e-Audio, 09:18:03
Narrated by: Angel Pean
Release Date: June 21,2022
Published by: Simon & Schuster Audio
Read from: July 12-14 2022
Stand-alone
Source: Library’s Libby
TW: Sexual Harassment
For Readers Interested In: Romance, Celebrity Romance, Music Lovers, 90’s Vibes, Adult, Racial/Ethnic Diversity,For fans of My (Not So) Perfect Life and Jasmine Guillory’s While We Were Dating, a disarmingly fun debut novel follows Carlisa Henton as her life comes undone after a chance meeting with a rising pop star.
Carlisa “Carli” Henton is a musician and songwriter hoping to follow in her father’s musical footsteps. But, biding her time until she makes it big in the music industry, she works as a junior account manager at a big-name media company to cover her New York City rent. Carli meticulously balances her work with her musical endeavors as a songwriter—until a chance meeting with rising star Tau Anderson sends her calculated world into a frenzy. Their worlds collide and quickly blur the strict lines Carli has drawn between her business and her personal life, throwing Carli’s reputation—and her burgeoning songwriting career—into question.
A smart, timely, energizing romance, Good Morning, Love shows us what the glamorous New York’s music scene is really like and takes us into the lives of a rising but somewhat troubled R&B star and a promising protégé who knows her job better than she knows herself.
With fresh and honest prose, Good Morning, Love examines the uncertainty of being a new professional looking to chase a dream while also trying to survive in a world that’s not always kind to ambitious women.
*MY THOUGHTS*
This was the last book I had to read to conclude my read of all the Black Love Summer Books from Simon and Schuster. This was an awesome project and I’m glad I was able to participate. This one had so many me boxes checked that even though I mostly read and review YA, I KNEW I needed to get my hands on this one too.
First things first…. Tau. At first he gave me the ick. I wasn’t a fan of how he kept like asking her out and all that after she had already said no. But just like with Carli he grew on me. I found myself swooning at how smooth he was. And remembered that even if he didn’t exactly SAY he’d take care of her, he showed it in different ways. I did understand the way she was iffy about the whole situation tho. I wish she had Tau a little more understanding to the way she wanted to protect herself and her livelihood in the beginning. But when he started being there for both her and her own work, that’s when I was like OK TAU. He seemed like a completely different person when it came to her own projects and I think that’s what changed my mind about him.
I loved the 90’s vibes in this one. I was a 80’s baby/90’s kid, so the music and the movies that were brought up in this one really felt like a blast from the past. But I do have a question…. Is literally everyone obsessed with Love Jones like this? This is the second book in this Black Love Summer project where they watched it. And I mean I liked it, but there were others out there lol Like why did no one use Love and Basketball?! Ok maybe I’m just salty because that’s one of my favorite movies of all time, but still. I think it was still valid. The music was another story. There’s so many big names thrown into this that I had to go listen to some of the songs as they came up. And I would be a liar if I said I didn’t imagine how Tau’s voice was and how he sounded singing Good Morning, Love. I wanted so bad to hear it, especially since I had the audio, but alas it’s still just read and not sung.
The pacing of this was a bit off for me too. Like she spent the entire book saying she didn’t want to be with him but then at the end of the book she was like yep we’re together. She was jealous and stuff the whole time, but then when something happens instead of protecting herself like she had been doing, she just walked away. And then she still had doubts. I didn’t feel like her doubts were gone until the freaking epilogue. And by then I was questioning if she even trusted him. Maybe that’s just me, but it felt weird to me.
Carli was a delight to share a head space with tho. I have felt like her a million times before. From being nervous on how he’s actually thinking of you, to knowing that he could have a million other girls, to being jealous even though you said we couldn’t be a thing right now. And I was just so amazed that she handled it with such grace. Because Lordt knows when those types of things happened to me, I just wanted to shut down. She was such a smart individual and I was glad to get to know her. But even still, I think this would have benefitted from a dual POV. I would have killed to see how he felt when some scenes happened. Like when he caught so and so coming out of her apartment. Or what made him first DM her. Was he nervous when he met the parents even though he’s this huge star. You know stuff like that.
This was a shock to me. I’m not a huge fan of celebrity/billionaire romances because the one that’s not is always on the edge of no return and really needs help but will never accept it. And even though one of my least favorite tropes is there, I would still recommend it to anyone looking for a sweet romance where they fall for each other in such a sweet way. Definitely worth picking it up if you haven’t already.
Overall, I give this
