I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy from the Author. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Poet of the Wrong Generation
by Lonnie Ostrow
Published by Harmony River Press on November 10th 2016
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 470
Format: Paperback
Source: the Author
Goodreads
"It's not that I don't love you, and my tears are yet to dry. But you can't go back and forth forever and we've already said goodbye."
Through these words, a young poet unearths his musical soul while severing ties with the woman he loves after her stunning betrayal. Unknowingly, in writing this ballad of liberation, he will soon evolve as one of the fastest rising stars on the pop music landscape.
The year is 1991; the place, New York City. Here we meet Johnny Elias, a college student from Brooklyn with boundless adoration for two things in life: timeless popular music, and the heart of a sweet, complicated young woman who is clearly out of his league.
Megan Price not only is the object of Johnny's affection, but also the only daughter of New York's most powerful PR woman: the indomitable Katherine Price.
Projecting that her daughter's boyfriend will never live up to the family standard, Katherine cleverly perpetrates a series of duplicitous schemes to rid Johnny from her high-class world. But in her callous disregard, she inadvertently sets him on a determined course to his improbable musical destiny - while sending her own daughter spiraling down a path of devastation.
Poet of the Wrong Generation tells the symmetrical story of a lovable underdog and his meteoric rise to stardom, his humiliating downfall and his unprecedented attempt to reclaim his place as the unlikely musical spokesman for his generation. At the heart of Poet is a tale of star-crossed lovers and their struggle with unforeseen success and disillusionment, in an attempt to rediscover lasting harmony.
Uniquely integrating a variety of original song compositions, Poet projects the epic clash between true contentment and the fable of stardom's rewards; a nostalgic journey through the major events of the 1990s, with a cherished cast of characters and a stunningly unpredictable conclusion.
My take on this book: Wow! I have been reading this book for a while and I got it as an ARC from the publishing company that represents Mr. Ostrow. Poet of the Wrong Generation by Lonnie Ostrow is truly an inspiring read. This book started off as a college assignment and now I feel like for Mr. Ostrow that it’s going to be a bestseller. In this review, I am going to be trying something different like identify who the protagonist, the main secondary character, and the antagonist are in the books.
The main character of Poet of the Wrong Generation by Lonnie Ostrow is, of course, Johnny Elias as he goes through the motions of everything that happens to him in this book. We start out with Johnny Elias looking at his stuff as he is packing up to move somewhere when he uncovers a picture taken back in 1991. He goes through the heartbreak of losing his first love with Megan Price, starts his musical career, ends his musical career because of Katherine Price, lives in solitude for a long time, starts creating new music, restarted his musical career, and tries to get back to living with Megan Price. What I liked about Johnny Elias is that he is an interesting character who is easy to relate to. He was in the foster care system and didn’t get out until he was an adult. I also like his strength as he was able to get through his heartbreak no matter how tough it was for him. He worked hard and continued until he got where he wanted to be. What I didn’t like about Johnny Elias is that when his career was going down the tube, he didn’t try to take down the one person that he knew was behind it all. Instead of facing this person he took it and hid away. I like to think of myself a good person, but I really wanted him to at least tell her off. I guess now after I am done reading the book, I get why Johnny did it because everything was happening way too fast for him, he wasn’t getting a break to actually work on writing the songs. Then there was the fact that his record company wanted out of him. Johnny is a very interesting and confusing character. Johnny ended up becoming a really good guy at the very end and proving it to everyone.
In Poet of the Wrong Generation by Lonnie Ostrow, there are a lot of secondary characters that are very important in both Johnny’s life and Megan’s life. The second character that I deem would be very appropriate for this is Katherine Price. Katherine Price is the secondary character for both Johnny and Megan in the ways that she is the one that wanted the best for her daughter while pushing Johnny to achieve things that weren’t really in his grasp. Katherine is a very complicated secondary character. What I liked about her is that she cares about her family even though she goes about it in a very unrespectful way. Katherine was really the one that was the motivating shove, pushing her daughter into dating other people while still dating Johnny. If she hadn’t done this, he probably would have never written the songs for his first album and her daughter might not have had another very important person in her life. What I really didn’t like about Kathrine was that she was stuck up about not wanting her daughter to be with Johnny because she didn’t want her high-class daughter to be with low-class Johnny.
