I WOULD DIE FOR YOU

Londoner Nicole Forbes loves the quiet life she and her Navy SEAL husband built in the sunny seaside town of Coronado, California. But when her daughter, Hannah, gets taken out of school one day by a mysterious woman she tells her parents is her “auntie,” Nicole fears that the past she tried to outrun more than two decades earlier has returned for a reckoning. In weaving Nicole’s first-person, present-tense perspective with one that is third person and past tense, Jones creates a fabulously addictive story about betrayal and retribution. In the 1980s, Nicole and her 16-year-old sister, Cassie, develop independent relationships with Ben Edwards, the lead singer of a hugely popular band named Secret Oktober. While Cassie is a groupie who fights for flirtatious backstage encounters with Ben, Nicole meets him at a bar, where he compliments her for a song she wrote and sang. Unknown to the star-struck Cassie, Nicole and Ben become musical collaborators and then lovers. When salacious news articles about drug parties and women come to light about Ben and his band, Nicole is heartbroken, unaware that Cassie was arrested for participating in one such party. The situation unravels quickly after that when the mysterious drug-related death of a Secret Oktober bandmate forces Ben, Nicole, and Cassie into painful realizations about themselves and each other. Well paced, intelligent, and tightly plotted, this novel will appeal not only to lovers of suspense but anyone with a penchant for stories that explore the fraught relationship between obsessive love and fame.

Mar 25, 2025 - 07:42

Londoner Nicole Forbes loves the quiet life she and her Navy SEAL husband built in the sunny seaside town of Coronado, California. But when her daughter, Hannah, gets taken out of school one day by a mysterious woman she tells her parents is her “auntie,” Nicole fears that the past she tried to outrun more than two decades earlier has returned for a reckoning. In weaving Nicole’s first-person, present-tense perspective with one that is third person and past tense, Jones creates a fabulously addictive story about betrayal and retribution. In the 1980s, Nicole and her 16-year-old sister, Cassie, develop independent relationships with Ben Edwards, the lead singer of a hugely popular band named Secret Oktober. While Cassie is a groupie who fights for flirtatious backstage encounters with Ben, Nicole meets him at a bar, where he compliments her for a song she wrote and sang. Unknown to the star-struck Cassie, Nicole and Ben become musical collaborators and then lovers. When salacious news articles about drug parties and women come to light about Ben and his band, Nicole is heartbroken, unaware that Cassie was arrested for participating in one such party. The situation unravels quickly after that when the mysterious drug-related death of a Secret Oktober bandmate forces Ben, Nicole, and Cassie into painful realizations about themselves and each other. Well paced, intelligent, and tightly plotted, this novel will appeal not only to lovers of suspense but anyone with a penchant for stories that explore the fraught relationship between obsessive love and fame.