Cynthia Starts a Band by Olivia Swindler ~ a Review

by Susan Roberts

"I guess I always thought disappearing - starting over-would be easy. People did it in stories all the time, right?  

I would slip in oblivion.  I would be a person unknown.  I would get to start over.

That my only option after all." (pg xi)

Amazon affiliate links are used on this site. A free book was provided for an honest review.

October 2021; Morgan James Fiction; 978-1631954900
ebook, print (268 pages); women's fiction

Eleanor is one of the best-known singers in the world and she and her band sell out every venue that they perform at.  At 27, she's beginning to question her life.  She wants to be free and not followed by fans and paparazzi wherever she goes.  She wants to decide what to do with her life instead of being controlled by her manager.  When she writes a love song and it becomes really popular, her manager tells her that she MUST have a relationship with Art - the one bandmate that she dislikes intensely.  The manager knows that they'll sell more records if the fans think she and Art are in love when they sing the song to each other.  When a proposal happens in the middle of a concert, she realizes that she's had enough and she gets on a bus to Seattle to stay with a cousin and start her life over.

In Seattle, she's free to make her own decisions for the first time in over ten years.   To complete her escape, she changes her name from Eleanor to Cynthia, makes new friends, and starts college.  Although her plan to hide is more difficult than she imagined,  she loves her new life. Will she be successful at starting her life over or will she miss the glamour of her old life and return?

The story is told in alternating chapters by Eleanor who explains the past and Cynthia who talks about what her life is like after she escapes.  This is a story of love - old and new, friendship and the resolve to start over.  It's the debut novel by Olivia Swindler and I plan to keep an eye out for her next book.  Cynthia Starts a Band tells the story of starting over and discovering who one is when the world isn’t looking.

Buy Cynthia Starts a Band at Amazon

Susan Roberts lives in North Carolina with her husband of over 50 years.  She grew up in Michigan but now calls North Carolina home. She enjoys reading, traveling, and spending time with her family. She reads almost anything (and the piles of books in her house prove that) but her favorite genres are Southern fiction, women's fiction, and historical fiction. Susan is a top 1% Goodreads Reviewer. You can connect with Susan on Facebook.

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