you're my obsession

Nicole Forbes lives in California with her husband and daughter. She works hard to help the seals, who are struggling because of humans on the beaches. Not everyone is on board with restricting time on the beaches for the humans, so Nicole has been getting some pushback. But she’s ready to fight for the seals anyway. So when an unknown woman knocks on her door one day, she assumes that it’s a reporter wanting to talk about that. Instead, it’s a woman writing a book about Secret Oktober. Nicole throws her out immediately.

And then Nicole’s daughter goes missing. Hannah is just 8 years old, and she doesn’t make it home on the bus. When Nicole calls the school, they tell her that her aunt had picked her up. Nicole knows this is a lie, as Hannah has no aunt. Nicole calls her husband, and they look for Hannah everywhere they can think of. They finally find her, unharmed, but Nicole can’t figure out what had happened. When they found her, she was alone, but she talked about her aunt. Just, not enough for Nicole to know exactly who it was that Hannah was with. But she can’t fight the nagging feeling it had something to do with the woman who had showed up earlier and asked her about Ben Edwards.

Twenty-five years earlier, in the ‘80s, everyone knew who Ben Edwards was. He was the lead singer in the hottest band in England, maybe the world, Secret Oktober. There were 3 guys in the band, Ben, drummer Michael, and keyboardist Luke. And to 16-year-old Cassie Alderton, Ben is everything. The band puts on a weekday concert in London, jamming up traffic, and it’s in navigating to better spot to see the concert that Cassie meets Amelia. And Amelia knows the guys in the band.

While Cassie spends her time mooning over Ben, her older sister Nicole is working on her music. It’s at a dive bar one night where she plays a song she’s been working on, I Would Die for You, that she meets Ben. Nicole had written the song for her mother, who was dying from cancer, but Ben is captivated by it and wants to help Nicole record it, maybe even as a duet. Nicole refuses at first because of Cassie and her crush, but Ben wears her down with the offer of a private recording session.

As Nicole’s life becomes more complicated—her mother gets sicker, and Cassie stays out to much going to Ben’s concerts and occasionally an after party—she finds herself thinking more about the time she spends with Ben, both the music they make together and the feelings that are developing. But falling for a pop star is never easy, and Nicole is reluctant to hand over her whole heart.

Back in her present-day life, Nicole is trying hard to keep things together, but she is struggling. She is worried about her daughter’s safety. Someone is sabotaging her work with the seals. And she has to face the fact that she has been keeping her life in London a secret from her husband for 25 years. She never told him about her sister. She never told him about the band. She never told him about the song she recorded with Ben Edwards. And she never told him about the murder. And now all that’s coming back around, like a record on a turntable.

I Would Die for You is a twisty thriller about what happens when the past you’ve been running from knocks on your front door. It’s a mix of 2010s domestic thriller with 1980s pop music fangirl thriller, and it’s all fun to read. The puzzle pieces come together slowly, but when the last one falls into place, it’s a powerful moment.

I listened to I Would Die for You on audio, narrated beautifully by Imogen Wilde. As an American listener, I could see some moments where the American accent was off, but they passed. However, listening to her narrate the British characters were beautiful, and I could listen to her read books in her lovely British accent all day. Wilde did a lovely job with the twists in this one, and I look forward to more audio book from her.

I really enjoyed I Would Die for You. My main problem with it was when she talked about those ‘80s music days being 25 years ago, and then realizing that the “present-day” chapters were set in 2011, well, that added up to making me feel old. But the story itself was engrossing and page-turning. I loved remembering the fangirl days of my early teen years, and while I didn’t chase anyone down or end up at any good after parties, I still enjoyed remembering those innocent feelings, letting the music take you away. like a really good story does.

Egalleys for I Would Die for You were provided by Minotaur Books, and an early copy of the audio book was provided by Macmillan Audio, both through NetGalley, with many thanks.