Critical Praise

"In Hill's wonderful debut, young Rosie Kettle departs her quaint desert town to chase her dreams in 1960s San Francisco. Attending art college, Rosie has a chance encounter with an illegal immigrant named Peter who publishes a music magazine. Peter gives Rosie her first job, photographing a once legendary blues guitarist and his talented young partner, David Wilderspin. That assignment catapults Rosie into a hot career on the scene, an addictive lifestyle and a troubled affair with David. The two become inseparable, settling into a dream home and having a baby. But when David sets out on tour to support his disappointing new album, the road takes more out of him than he anticipated, and soon memories of his perfect life are drowned in booze. Hill's characters are believably flawed, and her powerful romance about the intersection of love, art and independence features troubling plot developments and a strong climax while deftly avoiding artists-in-love stereotypes."

——Publishers Weekly, July 28, 2008

"A sweet riff on the kind of passion that makes human beings ‘believe in evolution, that we could be smarter than our parents.’ But it’s also a poignant poem about the refusal of hope to extinguish in the light of the morning after, a rock-and-roll photo in black and white that will be read all over."

——Jacqulyn Mitchard, The Deep End of the Ocean

"This is a beautifully written, remarkable story – a melancholy, complex love story set in the wildly frantic (crash & burn) world of rock and roll at its peak. Told through the eyes of a photographer, each image is perfectly framed and shot. The storyteller speaks with a strength only found through love, tragedy and redemption. I ‘fell into the pages’ of this book and savored every word. What a strong first novel. I will happily recommend this to our readers."

——Pam White, Skyland Books, West Jefferson, North Carolina