Dear Rockstar by Selena Kitt

I received this book for free from BookSprout to facilitate my review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The best things in life are crazy... Sara is obsessed with rock star Tyler Vincent, and as she works to complete her senior year, she's determined to find a way to meet him-although her best friend, Aimee, keeps telling her to find a different escape from her desperately violent home life. Complications arise when Dale, the mysterious new transfer student, sets his sights on Sara, and she falls for this rock-star-in-the-making in spite of her better judgment. When Sara wins a contest, she is faced with a choice-travel to Tyler Vincent's home town to meet him, or stay and support Dale in a Battle-of-the-Bands hosted by MTV. Their triangulated relationship is pushed to its breaking point, but there is another, deeper secret Dale's been keeping that just may break things wide open... Turn up your collar, feather your hair, and splash on some Polo, because we're going back to the '80's when MTV played music videos, there was no such thing as American Idol, and becoming a star meant doing nothing short of crazy for that one, big break.

If you’re a teenager looking for a new book about teen angst and relationships, don’t bother with this one. Yes, I know the description reads like a really cool YA novel that is set in the 1980s. But it’s not. Trust me. There’s a warning that I found at the very end of the book that should have been at the beginning – this book is for purchase/reading by adults only. There’s a very good reason for that.

For one thing, although it does take a bit to get to it, there are some explicit sex scenes in the book. Not enough to make me say the novel is exactly erotica – most erotica novels I’ve read don’t have a plot other than having sex – but enough to know that this book isn’t for anyone who isn’t an adult. Another thing that made me realize this book was not for teens but for adults were the themes of domestic violence, marital infidelity, and even eating disorders that come up in the book. This book has a plot and “smut” isn’t it.

I found Sara to be a sweet, lovable character who is simply caught in a horrible situation. Because of this, she’s become obsessed with Tyler Vincent, a rock star & actor. She writes him “letters” which are never sent, just kept in a notebook because they are more or less her diary. Sara’s best friend Aimee is also sweet, lovable, and has her own issues to work through – some of which we see in the book. After seeing a glimpse of Aimee’s story in the book, I’d actually like to see a sequel of sorts to this one that explores more of Aimee’s story, just because. Dale is the kind of guy I’d love to have around. He cares more for Sara than you’d think he would and given what you’ll find out as the book goes on, he’s extremely tolerant of Sara’s obsession with Tyler Vincent.

This book was extremely well written. I had to look up a few things to make sure they’d have been in use in the 80s because there were a couple of things I thought were too modern – but I was wrong, they were in use back then, I just didn’t remember them. If there were any spelling or grammar errors, I missed them because I was too busy paying attention to the story itself.

I gave this one 4 stars because it’s a very well written book, but I wasn’t expecting the type of book I got based on the description and synopsis.