Review: This Bird Has Flown by Susanna Hoffs

Title: This Bird Has Flown

Author: Susanna Hoffs

Year published: 2023

Category: Adult fiction (romance)

Pages: 368 pages

Rating: 4 out of 5

Location: (my 2023 Google Reading map): UK, France

Summary: Jane Start is thirty-three, broke, and recently single. Ten years prior, she had a hit song—written by world-famous superstar Jonesy—but Jane hasn’t had a breakout since. Now she's living out of four garbage bags at her parents’ house, reduced to performing to Karaoke tracks in Las Vegas. Rock bottom. But when her longtime manager Pippa sends Jane to London to regroup, she’s seated next to an intriguing stranger on the flight—the other Tom Hardy, an elegantly handsome Oxford professor of literature. Jane is instantly smitten by Tom, and soon, truly inspired. But it’s not Jane’s past alone that haunts her second chance at stardom, and at love. Is Tom all that he seems? And can Jane emerge from the shadow of Jonesy's earlier hit, and into the light of her own? In turns deeply sexy, riotously funny, and utterly joyful, This Bird Has Flown explores love, passion, and the ghosts of our past, and offers a glimpse inside the music business that could only come from beloved songwriter Susanna Hoffs.

Review: The Bangles. I loved their music when I was in high school so a book written by the founder of the Bangles? Yes please. 

This novel is a fun romp through music, love, friendship, and what it means to find oneself. Jane, like so many women, is unsure of herself. She is a wonderful musician who was a one-hit wonder and has convinced herself she has no more good songs in her and that the first one was a fluke. She is drifting through life and can't even see the good stuff and people happening even when they are right in front of her face.

I liked the supporting characters: Jane's agent, her brother, her love interest (who doesn't like the idea of a good looking Oxford professor?!), her old singing partner (well, he is kind of ew, but plays a necessary role), and the young hot musician who helps boost Jane's confidence. The story is fun with just enough romance, music, and friendship to keep me turning the pages.

Challenges for which this counts: none