REVIEW: Wreck the Halls by Tessa Bailey
Dear Tessa Bailey,
Beat Dawkins and Melody Gallard are the (adult) children of the two women who made up the Steel Birds, an iconic band in the 1980s and 1990s. When the Steel Birds broke up in something known as “the Incident” both Octavia and Trina were pregnant with their respective children. Fans of the Steel Birds have been salivating for a reunion for 30 years but the two women apparently hate each other so the likelihood of it happening is approximately the same as hell freezing over.
Beat and Melody met once before when they were both 16. The media were very hard on Melody; criticising her body, her face, her hair, her clothes, but they loved Beat. He was always the media’s darling. When they did meet as teenagers, Beat, who is not an asshole, felt an instant connection to Melody and understood that she was being unfairly treated. Only the two of them know what it’s like to be Steel Birds children. It’s hard to make friends when often all those people want to know is the inside scoop about what really happened between their mothers. And the media spotlight for them is unique. Melody has an instant and life-long crush after that first meeting and it is cemented when Beat calls the media out on their behaviour toward her afterward and things start to turn around for her.
Now they’re both 30. They haven’t seen each other in 14 years but an intrepid producer who won’t quit has an idea for a reality TV/live stream show where Beat and Melody get the band back together for a Christmas Eve performance at Rockefeller Center. If they succeed, Beat and Melody will each get $1,000,000.
Melody has a fraught relationship with her free-living mother, Trina. The money will mean she can have a relationship with her mother on her terms – including not at all, and still be okay. For Beat the financial need is much more urgent; he is being blackmailed about something to do with his mother, Octavia – something that he believes will destroy their family – and he either needs to take out a massive loan or earn a million dollars in a couple of weeks.
Neither Beat nor Melody actually think they can succeed in their mission but each is willing to try. Beat agrees to speak to Melody to bring her on board but, ever her protector, makes it clear that he won’t do it if Melody is not completely comfortable. Melody, still starry-eyed over Beat, will do just about anything for him. She doesn’t know why for most of the book but she knows there’s a reason Beat needs the money, so she agrees.
For the next not-quite two weeks, Beat and Melody will be filmed for up to 14 hours per day and (almost) everything they do in that time will be live-streamed on the internet as they try and reunite the Steel Birds. Beat and Melody have always had a connection and when they meet again as adults it’s like something clicks into place. The internet is very quickly wild for “Belody” and the numbers the production company sees outstrip all expectations.
Beat is hiding an aspect of his sexuality and he initially tries to keep Melody at a distance because he does not believe they can be together. I found this aspect of the story a little hard to resolve; if it’s been such a big part of Beat’s life for so long, it seemed fairly easy to open up to Melody in the end. If it was so easy to open up to Melody, was it really that a big an issue in the first place?
The thing Beat is being blackmailed over was extremely under developed.
Spoiler: Show
The whole book is leading up to this amazing Steel Birds reunion.
Spoiler: Show
The relationship between Beat and Melody is the best part of the book. I do love a hero who is totally gone for his lady and Beat certainly is. Melody is similarly unable to hide her feelings for Beat. Melody was funny and it was great to see her come out of her shell and stand up for herself. It was good to see Beat let not only Melody but also some of his long-time friends in (although I would have liked a little more of the latter; it could have been more fleshed out but as it was it was fairly glancing). Yes, their romance is very whirlwind but I bought their connection so that wasn’t a barrier for me.
I liked Wreck the Halls well enough but it felt a bit rushed in places and didn’t quite have the charm of Unfortunately Yours or It Happened One Summer.
Grade: B-
Regards,
Kaetrin
