I became an immediate fan of this author after reading her debut novel, The Art of Scandal and awaited her second novel with great anticipation. August Lane does not disappoint in that regard. If anything, it takes the drama found in her first novel and increases it by a hundred times. This book is all caps DRAMA. 

The titular heroine in August Lane is the daughter of a Black country music star who herself was a mere child of fifteen when she gave birth. August has spent her whole life with the innate understanding that she’s never been wanted, not by her mother and certainly not by the dangerous man who fathered her by forcing himself on a fifteen year old girl. The dark themes that make up her origin story are further complicated by the fact that August is also ostracized by her peers at school, slut shamed for falling for the charms of the rich white boy who takes her virginity only to turn around and debase her to the whole school when it’s revealed he had a girlfriend all along. 

Shunned by everyone at her mostly white school, August strikes up an unlikely and reluctant friendship with Luke Randall, the Black football star who has big painful secrets of his own. 

Cut to present day, 10 years after he left their small town in Arkansas, becoming yet another person who abandoned August Lane. In current times, he’s a one time rising country music star and a now sober recovering alcoholic who makes his ends meet by singing his one hit in a motel lounge. He hates the song for what it represents, his betrayal of the only woman he’s ever loved. 

Luke and August cross paths when Luke returns to their hometown where August, reeling from grief after losing her grandmother to dementia, works as a waitress at a diner owned by her uncle. Made bitter and angry and resentful by all that life has taken from her, August makes a deal with Luke. She’ll keep his secret – that his one hit wonder that he claimed he wrote was actually written by her and in exchange, they’ll write a new song together to perform at her mother’s Country Music Hall of Fame induction ceremony concert. 

This is a poignant story of second chances and redemption, of love lost and found, of dreams long buried coming to light, and a love story years in the making. August and Luke have a lot of history between them and each have a lot of painful baggage to deal with. August has been constantly abandoned by her mother and Luke has been abused by his mother, who has issues of her own dealing with loss, pain, and drug use. 

There was so much trauma and drama layered in this story, some of it generational trauma, that I would strongly advise anyone reading this book to really take their time with it. It’s worth the time though, with beautifully flawed and complex characters, a love story that spans a decade, a hard-fought and well-earned HEA with a slow burn romance. 

The story also involves some really great commentary on racism and gatekeeping within the entertainment industry and how we as a society decide who gets to belong in what spaces. There is a lot of discussion in this book about Black people in country music that feels very timely and relevant today. 

But at the end of the day, it’s a romance, a beautiful, heartbreaking, painful romance between two people who have been hurt and must make peace with each other and learn to trust and let go of old wounds in order to forge a new beginning. 

Grade: A

Content Notes: parental abuse, parental abandonment, reference to rape in the past, cheating, reference to drug use, reference to alcohol abuse, violence, mention of abortion by a minor character, racism, misogyny, slut shaming