Greatest Hits

I found this a brilliant and unusual read. It is a fictional biography of the flawed life and times of the British singer and songwriter Cass Wheeler. It rings so true and authentic that it is hard to credit that it is indeed fictional. Cass had been a wildly successful musician until her sudden and abrupt departure from the music scene when tragedy struck and she suffered a breakdown. This has not prevented a host of rumours and speculation as to what exactly happened to her.Now in the present, [...]

This is a fictional biography of the British singer and songwriter Cass Wheeler. Cass was a successful musician and then she had a breakdown. Cass Wheeler is taking a journey back into her past. After a silence of ren years, the singer - songwriter is picking sixteen tracks that have defined her. Sixteen key moments in her life - for a uniquely personal Greatest Hits album. In the course of one day the story of Cass's life emerges. The highs and lows of music, friendship, ambition, love and grea [...]

“Silence, or something like it. An arpeggio of birdsong. The low rumble of a car. The distant diminuendo of a plane. Such are the sounds that have, over so many years, formed, for Cass, their own kind of music. The only kind that sounded right inside her head; that didn’t thud and clash there, ugly, discordant, deafening.”Greatest Hits is the second novel by freelance arts journalist, features writer, theatre critic and author, Laura Barnett. It’s 2015, and singer-songwriter, Cass Wheele [...]

I really wanted to love this character driven novel. From the title, cover and blurb I expected to love this book, but sadly it was not meant to be. I think one reason may be that I recently read such a beautifully emotional book that I struggled to let go of and failed to fully throw myself into this story. I also wasn’t really that keen on Cass, so I’m sure that shaped my enjoyment of the book. My favourite character was actually her dad, so if anything I wanted to read more about him.The [...]

It's confirmed. Laura Barnett is a storytelling virtuoso, and I feel blessed to have Greatest Hits sitting on my bookshelf. This glorious melody of words and lyrics will take you by the heart and walk you through a sublime pilgrimage to heal a soul. The guests will be arriving soon, a network of cogs in the Cass Wheeler machine. Before she opens the doors of her home to them it is her task to make a selection of her Greatest Hits, an ensemble of the vivid memories fashioned by the years. Their i [...]

Read this with a cuppa and put the record of the book soundtrack on! Travel to the locations in the novel: Booktrail it to a musical placeWhat a lovely and unique idea for a novel - the story of your life told through song. A book of memories which conjures up the great singer song writers of their day and the songs you yourself have written. The Greatest Hits is a clever title as well as a clever idea - we all have soundtracks to our lives don't we? Songs we remember as a child - where we were, [...]

Ooooohhh!!! Good book!! The intense and multi-dimensional aspects of love and loss are so extraordinarily spun throughout this richly textured, deeply layered story; while, at the same time, bringing life and even like-ability to the deeply flawed characters. Wow!! Loved it!! Thank you Orion Publishing and NetGalley for allowing the privilege of this ARC.

Every now and again a book comes along that wows you with its richness; Greatest Hits is one such novel. There can’t be many people who don’t have a soundtrack to their lives, those songs that were the background to early years, the songs we fell in love to and those that we obsessively listened to as we attempt to mend wounded hearts; for many of us there is a tune that can turn back the years to a distant time and place. Laura Barnett has taken this idea and turned it into a densely woven [...]

“Larry knows what it is to lose oneself for hours – days, even – in the act of creation; and to only understand, when the mind and body are finally calm once more, what it is that has been created. What, in that act, the artist is trying to make sense of, even though no sense can ever truly be made of this dizzying, maddening, impossible, beautiful life; and, of course, of its culmination, its crescendo and its inevitable loss.”Greatest Hits, by Laura Barnett, tells the story of fictiona [...]

Singer Cass Wheeler is planning a retrospective, an album of 16 songs that she has chosen as representing the most important times of her life. As she prepares for the launch party, she looks back over her life. Her childhood with her depressed mother and much older father, the launch of her career with her lover and musical partner, fame and all the problems it brings, and a family tragedy which leads to her turning her back on not only the music industry, but music itself. The plot is structur [...]

