every song tells a story.

She’s a star on the rise, singing about the hard life behind her.

She’s also on the run. Find a future, lose a past.

Nashville is where she’s come to claim her destiny. It’s also where the darkness she’s fled might find her. And destroy her.

Run, Rose, Run is a novel glittering with danger and desire – a story that only America’s #1 beloved entertainer and its #1 bestselling author could have created.

MY REVIEW

I had high hopes for this book when I first saw it, I mean Dolly Parton and James Patterson teaming up to write a book sounds amazing. Both are amazing writers in their own fields and they both have had amazing success over the years.

Run Rose Run is a wonderful story about a young singer, AnnieLee Keyes. She hitches her way to a run-down bar and asks if she can sing on their small stage. A random bloke happens to be there and has a slot after AnnieLee. A chance meeting or fate, either way, is the start of something for them both.

So, who is Rose, and why is she running? That is something that you will soon discover for yourself.

The authors have mixed the goings-on of Nashville and Country music with a fabulously tense mystery. I really enjoyed the way that the older legends of country music get a mention and how the industry is explored in this novel. Yeah, there is the glamour, glitz and rhinestones. There is also the damp bars, the hitch-hiking, and being one of the thousands hoping to see their name in lights. The balance between the up and coming singer against an established legend was great.

Around the music is an underlying mystery, this starts in quite a subtle way. If you are like me and don’t tend to read the synopsis for books, then the obvious title kind of hints at things. Quite how we get there though is an addictive and compelling story.

As this is Dolly, there are snippets of songs and these can be found in full at the end of the book. There is also an album that she has recorded with the same songs on, and the title is the same as the book.

This story was all I had hoped it would be. It is a mix of contemporary fiction, a journey of discovery and a mystery. If you are a fan of all things Dolly then I do think you are going to love this. It was a cracking read with some wonderful heartwarming and heartbreaking moments. At times dark and it is one I would definitely recommend.

Many thanks for reading my post, a like or share would be amazing 🙂 xx