ARC RECEIVED FOR AN HONEST REVIEW - 4.5 stars

We are all running away from or hiding something. And with In The Lyrics, we see that running from something can lead us right to what we have always needed.

Henlsey has been told all her life by her mother not to settle, to use her talent as a singer to get out of this town. She has been been by those around her all her life, so Hensley is determined to jus.t that - get out of there.

Since a family tragedy, Colby's home life has been hell. He still feels the loss like it happened yesterday, and it has ruined his family, perhaps behond repair. When that final straw breaks, he immediately ups and leave the farm, and heads to Nashville

His new life brings him straight into contact with Hensley. It is not her looks that first get his attention, it is her voice as he sees her busking in the street.

Hensley is pretty bitter about things, cynical about life, she has no real friends except for her best friend Dusty. But boy oh boy, when her eyes land on Colby, she feels things she has never before felt. And she is confused.

I immediately liked Colby, from the minute things happen on the farm, to the minute he turns up in Nashville. It is not just because he is the sexy cowboy. It is the Colby on the inside that you will fall in love with ~ thought the fact that he is hot doesn't make it hard to love either!

He is determined to keep the promise he made his brother ~ to make something of himself. But the music that he loves so much, could also be the thing that hurts him the most.

I love the interactions between Colby, Hensley and Dusty. Hensley really is a bitch to begin with when she deals with Colby, but you can kind of understand her reasons for why she acts like she does. And Dusty - we all need a Dusty in our lives. He keeps Hensley on the straight and narrow, calls her out on her BS, but is there for her whenever she needs him.

When they all start making great music together, their careers start to take off. Could this be what they all need to get out of town and become the people they want to be, or will it be the thing that tears them all apart?

I have to say, there was not much to like about most of the secondary characters! Colby's father was an a-hole most of the time, then there are the "friends" Logan and Brittani. Ugh typical spoilt, privileged, mean people, out for whatever they could get for themselves. Booooo don't like you AT ALL!!

Ms Stayton not only took her characters on a roller coaster of a ride, she takes her readers right along with them. I never knew from one chapter to the next what emotion I would be faced with, whether I would be jumping for joy or whether my heart would be ripped right out of my chest. I felt happy and sad, angry, heartbroken, heart lifting.

It is not every book that I get completely immersed in, but I definitely did with In The Lyrics.

I will definitely be reading more of Ms Stayton's work in the future if this is the kind of work she releases.