Book Review: Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm by Laura Warrell

Love is messy. Love can make us feel alive. It can also bring us down. Sometimes we look for it in all the wrong places. This is a novel about longing, desire and dreams; about passion and risk and all the places in between.

Maggie is pregnant with Circus Palmer’s child. This may be her last chance, but she craves her freedom.

Pia is Circus’s ex-wife, still in love with the fantasy of the man who conjured jazz tunes for her into the night, but who left many years before.

Koko, Circus’s daughter, is lost in the maelstrom of teenage years, the confusion of awakening desire and yearning for the father she barely knows.

Peach is a barmaid who just wants someone to see the person she is inside.

Odessa is on the run from a mistake that can’t be undone.

And then there’s Circus, Circus Palmer, a jazz trumpeter whose moment of glory is fading. Selfish, damaged, scared, perhaps the only person Circus is fooling is himself.

Delivered in a lush orchestration of diverse female voices, Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm is a provocative and gripping novel about the desire to be loved, and the need to belong.

*****

Circus Palmer seems to be at the centre of the lives of many women.

His ex wife, Pia, is trying to navigate being a parent to a teenager without much help from Circus.

Peach is wanting someone to see her and she had hoped Circus would be it.

Koko, Circus’s daughter is trying to discover the world without her Dad.

Odessa is trying to forget about a mistake she made.

Maggie is pregnant and she is not sure what her next move will be or whether she will see Circus again.

The premise of this novel intrigued me and I was pleased to have the opportunity to read Laura Warrell’s debut novel.

It did take me a little while to get into this novel and there are quite a lot of characters introduced. However, if I were to suggest who to leave out, I am not sure who to suggest as they all have a relatable story to tell and after a few chapters, I couldn’t put it down.

The characters really drive this novel and it gave me such a rollercoaster of emotions.

I had so much empathy for all these women. I connected more with some than with others. They are all at various stages of their lives. Circus was a tragic character. He was a person who didn’t realise what hurt and damage he left in his wake and I felt he needed to grow up.

Laura Warrell has done a great job of creating this world and I could see myself with these characters. I’m not a huge fan of Jazz but it’s weaved well into this book. The atmosphere it conjures up is rich and almost tangible.

I also like the dive into the dynamics of relationships and the mixture this book presented.

Overall, I feel that this is a strong debut. It’s perfect if you’re looking for a strong, female led story. I am interested to see what Laura Warrell does next.

Thank you to Doubleday and Netgalley for the advanced reading copy in exchange for an honest review. 

*****

About Laura Warrell: 

Laura Warrell is a graduate of the Creative Writing Program at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She has attended residencies at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the Tin House Writer’s Workshop, and has taught Creative Writing and Literature through the Emerging Voices program at PEN America Los Angeles, at Writing Workshops Los Angeles, and at academic institutions in Los Angeles and Boston. She currently writes and teaches in Los Angeles.

Her writing has been published in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Huffington Post, The Rumpus, The Writer, and Post Road Magazine.

Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm is her first novel.

Say hello to Laura on Twitter. 

Sweet, Soft,  Plenty Rhythm was released by Doubleday on 9th February 2023. Click to buy on Amazon UK, Amazon US and Waterstones. 

by

Laura

I’m Laura. I started Novel Kicks in 2009. I wanted a place to post my writing as well as give other writers like me the opportunity to do the same. There is also a monthly book club, a writing room which features writing prompts, book reviews, competitions, author interviews and guest posts.

I grew up by the sea (my favourite place in the world) and I currently live in Hampshire. I am married to Chris, have a cat named Buddy and I would love to be a writer. I’m trying to write the novel I’ve talked so much about writing if only I could stop pressing delete. I’ve loved writing since creative writing classes in primary school. I have always wanted to see my teacher Miss Sayers again and thank her for the encouragement. When not trying to write the novel or writing snippets of stories on anything I can get my hands on, I love reading, dancing like a loon and singing to myself very badly. My current obsession is Once Upon a Time and I would be happy to live with magic in the enchanted forest surrounded by all those wonderful stories provided that world also included Harry Potter. I love reading chick lit. contemporary fiction and novels with mystery.