Andi's Young Adult Books: Review of Steel Strings by Alex Hayes

Welcome to the book tour for Steel Strings by Alex Hayes! I was completely mesmerized by this book and all of its intense feels and go into detail below with my book review. There's also an excerpt for you to check out and a giveaway at the end for a $25 Amazon gift card!

Steel Strings

by Alex Hayes
Genre: YA Contemporary Romance
Release Date: December 3rd 2019

Summary:

Compelled to silence, Brianna is like a cello without strings and must fight to reclaim her voice through the instruments she creates.

Brianna Jones is a nerdy, biracial teen who dreams of bringing music to the world via orchestral instruments fashioned out of recycled materials. But she must keep her project secret from her half sister, whose mission in life is to destroy everything Brianna holds dear.

Marek Lakewood is one of the few guys who sees Brianna for whom she really is and has admired her from afar for years, but he’s never been a risk-taker, not since his father was killed on a black diamond ski slope.

When a physics project lands Marek in Brianna’s sphere, he finds himself taking bigger and bigger risks, and discovers Brianna’s life and aspirations are far more complicated than he ever imagined

Steel Strings is a contemporary romance and companion novel to the Chameleon Effect Series.

EXCERPT :

Shouts rise from the foyer as I race to the landing and slide across the hardwood floor.

My mouth pops open at the sight of Kyron, my eldest sibling and only brother. He was supposed to be spending Christmas in California with his dad, Leroy Reid, a famous Reggae artist who plays music worldwide for peace.

The guy is my kind of hero. And so is my brother.

He’s also an amazing steelpan artist who left home when he was seventeen to join the tour and play with his dad. One of Kyron’s amazing videos inspired my project of designing recycled instruments and bringing affordable music to the poor.

“Hey!” I shout, and bound down the stairs into Kyron’s arms like a five-year-old. “What are you doing here?”

Kyron swings me full circle, his dreadlocks fanning out like a cape over his shoulders. “Brian flew me out. He wants us all together for Christmas—one big happy family—and figured he’d surprise you guys.”

I grin with pleasure.

That life-changing video was taken at a concert in Guatemala. In it, a little girl fought through the crowd to see my brother play. Kyron was so affected, he set her on a milk crate and handed her his drumsticks.

I discovered that same joy, years ago, when I stole my brother’s sticks. Seeing that girl revived my own passion for music and set a fire in my heart.

My mission is to prototype orchestral instruments that anyone with moderate skills can assemble.

But it’s too soon to share my work with Kyron, though I really want to. A couple of roughed out instruments isn’t enough to prove anything. They need to be tooled and tuned until they sound like the real things.

I want my big brother to be amazed.

Steel Strings is available on Amazon and KU.

Universal link: https://mybook.to/SteelStrings

**My thoughts**

I was absolutely blown away by this novel. It grabs you right out of the gate with a horrific accident. I actually remember almost being in a similar type of situation when I was kid playing around in a car, only this goes a lot deeper than mine ever did.

Brianna is an amazing young woman. She is super smart and super talented and has this amazing goal of creating instruments out of recycled materials to help bring music to the masses. I would be honored to be her friend.

She also has a ton of problems that she manages to hide quite well. And these problems with her family are really intense when you get into them. I feel sorry for Brianna. I am annoyed with her for not doing something about it. And yet at the same time, I get it. You just hope that she finds the strength to do what she needs to do.

Marek is an amazing young man. He is also brilliant and has his own issues. They are touched on a little bit in this book, but you know there is a whole lot of history that you do not know. A part of me wished we knew more about his past.

Marek and Brianna are so good for each other. You cannot help but root for them to keep getting closer and to keep building each other up and feeding off of each other. And when push comes to shove, you just know that they're going to be there for each other.

The only thing I didn't really care for in this book was Marek alluding to something going on with his best friend Idris. It is very lightly touched upon and referred to casually, but no explanation is ever given. I think it is supposed to be part of the connection to another series by this author and perhaps a way to entice you to want to read that series. But I really felt that whatever was going on with him had absolutely nothing to really do with this particular story.

That being said, I know that this book is supposed to be a companion novel to the author's other series. But this book truly works as a standalone, especially if you focus on the stories about Brianna and Marek. There's a lot going on in this one and it is pretty intense, and sadly, quite believable. I gave it 4 1/2 stars.

Thank you to the author and publisher for providing me with a review copy via YA Bound.

About the Author

Alex Hayes wrote her first fiction story when she was twelve. Inspired by her mother’s storytelling, she began work on her first novel, Ice Cracks, at eighteen.

She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. In her twenties, she moved from Marin County, California to Boston, Massachusetts, where she built a career as an IT professional in database engineering. In 2004, she self-published Ice Cracks, which became a semi-finalist in the 2005 IPPY Awards.

Alex splits her time between Grand Junction, Colorado and Guanajuato, Mexico. When she isn’t writing, she’s helping her partner, Lee, renovate a 450 year old hacienda. She is mother to one beautiful daughter and many wonderful cats.