The Girl Who Became a Beatle [Hardcover]

As I am always curious to read books that involve music in the plot, this book caught my attention. At first I thought the book was about a girl whose fairy godmother brings her back to the 1960's so she could become the fifth Beatle. (That would have been an awesome premise for a novel!) Soon into the book, I realized the story was different than I expected.

When it comes to novels, I will forgive a lot if the main character's passions stir an interest within me. In this book, Regina's love of the Beatles and the many references to their music (from playing their songs as her own to creating a music video using ideas from the movie A Hard Days Night) that were made throughout the novel, left me putting down my Kindle to search for Beatles songs I haven't heard in ages and re-watched a couple Beatles movies. I loved that.

While there is a minor love story woven into the book, the majority of the plot follows Regina as she makes a wish and then gets to live it out. It's a classic premise we've all read in books or seen in movies. With a wish granted come problems the main character never thought would come with living out a dream.

The lesson in a story like this is always, "Be grateful for what you have". I liked that author didn't go overboard to make this point by making Regina's wished-for world so awful that, of course, she would return to normal life being that much more aware and grateful than she was before. While Regina encountered her fair share of drama, the thing I appreciated about this story is that her rock star life was really cool and she made the most of it.

One of the most important parts of the book was the evolution of Regina finding (and trusting) her own voice. I thought it was quite clever for the author to have Regina immerse herself so much into the music of, all bands, The Beatles. Who wouldn't think their talent was less than compared to them? The best moment of the book was when Regina takes the risk of leaving The Beatles music behind and is a changed person because of it.

The one gripe I have with this book is with Regina's personality. While I wouldn't say she is unlikable, she often came across as cold. I get that she was focused on her band and was dealing with family issues--all things that were stressing her out--but, while other characters came across as more grounded and calm, her intensity made it a kind of difficult to root for her.

While this wasn't a book that stayed with me long after I read it, I still enjoyed it. I thought the idea for the story was a good one and the takeaway lessons were well executed.

I love the idea of a band from our time taking over the Beatles, but it didn't happen exactly as I expected it to. The story itself was a quick read, there is nothing too deep going on. It hits on making the right choices and doing things for oneself instead of just taking the easy way out. It's also good at reminding the reader to think about other people not to focus on only what you want, but to help those that are around you achieve their goals as well.

With the quick pacing, there is never a dull moment. The story keeps moving along with one situation arising right after another. While it isn't a substantial read it is still capable of making a teen think about their decisions before jumping in on a whim. I wouldn't recommend it for those looking for something deeper, but for a summer beach read this would do the job.

Reason for Reading: Simply enough, the Beatles connection appealed to me.

This is a modern day fairy tale. Regina Bloomsbury, ultra-major Beatles fan & collector has her own band, aptly named The Caverns. The Caverns are about to fall apart at the seams and Regina wishes she were as famous as The Beatles one night in bed. The next morning she awakes to find herself the lead singer of The Caverns, an explosive new band on the scene, up for 8 Grammy nominations. Regina is famous and has the life that comes with it but, you see, as her Fairy Godmother explains in an email no one could ever be as famous as The Beatles so she erased them from history and gave all their songs to Regina. So she is famous, but her first album, Meet The Caverns, is full of Beatles songs attributed to her. While Regina gets comfortable with the perks of being famous, including a famous TV star boyfriend, she also discovers the downside of how stardom can change people. None of her band is friendly with her, in fact there is open hostility with one member. Regina discovers that not only does she have a reputation as a diva she has also badly hurt the feelings of the one band member who meant the most to her back in her former life. But as Regina starts to find out a girl could get used to a life of fame and fortune and she has a week to decide if she will stay in her new life or go back to the old.

A good story. All The Beatles trivia and history is fun and I found myself humming songs as they were mentioned while I was reading. While being a fantasy the book isn't overloaded with typical fantasy elements such as magic but follows more along the lines of magical realism. One does have to suspend reality to enter and except Regina's world. The Girl Who Became a Beatle is also a coming-of-age story as Regina learns some life lessons, makes decisions based on decency rather than personal gratification and ultimately realizes that her life is not only about her, that others are affected by her actions as well. On the surface a fun, often humorous fairytale that we all would like to have that one wish granted but the book has a lot of deeper layers that deal with growing up and maturity. A fine read.

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