The Dream of Becoming Rock Stars - an Editorial Review of "Perfect Cadence"

Book Blurb:

Fame. Fortune. Pitfalls.

It is 1978, and a music scene is brewing in Los Angeles. Singer Gunnar Erickson and guitarist Shep Townsend leave Grand Island, Nebraska hoping to make it big as rock stars. Before long, they help form the talented and popular band Authentic Cadence and are managed by the biggest names in the business.

As they begin to realize their dreams, however, Gunnar and Shep learn that that fame has its downsides. Between the constant touring and groupies and the traps of easy drugs, their fame also attracts toxic family members they thought were long gone. As one platinum album turns into another, Gunnar and Shep find themselves playing to large stadiums with a tough manager who won’t give them a break. Soon, both musicians feel like they are losing themselves entirely- and it will take a tragedy to change that.

Book Buy Link: https://geni.us/8zI0711

Author Bio:

Tamar is a writer who writes in multiple genres. Her short stories have been published in many literary journals. Her most recent novel, A Summer Lasts Forever, is a young adult coming-of-age novel that takes place in Bennington, Vermont.

Tamar's legal thriller, This Side of the Law, takes place in the bowels of Brooklyn, New York, where city and federal prosectors clash as their careers hang in the balance. Tamar is also the author of Like Water and Ice, which follows figure skater Thad Moulton as he trains for the Olympics.

Tamar's short story collection The Lonely Spirit follows half-Comanche Marshal L.S. Quinn across the Old West. This book won an Indie Brag Medallion, was a winner for Historical Fiction in the Firebird Book Awards, was long listed for the Historical Fiction Company's Book of the Year Awards, and received the “Highly Recommended” award of excellence from the Historical Fiction Company. It also won first place (best in category) in the Chanticleer International Book Awards for short story collections and novellas. The Lonely Spirit is now available in audiobook format.

Tamar's novel in short stories, Tales of the Romanov Empire, was short listed for the Goethe Awards for Late Historical Fiction, and long listed for the Historical Fiction Company's Book of the Year Awards. Her other novels about the Romanovs include the alternate history series Triumph of a Tsar, Through the Fire, and The Imperial Spy. These three books are set in a world where the Russian Revolution is avoided and the hemophiliac Alexei becomes tsar.

Tamar's military fiction includes her first novel, The Last Battle, about a female veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. Tamar also wrote The Vanguard Warrior Trilogy, a science fiction series about a gene that runs in military families and causes superpowers. The first book is The Fledgling’s Inferno, where cadet Katie McMann of Norwich University becomes the first woman to have the gene. A Silent Evil follows Deion Carter at Valley Forge Military Academy. In The Final Armada, twin cadets Gael and Isadora Perez at Texas A&M must decide which side they fight for.

Tamar's YA contemporary novel is Two Sisters of Fayetteville. Her MG fantasy is The Tunnel to Darkness and Light, and its prequel, The Keepers, is one of Tamar's more recent novels.

Editorial Review:

Title: Perfect Cadence

Author: Tamar Anolic

Rating: 4.2

Tamar Anolic's "Perfect Cadence" is a book that doesn't recount history but rather seems to conjure it from the page, allowing the reader to feel the same grit of a bygone era beneath their fingers. It transports one not into a world at war but to the fiercely personal battleground of 1970s Los Angeles, where dreams are the currency and heartbreak the tax. This is not a mere story about a band trying to make it, rather, it is a visceral, emotionally resonant excavation of ambition, friendship and the dissonant chords that form when life interrupts art.

From its opening pages, this book establishes a world where beauty and disillusionment exist in uneasy harmony. It thrusts the reader into the life of Gunnar Erickson just as his fragile stability in LA shatters following the closing of the diner where he works. The prose here is direct, almost brutally so, mirroring the jarring impact of lost prospects and a magnetic pull of music that remains- a fragile counterpoint to the harshness of reality. This juxtaposition is the novel's greatest strength. Consider this early, nerve shredding depiction of Gunnar's first gig with his new band. The description is cinematic in its anxiety, moving from the sprawling sound of the instruments to the tight internal panic of the performer.

"At eight o’clock, the band exploded onstage. The sound of Adrian’s drums reverberated around the room, buoyed by Shep’s guitar, icy and powerful. The thump of JeY’s bass moved underneath it all as Gunnar clutched a microphone in his hand. Suddenly, he felt all eyes in the house on him, and his throat closed up in fear... Shit, Gunnar thought. Le took a deep breath, but he still had to close his eyes before his throat unclenched..."

This is history breathed not just told. We don't observe Gunnar's stage fright but rather we inhabit right in, feeling the terrifying silence within the roar- not just the performance but the vulnerability behind it- the raw exposure that is the true price of the spotlight.

The story is strongly anchored right from the onset, in economic precarity, a start contrast to the glittering LA dream. This is depicted in the scene below, whose prose is blunt, using short, declarative sentences that accurately mirror the sudden, unceremonious collapse of security. The silence that follows Shep's stopped guitar is palpable, emphasizing how a single piece of bad news can extinguish creative energy.

“I got fired.”

“What!?” Shep stopped playing. His guitar stings vibrated on their own for a moment, then stopped. The room got quiet.

“The diner is closing. Wayne said we don’t have enough business.” Shep heaved a breath. “Wow.”

The heart of this novel beat in its quieter moments of human connection and devastating divergence such as Gunnar's relationship with his girlfriend which provides the story a poignant aching melody. The emotional force embodied here lies in what is unspoken- the love that remains yet no longer enough to bridge two diverging paths. It is in such an excruciating moment- the weight and gravity of a future foreclosed and unexpected farewells, that this book truly shines.

""Have you taken vows?" He asked as they parted. "Not yet, I'm planning on it."

"What? Why?" The world spun, and Gunnar was no longer sure his feet were on the ground. "I have been discerning for a while." "How long?" "But..." Gunnar's voice trailed off as he thought of all the nights they had spent together."

Structurally, "Perfect Cadence" is a quiet triumph specifically because it is forged on the coals of failure, never shying away from the dissonant chords of rejection and personal compromise that precede any moment of real stability or joy. It unfolds with the rhythm of a lived-in life, its chapters progressing like tracks in an album. Remarkably, LA feels like a living entity and like a character in itself, whose promises are so seductive but often hollow as the industry it hosts. Lastly, "Perfect Cadence" is a book that ably gives name and voice to the universal struggle of holding onto self, while reaching for something greater. Thus, it is the perfect pick for anyone who has ever nurtured a dream against intimidating odds.

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