Another day, another TBR Challenge catch up post, this one has the theme of Freedom for the month of July. This one bothered me because it was a five-star love-it read yet I only had a handful of notes from when I read it. I had to borrow it again just to write this review. The usual warnings that there are many spoilers ahead.

Ava Wilder’s Some Kind of Famous

Blurb: It’s been a decade since Merritt Valentine’s peak as a celebrated singer-songwriter… and her subsequent career-ending mental breakdown. Since then, she’s abandoned the glitz of Los Angeles to move in with her sister, Olivia, in the sleepy Colorado ski town of Crested Peak, hoping to heal her lingering emotional wounds of the spotlight.

Life in Crested Peak would be uncomplicated if not for Merritt’s inconvenient crush on the local contractor and handyman, Nikolaos Petrakis. Niko is disarmingly handsome and too kind-hearted to ever be right for the complex and prickly Merritt. Though tempting, a fling with Niko would only bring the kind of drama Merritt has vowed to leave behind.

After his last heartbreak, Niko is done dating his fellow townies. Still, he can’t shake his fascination with the brilliant Merritt, even as he heeds their mutual friends’ warnings to steer clear of her chaos. But when Merritt needs help fixing up a house of her own, Niko is glad to be the only man for the job.

As the two spend more time together, their mutual attraction sparking a deeper connection than either one expects, they’re forced to confront the idea that they may have underestimated each other– and themselves.

This book opens to a scene where hot mess, super famous musician Merritt Valentine who has been sheltering with her twin sister in a mountain town for the last two years, trying to valiantly recover from a trail of destructive behaviour, self-sabotages when her sister hints at her moving out to Merritt’s own home in the coming year (for good baby reasons). Merritt needs to find a contractor to take on her home higher up in the mountains. Queue local jack-of-all-trades Nikolaos Petrakis who “was so beautiful he was almost boring, rescued only by a handful of jolie laid imperfections”. Through a series of house consultations, trips to trade shops, and dinners at their local bar, Merritt and Niko talk, laugh, belt out ABBA songs (also adoring the movie Mamma Mia!), indulge in rhythmless dancing (a delightful scene) and develop a rapport while trying very hard to keep from hooking up. But this is a romance, and of course they cross that line. Sex between the two of the brings about an even deeper understanding of how they are in their local community together, especially as this relationship has a deadline with Niko planning on permanently moving away to another part of the country. But their connection is too strong, their approaches to life problems so similar, and their tolerance for differences bring them close together.

This was not an easy coming together. Merritt had many mental health issues. And through a lot of therapy and help, she had come to a stage of coping with life. Merritt seems to think that she isn’t worthy of a good life and good relationships due to her past responses:

“I’ve been a nightmare girlfriend…I’ve cheated. I’ve been the other woman. I’ve been possessive and manipulative and an emotional terrorist. You don’t deserve to deal with that. Nobody does”

“You think you deserve to be alone then?” he asked in a low rasp.

Her breath hitched, tears unexpectedly springing to her eyes. “Maybe.” Her voice was reedy, a fraction away from cracking.

Seriously, the way Merritt’s family tolerate her (but pretend that tolerating is akin to love) just deeply upset me. Early in the book, Niko gets warned off pursuing Merritt as she was “messy” and “worse than Helene” (his ex). As though only rational, calm people in the world deserve being pursued for love, and people who are overwhelmed with intense emotions should not be considered at all. I was left with this feeling that family fractures are caused more by those who consider themselves emotionally stable and can’t bring themselves to like or understand people why someone may be emotionally volatile like Merritt (and I certainly think she had absolutely normal responses to shitty situations though many others wouldn’t).

Meanwhile, Niko is just lovely. I think he is my favouritest Greek romance hero ever. He is fun, open to different ways of living, reliable and steadfast. He is such a thoughtfully written Greek main-character (a rare occurrence in the weirdness of how Greeks are depicted in romance fiction). He is Greek in the way that so many people in my family are Greek. Greek food, Yiayia and Pappou, lots of cousins, Greek language, and Greek songs – my absolute surprise and delight when Niko sings Vasilis Tsitsanis Ta Kavourakia to Merritt, (I have attached the song’s video at the end of this post). Niko then goes on to explain to her the meaning of the song which is a standard lullaby, one that I sang to my children when they were young. I also loved the end of the book when they go to Greece, he asks her if she is at all Greek as they are heading to meet his family in the village he grew up in the Peloponesse and it might appease his grandparents – this is such a running joke in my home “You no Greek? Doesn’t matter” that I loved it appearing on the page.

I also felt that Niko was OK with Merritt’s emotional highs and lows. Her volatility to her more sedate family and the gossip media just felt like a standard Greek temperament to me, and was possibly this to Niko. She just had an emotionally heated response to a shitty situation, something that is difficult to control, especially if you are being judged in public view. What is described as jealousy and possessiveness over the unacceptable behaviours of Merritt’s ex felt justified to me, even before Niko also shrugs and says that it sounded like a strong boundary. He liked and preferred this, especially in light of his own previous relationships where he constantly accepts a relationship structure that he was not comfortable with but responded in a passive way. I loved this. Merritt needed a bit more calmness and Niko needed a bit more fire. They meet in the middle with boundaries perfect for them. Niko seemed to me that he probably didn’t feel that her temperament was too bad and certainly took it in his stride when she did have a meltdown.

As I read over this last paragraph I feel as though I am not clearly expressing myself and that I am underplaying Merritt’s mental health issues. I don’t want to do this. Merritt has genuine mental health issues and she does right in seeking help through medications and therapy. I just didn’t feel that all of her emotional expressiveness constituted illness.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It had complex characters who mess up yet are relatable, authentic people who understand themselves and each other deeply. Both Merritt and Niko needed to navigate their own personal issues to come together and then support each other. They also have to try to make sense of (and not wholly dismiss) the judgemental people in their lives. This dismissal gives them freedom to be with each other.

Ava Wilder has such an insightful and lovely humanity to her writing and I will certainly seek out more of her books. I loved this one and have already reread it.

Metadata

My metadata: angsty, bisexual, breathing, burnout, burnt by previous relationship, celebrity, contemporary, countryside, damaged characters, dancing, depression, disco disco oooh oo oo ooh, divorced, drugs, drunk, environment, family dynamics, fangirl, fear, greek, grief, growing up, lgbtq, loneliness, love, mum, music, night, no touching, older woman, queer, regret, reparations, twins, USA, vomit, work will keep us apart.

Library Metadata: My library does not hold a copy of this book and only 3 libraries in all of NSW hold a copy of this book. Such a pity! The closest library to my home has no searchable subject headings (subject metadata). I consider this to be unacceptable for any library asset.

More library metadata: The next closest library holding is a whole other city far far away from Sydney. Its metadata subject headings are passable but are a bit mundane, certainly not communicating setting or the tone of the book. Frankly, USA is not a default for fiction book settings, so at least a country descriptor is a must, just as Greece or Greek needs to also be a descriptor as it is a key aspect to the book. And of course, the dreaded and banal first subject heading – ugh!

Man-woman relationships–Fiction, Celebrities–Fiction, Women singers–Fiction, Women composers–Fiction, Sisters–Fiction, Mental illness–Fiction, Infatuation–Fiction, Contractors–Fiction, Dwellings Remodelling–Fiction, Romance Fiction.

Please enjoy this video of Rembetika singer Vasilis Tsitsanis singing Ta Kavourakia.