An author and a musician collaborate to tell a story. Laura Barnett, the author, embarking on that difficult second novel. Kathryn Williams, a singer songwriter, provides the songs that will unravel the life story of Cassandra Wheeler.Cassandra Wheeler, singer songwriter, now in her sixties is coming out of retirement, after many years living as a recluse.Cass will launch her greatest hits album with a number of new songs at a launch party, but before that she is going to sit in her studio and l [...]

Greatest Hits is clever, intriguing, so original and absolutely beautifully written. I do believe that I have found one of my Top Reads of 2017. This is a wonderful novel that feels so personal, so intimate and so familiar.The story takes a circular journey, beginning early one morning as Cass Wheeler prepares for a party at her house. Cass has known fame and glory, accompanied by tragedy and sorrow throughout her life. For the past few years she's hidden herself away from the world. She's been [...]

One of the loveliest musical purchases I made last year was the Joan Baez 75th Anniversay Tribute Concert CD. All Joan's mates/admirers came together to pay homage to the great lady by placing their own imprint on her impressive back catalogue. I remember buying her very early recordings on Vanguard when the winds of change were blowing across the US and around the world during the sixties. Soon after, I also picked up on Judy Collins. Between them they put the folk back into Peter, Paul and Mar [...]

Cass Wheeler is taking a journey back into her past. After a ten year silence the singer-songwriter is making a comeback with the sixteen tracks that have defined her life. In the course of just one day, Cass's life emerges and it is a story of friendship, love, betrayal and hope. But what made Cass retreat all those years ago and can she make peace with the past?I loved 'The Versions of Us' and it is probably one of my top five novels. Therefore this was a hard act to follow but follow it did a [...]

I thought when I requested this book that the "Greatest Hits" were going to be from real life - but it turns out they are the fictional songs that Cass the main character in the book has written. There are some references made to contemporary songs and bands of the various times and so I did like those parts as it enabled me to relate to those periods of time.Overall this book really didn't do it for me. I felt it was long at over 400 pages, drawn out and protracted. Bearing in mind this is one [...]

I really enjoyed this! I loved the fictional biography aspect of it, and that Laura Barnett actually wrote Cass' songs - I'm really keen to hear the actual tracks that were written for it. I thought all the characters felt real and authentic - like we were getting a look into the life of someone who was genuinely famous.

This is my book of the year so far. I was absolutely engrossed in it and all the characters came to life for me. I already liked Versions of Us and I already admired Laura Barnett's writing, but this book is something special.

I received this book with huge excitement - I adored Versions of Us. Easily one of my books of 2015. And then the fear set in that how could novel 2 live up to the expectations I had.I need not have worried. Versions of Us was not a one hit wonder. Greatest Hits is built around a loose structure of 16 tracks from a Greatest Hits album by the fictional Cass Wheeler. In the same way that Versions of Us's 3 differing versions gave us, the reader, an anchor and allowed us to navigate more easily bet [...]

I was looking forward to this book. I loved The Versions of Us, and this new one really appealed.Cass Wheeler, a famous singer, who is making a comeback, is looking back over her life, over the course of one day, while getting ready for a party to celebrate her Greatest Hits album.Cass is about my age, and her music is my kind of music.Her story is told in episodes, interspersed with song lyrics, and at first I was drawn into the story.Maria Cassandra Wheeler is the daughter of a London vicar, a [...]

First, thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this amazing novel. I'd not read Versions of Us but have bought it immediately upon finishing Greatest Hits.I've had some personal difficulties that have left me, a 3-4 novel a week reader, unable to finish anything other than an occasional graphic novel. Greatest Hits changed that, gripping me immediately and immersing me in the fascinating life of Cass Wheeler. As a character, Cass is so real, so beautifully [...]

