ALA Booklist (Sun Oct 01 00:00:00 CDT 2017)

Susannah Hayes has always been in awe of her ex-rocker father and treasures the late-night songwriting sessions they have together even as she fights to hold his attention. When he dies suddenly, Susannah's mother moves them both to another part of Southern California to live with the grandmother Susannah's always believed to be dead. As she deals with her grief, Susannah also finds herself entangled with a local band, at first just hanging out with the band and its posse, then writing songs and even singing with them. But as intoxicating as her new life is, the past catches up with it, and one way or another, Susannah will have to deal with the things that she and both her parents have left behind. Set over Susannah's last year of high school, this is a thoughtful, literary first book. Quite a few plotlines are packed into it, and one or two wouldn't be missed, but fans of character-driven coming-of-age stories will find all they could want and more.

Horn Book (Mon Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2019)

After the devastating sudden death of her former-rock-star father and an unexpected move to a new city, seventeen-year-old aspiring songwriter Susannah joins a band and discovers she's not the only one with a troubled past. Creatively using weather in the Southern California setting to reflect the characters' emotional states, this debut novel is an affecting, intense story about identity, grief, music, and family.

Kirkus Reviews

In the wake of loss, a teen musician struggles to get her groove back.Susannah Hayes cherishes the long tradition of midnight music lessons in her father's home studio. Here, along with chord progressions and songwriting, her dad taught her to trust her instincts and her heart. But lately, her dad, a former rock star, has been longing for the past, making it difficult for Susannah to connect with him in the present. When her father dies, any hope of reconnecting goes with him. As proxy, she resolves to locate his former band members, but before she can begin the legwork, financial hardship dictates that she and her mother move away from the life she's always known. With the move, Susannah finds herself struggling to start over while mourning her loss. A lot happens to the grieving teen over the course of the 400-plus pages, but Smetana deftly avoids overwhelming readers. Susannah has three potential suitors; she fights to come to grips with her mother's new dating life; she meets the grandmother whom she'd been led to believe dead; and she works to hold onto her best friend from her old life while making music with new friends. Susannah's first-person narration is punctuated with evocative descriptions of the Santa Anas and the wildfires they bring—characters in their own right. Characters appear white by default with the exception of a love interest with a Latino surname.A touching, albeit lengthy, story about the painful process of moving on. (Fiction. 15-18)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

After Susannah's father, a former rock star, crashes his car in what looks like suicide, her mother moves them in with her mother, Vivian, forcing Susannah at the height of her grief to juggle a new school and a grandmother she's never met. She immediately makes friends, though, with Lynn, a bar-going partier who is best friends with a group of musicians. They allow sensitive, hopeful, song-writing Susannah to explore her musical affinities and talent, which helps her feel close to her father, but Lynn's friendship comes with problems Susannah did not anticipate. Susannah's drifting among romantic partners stalls the narrative's momentum, but when Smetana sticks close to the intermingling of music, family issues, and the joy to be found through creative outpouring, the result is emotionally layered and moving. Ages 14-up. Agent: Jess Regel, Foundry Literary + Media. (Mar.)

School Library Journal (Fri Dec 01 00:00:00 CST 2017)

Gr 9 Up-Senior year for Susannah is less about college applications than it is about writing the perfect song. She craves the validation of her aloof, formerrock star father who is too busy running from the present in an attempt to recapture the past. His unexpected death shatters Susannah's world, throwing her into a new town rife with secretsfrom the grandmother she thought was dead to a new friend who seems too good to be true. A fresh start might not be so bad, especially when she gets the chance to join a band and bring her music to life. Susannah even gets to perform at her dream venue, The Troubadour, but somehow it doesn't feel right. Her bandmates seem to be pushing her away, her new best friend is hiding something, and the music has lost its magic. Susannah's journey will challenge everything she thought she knew about her father and herself. Smetana expertly rests her story against a cool rock-and-roll California background. There is a balance between the romantic ideal of playing guitar in dim back rooms with the reality of drunk partygoers oblivious to the emotional toll creativity can take. The journey takes precedence over the destination in this evenly paced novel. VERDICT An atmospheric voyage through grief and self-discovery perfect for fans of Julie Buxbaum's Tell Me Three Things and Tim Federle's The Great American Whatever. Carrie Finberg, South Park High School, PA