The Frontman

by Ron Bahar

During his senior year of high school, Ron Bahar-a Nebraskan son of Israeli immigrants-falls for Amy Andrews, a non-Jewish girl, and struggles to make a career choice between his two other passions: medicine and music.

• ISBN10: 1943006458
• ISBN13: 9781943006458
• Publish Date: 3 April 2018
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: SparkPress
• Format: eBook
• Language: English

Reviews

[Sam@WLABB]

This was such a fun and nostalgic read for me. I love the 80s, and I was enamored with this story of first love and identity too.

•Pro: Ron was a total delight. He made some HUGE mistakes over the course of this book, and spent the last half of the book trying to atone for his mistakes, but I loved him. He was complicated, but intriguing, and he made me laugh. I am not like him, but I could relate to a lot his struggles.

•Pro: The family history bits were really interesting, and I have to give Bahar credit for being able to concisely package that much information.

•Pro: The style was pleasing to me, and really worked for this story. I often felt like Bahar was speaking directly to me, and this is a style I associate with memoires, which I guess this book sort of was, and therefore, the format was wholly appropriate.

•Pro: This story had a wonderful, nostalgic feel. I could hear the voice over in my head, which made me think of A Christmas Story, and the musical references just pushed it over the top for me.

•Pro: The book was set in Nebraska! I am always shouting about how most books are set on the coasts, and it was exciting to read a book set in The Middle. I also loved taking the trip with Ron to Israel.

•Pro: Ron's family was delightful. Granted, his parents put a lot of pressure on him, and though I did not agree with them, I sort of understood them, and I loved that he had his two older sisters there for some guidance.

•Pro: Between the quirky characters, teen hijinks, and self-depreciating humor, I found myself laughing quite often.

•Pro: I loved the theme of fidelity that permeated the book. Fidelity to your family, to your girlfriend, to you friends, to your dreams, and to yourself. It may be packaged with a ton of humor, but there was plenty of food for thought in this book.

I had become an expert at delayed gratification. Conversely, I had no idea what it meant to live in the present.

Overall: A hilarious and heartwarming coming-of-age tale,which addressed family relationships, friendships, first love, identity, and finding one's voice quite well. I laughed, smiled, and felt the feels.

*ARC provided in exchange for an honest review

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