Also, from my personal lived experience, at least, Emmitt also had a lot of ideas about country music and its culture very wrong. I knew almost immediately the the author was not actually from the southeast through that line alone.

A gay teenager idealizing the *Bible Belt* of all places is not the greatest look. Especially the 'I feel like I was born in the wrong state' line. Let me preface this by saying two things: 1) I understand it's supposed to be cutesy and lighthearted 2) I am a southern gay songwriter I'd like to pass it off as character ignorance and not bad writing, but Emmitt had me cringing within the first ten minutes of the book.

Will Emmett and Luke be able get past the truths they discover…or will their relationship go down in history as just another Sad Country Love Song? Until a long-lost secret about Verna and Wanda comes to light, threatening to unravel everything. Neither boy is looking for romance, but sparks fly when they meet - and soon they’re inseparable. But when his mom’s medical bills start piling up, he takes a job at the last place he wants: a restaurant at Wanda World. As the grandson of Verna Rose, the disgraced singer who had a famous falling out with Wanda Jean, Luke knows how much pain country music has brought his family. But for now, he’s happy to do the next best thing: Stay with his aunt in Jackson Hollow, Tennessee, for the summer and perform at the amusement park owned by his idol, country legend Wanda Jean Stubbs.

Perfect for fans of Erin Hahn, Phil Stamper, and David Levithan.Įmmett Maguire wants to be country music’s biggest gay superstar - a far reach when you’re seventeen and living in Illinois. the Homo Sapiens Agenda in this heartfelt and funny contemporary romance inspired by Dollywood, about two boys who fall in love against the backdrop of a country music-themed amusement park, from debut author Brian D.

A little bit country by brian d kennedy