The antagonist is Megan Price. She does want to be with Johnny Elias but she let her mom set her up with many guys and ended up with one that turned out to be a bad choice for her. Megan is the oldest of Katherine’s two children and is the one that Katherine wants to have the best out of life. That includes a great love life that will propel her into life. Except Megan found love in the worst possible person in her mother’s eyes and when Megan tried to keep it going with Johnny her mother went into full battle mode. I started to like when she finally tried being her own person, by being there for Johnny to show him that she loved him. However, sadly she had to lose Johnny and be put in a horrible position, to become strong enough to stop trying to please her mom. What I didn’t like about Megan was that she couldn’t stand up to her mother about anything in the beginning. She continued to please her mom even when it made her and Johnny miserable.
The thing that moves me about the story is that here is this sweet guy living in Brooklyn, New York and he is dating a high-class girl like Megan, they are both in love with each other. Yet they have this one huge problem and that is Megan’s inability to tell her mother no. Which makes it hard on Johnny who wants to spend time with Megan but can’t because her mom keeps getting in the way of their relationship. Despite the hardships that they faced they ended up living good lives away from each other but can’t help to feel that they left their relationship without finishing it and they finally get that chance after many years have passed for them both.
The setting of the story first started off in New York, then moves around as Johnny is on tour, then some time later it was mixed between New York and Connecticut and then we end the book in New York once again. I believe that Mr. Ostrow did a wonderful job and conveyed enough information to make it seem real.
My favorite supporting characters are Andy Raymer and Jacqui Raymer. The reason I like them is despite everything Andy has stayed with Johnny. If it weren’t for Johnny he probably wouldn’t have gotten Jacqui back. These two are very special in Johnny’s life as they helped him throughout everything including keeping track of his fan base after he stopped singing and kept it going even though his management company wasn’t “managing Johnny Elias” anymore. Andy was and is Johnny’s manager, while Jacqui was the one that did his artwork for his albums and singles as well. If it wasn’t for the two of them he probably wouldn’t have got as good a contract as he did at the recording company. These two helped Johnny through everything in his life be it his professional or just his daily life, Johnny always went to the two of them to get their opinion
The most memorable thing in the book for me was probably Johnny’s musical career going off the way it did. Just wow, there he is, and then plummeting down to nothing through all the rumors. Then people still remembering Johnny after he took time away from the limelight for a bit. People still knew who he was and wanted to hear more of his music.
Poet of the Wrong Generation by Lonnie Ostrow is an awesome writer and this book is amazing. It had me talking about it every single time I would put it down to return to my reality. In the end, this book is a five star rating and I am happy to read and give an honest review for ARC of this book. I know that Mr. Ostrow has a bestseller on his hands and that I hope everyone will enjoy this book as much as I did.
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About Lonnie Ostrow
Lonnie Ostrow has been an innovator, storyteller, promoter and celebrity-insider for more than two decades. With Poet of the Wrong Generation, he combines all his unique experiences to bring you a novel of love & betrayal, music & fanfare, downfall & redemption – a fable of stardom’s rewards, set in New York City during the 1990s. Since 2001, Mr. Ostrow has been the publicity/marketing director & researcher for the iconic best-selling novelist Barbara T. Bradford. Previously he served as a PR executive, promoting an assortment of first-time celebrity authors. From 1995 – 2001, Mr. Ostrow was widely credited with inventing the “living celebrity postal phenomenon.” In all, he worked with more than 40 legendary personalities, creating major media events to celebrate their postal recognition by an assortment of foreign nations.
