Wildflower - Alecia Whitaker

Title: Wildflower
Author: Alecia Whitaker
Pages: 320
Publisher: Poppy
Source: Purchased
About: The best songs come from broken hearts.

Sixteen-year-old Bird Barrett has grown up on the road, singing backup in her family's bluegrass band, and playing everywhere from Nashville, Tennesee to Nowhere, Oklahoma. One fateful night, Bird fills in for her dad by singing lead, and a scout in the audience offers her a spotlight all her own.
Soon Bird is caught up in a whirlwind of songwriting meetings, recording sessions, and music video shoots. Her first single hits the top twenty, and suddenly fans and paparazzi are around every corner. She's even caught the eye of her longtime crush, fellow roving musician Adam Dean. With Bird's star on the rise, though, tradition and ambition collide. Can Bird break out while staying true to her roots?
In a world of glamour and gold records, a young country music star finds her voice.

I picked up Wildflower when I went to the fantastic #NovlDays event (free ice cream sandwiches y’all) at my faaaaavorite indie Oblong Books.  You should know by now that I love themed reading, so when I decided to take a last minute trip to Nashville I knew I had to push this to the front of my TBR pile.

Wildflower is the story of Bird Barrett, plucked off the stage she shared with her family’s band and given her own spotlight as country’s next darling.   The thing that I loved most about Bird is that she felt very real to me.  A lot of times it's very easy for the main character to be a clean slate, a generic plain girl who becomes famous and that's all she is.  Bird is so not that.

Also, this is a story that lends itself to going to extremes – any story where a character starts to feel the effects of fame can go very big very quick.  Whitaker is very good about keeping it feeling like Bird really is a small time girl that happened into extraordinary circumstances.  She still hangs out mostly with her family, acquires a not famous bff (who is really awesome, btw), dates a boy and it’s not a huge deal.  Like, it’s not a be all and end all relationship; it doesn’t crash and burn spectacularly in some huge betrayal.  It just is.  And then it’s not.  There’s something very charming about that.

I would recommend Wildflower to anyone who likes contemporary books, country music, or well written characters.