3.5 stars

I love a good music based novel, whether from the perspective of the musicians, the roadies, the groupies...it doesn't matter. Sister Stardust had a slightly different approach than other similar reads in the subgenre and I found that interesting, but ultimately this was just an okay read for me.

Reading a bit more like literary fiction than historical fiction and having a bit of a slow, evenly keeled plot, the writing was at times beautiful but there wasn't a lot to hook me. The tension stayed somewhat flat despite the fact that there are some great scenes present in the book and there really is some interesting backstory to some of the events.

There is a lot of Almost Famous feel, particularly to the first third of the book and I definitely appreciated the transportation to Morocco...an area that really isn't typical of historical fiction and that added something new for me. I was unfamiliar with Talitha Getty, but this book did prompt me to do some light research on her, so I will give it points for creating enough interest that I was searching out more information beyond the story I was given. Clearly there was some interest generated.

In fact, Talitha was the star of the book for me and I likely could have done without Cece. Pushing the two characters together felt like two wholly separate stories and just didn't flow naturally for me. Plus...I kind of found Cece annoying.

Good intention, good source material, moderate execution.