GARLAND FAST

In this novel, an American living abroad falls for a world-famous pop star.

Dylan Augustus comes from Chicago money and a family of achievers, but now he lives in Tokyo and has a contract gig coaching businesses (“helping investment bankers and consultants with their English PowerPoints”). In his spare time, he secretly works on his novels. When the 28-year-old writer visits Los Angeles for a cult film festival, a chance encounter at a Venice Beach coffee shop will change his life forever. Garland Fast is also 28 and her music—guitar, vocals, and songwriting—has taken her from poor Wisconsinite and fledgling teenage girl-group member to a superstar with sold-out stadium tours, real estate throughout the world, and never-ending cashflow. She uses the money to pay her loyal assistant, Alexis Fisher, and to support her mom, Barbara; her young niece, Emma; and her sister, Julie, a talented guitarist and bassist with a pattern of abusive relationships. After initially butting heads, Garland and Dylan connect over pizza and Game of Thrones marathons as well as a healthy dose of bedroom gymnastics. Could this be love? Dylan is besotted with the gorgeous Garland but worries he’s in over his head. Used to getting exactly what she wants when she wants it, Garland tries to give Dylan the world and doesn’t understand that he wishes to make his own way. And when Duchess Sugoi, Garland’s rival, sets her sights on Dylan, he wonders if his fling-turned-relationship is built to last. Readers will relish getting a behind-the-scenes look into the life of a music superstar: the perks of private jets, Centurion credit cards, and glamorous partnerships with cosmetic companies as well as the downsides of pop-star backbiting, relentless paparazzi, and a complete lack of privacy. Garland is a captivating, nuanced character, prone to deep introspection and temper tantrums—so much that Cairo’s novel, at least 100 pages longer than it needs to be, might have been more effective from her perspective rather than that of her boyfriend. Dylan often comes off as self-righteous, explaining movies and even music to a famous pop diva and her family and staff.

An intriguing but uneven opposites-attract tale.