Jennifer Echols was born in Atlanta and grew up in a small town on a beautiful lake in Alabama—a setting that has inspired many of her books. Her nine romantic novels for young adults have been published in seven languages and have won the National Readers’ Choice Award, the Aspen Gold Readers’ Choice Award, the Write Touch Readers’ Award, the Beacon, and the Booksellers’ Best Award. Her novel Going Too Far was a finalist in the RITA and was nominated by the American Library Association as a Best Book for Young Adults. She lives in Birmingham with her husband and her son. Visit her at Jennifer-Echols.com.
An award-winning writer of romances for young adults (Going Too Far), Echols proffers an engaging though occasionally hackneyed tale about the sister who gets left behind when her younger sibling is plucked from their country-music duo and set on a path to stardom. After her sister Julie's record company bans Bailey Mayfield from doing anything that might interfere with Julie's career, talented Bailey is forced to give up playing music publicly. Though her parents have threatened to withhold her college tuition should she disobey this order, Bailey scratches her itch by taking a job as a backup musician for an Elvis impersonator at a Nashville mall. There, Bailey meets lady-killer Sam Hardiman, who both acknowledges Bailey's talents and seems to have the hots for her, though Bailey later learns that this may be ambitious Sam's way of drawing her into his band. Some story points seem a touch contrived, and Sam often seems too much like a saint, but Echols manages to keep the occasionally tiresome will-they-or-won't-they seesaw interesting by peppering energetic music scenes with girly jealousy, self-doubt, and revelations from a likable, relatable protagonist. Agent: Laura Bradford, Bradford Literary Agency. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
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