Lost in NashVegas (Rachel Hauck)

Rating: [rate 4.0]

Lost in Nash Vegas (Rachel Hauck)Last week, I stocked groceries in Freedom, Alabama. This week, I live in Nashville, Tennessee, about to take the stage at the famous Bluebird Cafe.

Sounds fantastic, doesn’t it? Only one problem, I ‘ve got stage fright.

But after years of being ruled by fear and hiding from my dream, I confronted my limited reality and left home. Forget the hometown hunk who wants to make me queen of his doublewide. Forget Momma’s doubt-inspiring tirade. I can make it in Music City…can’t I?

So I took a leap of faith, gathered my old guitar, my notebook full of songs, and packed up my ’69 Chevy pickup. Look out NashVegas!

With the help of some new friends, especially handsome Lee Rivers, my dream is about to find the light of day. But as I face my first night at the Bluebird Cafe, I realize…I might just do what comes naturally. Look for the nearest exit, and run!

Robin McAfee is an singer and songwriter…when she’s alone or when she’s in her Granddaddy’s porch. But bring her in front of a crowd, she has this really huge urge to run away like a mouse who is caught in the bright light, or a cat who’s afraid of humans.

But after some thinking and some realizations while in her hometown, she decides to make a Robin McAfee decision: try it out in Nashville as a new songwriter amidst all the songwriters around and see if she can make it.

But what if she doesn’t? What’s going to happen to “Freedom’s Song”? Will she stick it out or will she run back to her family and her best friend Arizona (no, not the same as Arizona real estate, as in a real person named after a state) and forget she ever wanted to become a songwriter?


I’ve been wanting to have a copy of this book ever since I got to read an excerpt in the West Bow Press website. Looks cool, sounds cool and I like the premise. So now I finally have a copy I read it hungrily (because I’ve been wanting some quality chicklit now but I haven’t had any since June. :p). Storywise, I like it for being unique. I like how it showed the Nashville music industry, since I’m pretty much into Nashville because of all the artists that live there (wohoo!). Although this one is more on the country music side, it’s interesting to read that even in that area, it’s still somewhat a dog-eat-dog world. In this novel, Robin has to work cleaning toilets for a living while in Nashville, criticized during her demos, ran away from a performance and even got a song stolen from her. She also “really” fell in love and helped someone get over her pills for her stage fright.

However, there’s something about how the entire story goes that doesn’t really gel on me. Like for example, Robin’s relationship with “handsome” Lee Rivers seem too rushed, even if the novel basically goes through almost a year of Robin’s stay in Nashville. There’s too little we know on Lee besides him being “handsome” and his chemistry with Robin for us to know if he is a real good guy. Also, it seemed as if things fell a little too neatly for Robin. Sure, she had some struggles, but I think it didn’t really show as the story goes on. The mother conflict is too weak in my opinion — too little tension for it to be really annoying or infuriating, unlike Phoebe Grant’s (Dreaming in Black and White) conflicts with her mom. There’s also this nonfriend fan of Robin, Mallory, who seemed more of an extra by her being there at the beginning, somewhere in the middle and at the end of the novel. It would’ve been more interesting for me if Mallory turned out to be Lee’s ex, but maybe that’s only me. ^^;

But this book is actually quite close to my heart because of the entire theme it tackles: going after your dream and remembering that God has you no matter what. And the feeling of God’s pleasure washing down on you when you’re doing something that you really, really love. :D In a way, this book reminds me a bit of Laura Jensen Walker‘s Reconstructing Natalie (which I haven’t reviewed yet) based on how the story is spread thin over Robin’s Nashville adventures and the Savannah series on how there are little bits and pieces of the story fed in different parts (only in the Savannah series, it’s more of little side stories that really don’t need to be put in the entire story, as with this one, everything connected in the end). It’s not really my “oh my gosh I love this book it’s now one of my favorites!” book, but I like it. :) It’s fresh, and it makes me want to learn a little guitar myself. ;)

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