I finished reading Greatest Hits by Laura Barnett just over a week ago and I’m suffering two problems. One, I can’t get this fantastic novel out of my mind. It’s a read that leads to significant book hangover. Two, I really don’t know how my review can possibly due to this book justice. I’ve thought of various angles but none of them seem to even be minutely worthy of the novel. Imploring you to read this won’t be enough (and it will make this review very boring). So let me tell you [...]

The story of one woman’s life, loves and losses, told to the soundtrack of her music. Successful singer-songwriter Cass Wheeler disappeared from the music scene ten years ago after a personal tragedy. Now, she is preparing to release a ‘greatest hits album’ and sets aside a day to listen to all her tracks and select which ones to include. Behind each song is the story of an important event in Cass’s life – from her mother abandoning her in childhood to her first love affair and her ear [...]

Hi Readers,I've just finished a great contemporary, Greatest Hits by Laura Barnett!3 Stars! - I got Greatest Hits to read through NetGalley so thanks to them for allowing me access. It was published on 15th June 2017 so is now available to buy. NOTE: Greatest Hits has some content to do with drugs. It's set in the mid 1990's when I believe drugs were seen as cool, though. There are some deaths of characters that are emotional scenes as well. Greatest Hits tells a biography, I suppose of this fic [...]

There will be so many people looking forward to reading this book after the success of Barnett's first book, The Versions of Us. I really enjoyed her debut novel and was delighted to be approved for an advanced copy of Greatest Hits by the publishers. Again, Barnett plays imaginatively with her storyline. Although there are not the three "versions" to follow as in her first book, here she still plays with a multilayered narrative. Posing as a memoir, this is a fictional account of a singer-songw [...]

Now in her sixties, legendary singer songwriter Cass Wheeler has decided it's time to take stock of a life well (and sometimes, not so well) lived. Holing herself up in her studio, she endeavours to select the sixteen songs from her back catalogue which define her - her life, her loves, her losses. The result will be a deeply personal Greatest Hits album, laying Cass's life bare - but will she ever lay her ghosts to rest?Greatest Hits is an almost impossibly beautiful book. At once a sweeping sa [...]

Cass Wheeler, a much revered and talented singer songwriter, looks back over her life. Now well into her sixties she has arranged to spend a single day all alone in her recording studio preparing her latest and long awaited new album of sixteen of her songs. She is arranging her back catalogue into an honest and unforgiving musical autobiography straight from her heart. It will include tracks from her meteoric rise to stardom tours and some new songs that will tell of her loves, her losses, her [...]

I’m very keen on books that incorporate music into the story and I’m not fussy about the format it takes. Things I love: literary mix tapes; words put to song; songs put to words; and authors who include playlists in end-notes. So, of course I was going to read Laura Barnett’s latest, Greatest Hits.Greatest Hits is a fictional memoir. Singer-songwriter Cass Wheeler reflects on her life by choosing sixteen tracks that define her. Each chapter begins with the lyrics to one of her songs, foll [...]

The Versions of Us, Laura Barnett’s debut novel, is one of my absolute favourites. It made me do big, gulping sobs as I read the final chapters, is a book I have recommended frequently, one I still think about regularly and one of the very few books I have read for a second time so Greatest Hits, Laura Barnett’s second novel had quite a lot to live up to! I am very pleased to say I was not disappointed. Charting the life of Cass Wheeler a singer-songwriter, from her childhood as the daughter [...]

This is about a fictional musician as she muses over her back caalogue and the songs that have shaped her life.It took me quite a while to actually enjoy this book. Initially, I was not invested in the characters at all, nor was I really enjoying the lyrics to the songs that opened up each chapter. However, as the book progressed so did my feelings. I started to really enjoy the concept and was really drawn to some of the more minor characters (like Johnny, and Lily, and Irene). Each chapter is [...]

This is not just a story, it's the life of Cass Wheeler and while you are reading her memories you will start listening and feeling her emotions inside you. I just can dream listening to Cass life songs, it has to be an amazing experience, two of my favourite pleasures together, music and books!This is quite an original book, we start reading Cass' present and song by song we discover her past; childhood, love life and motherhood. Cass' life hasn't been easy, but she learns to live with her prob [...]