Book ~ "Every Little Piece of Me" (2019) Amy Jones

From Goodreads ~ Ava Hart is the most reluctant cast member of a reality TV show based on her big city family's (mostly staged) efforts to run a B&B in small-town Nova Scotia. Every family has its problems but Ava has grown up seeing her family's every up and down broadcast on national television, after the show becomes an unexpected success for reasons that will take a heavy toll on the Harts. 

Mags Kovach is the charismatic lead singer of a struggling Halifax rock band hoping to be the Next Big Thing. For years she's managed to contain her demons and navigate the uglier aspects of being a woman in the music world but after a devastating loss, she turns her anger on the only person she can: herself.

As their private tragedies continue to set social media and tabloid headlines on fire, their every move subjected to an endless stream of public commentary, it will be their unexpected friendship that will save them. They will push back against the roles they've been forced to play, and take back control of something they thought they'd lost forever - the right to their own stories. 

It's 2009 and Ava is the eldest daughter of two married gay men ... she, her brother and sister were adopted.  When she was about 12, they were living in New York City.  Her dads receive and accept an offer for the family to be in a reality show ... they would be running a B&B in rural Nova Scotia!  What?!  Ava doesn't want to do it and does all she can to sabotage when they are filming.  She gets her wish when her younger sister, Eden, attracts the spotlight and Ava is able to blend more into the background.  She still resents having her family's lives constantly filmed and talked about on social media.

In the meantime, Mags and Sam are 15 and living in Halifax, Nova Scotia and dating.  Mags' mother had passed away a few years earlier and she is being raised by her alcohol and drug addicted older sister.  They have a falling out and Mags has nowhere else to go but to move (secretly) into Sam's family home.  Mags and Sam formed a band with a couple of friends with a goal of the big time.  Then Sam passes away at age 21 of cancer.  On the cusp of success, Mags turns to drugs and booze to help her with her grief so she and the band can carry on.

In 2014, Ava (now 18) and Mags (now 21) meet.  Both have their issues and their demons and they form a friendship because of their common bond of having to live and perform in the spotlight.

This is the second book I've read by this author and I liked it.  When I read the first chapter, which is when Ava and Mags first meet in 2014, it wasn't grabbing me and I wasn't too sure if I was going to get into the story.  But I kept going and I'm glad I did because I ended up liking it.  The first chapter is, as I said, when they meet, and then the story goes back in time to 2009.  The chapters alternate between Ava and Mags until present day, which is 2015.   Plus there are chapters of what social media said about them and their behavior.

I liked the writing style ... it's written in third person perspective with the focus on Ava and/or Mags.  I'm originally from Nova Scotia and live in Toronto, where the story at times takes place.  I'm not far from where Mags "lived" here in Toronto and am just east of Parkdale, where she "parties".  As a head's up, there is swearing.

Book ~ "We're All in This Together" (2016) Amy Jones

From Goodreads ~ A woman goes over a waterfall, a video goes viral, a family goes into meltdown - life is about to get a lot more complicated for the Parker family. 

Like all families, the Parkers of Thunder Bay have had their share of complications. But when matriarch Kate Parker miraculously survives plummeting over a waterfall in a barrel - a feat captured on a video that goes viral - it's Kate's family who tumbles into chaos under the spotlight. 

Her prodigal daughter returns to town. Her 16-year-old granddaughter gets caught up in an online relationship with a man she has never met. Her husband sifts through their marriage to search for what sent his wife over the falls. Her adopted son fears losing the only family he's ever known. Then there is Kate, who once made a life-changing choice and now fears her advancing dementia will rob her of memories from when she was most herself. 

Kakabeka Falls, ON

Kate, who has always been a free spirit but now suffering from advancing dementia, decides to go over Kakabeka Falls in barrel and ends up in a coma.  Over the next four days her family rallies around her at the hospital.

There are quite the cast of characters in this messed-up family:

• Kate's 30-something daughter, Finn, has been living in Mississauga and heads home.  She had left Thunder Bay suddenly years ago and isn't happy with her life.  The rest of the family are still in Thunder Bay.  
• Nicki, Finn's twin sister, is the mother of four kids (from three different fathers, none of whom she'd been married to, nor are they are in their lives) and is now married to Hamish (a bootlegger) and running a hair salon.  
• Shawn, their adopted older brother, is married to Katriina (a realtor who is stressed out because she is trying to sell a house where a young girl recently hung herself) and running a pancake restaurant.  Shawn and Katriina have two sons and have been trying to have another baby which keeps resulting in miscarriages.
• Walter, Kate's husband, runs a tour boat company and is torn between his love for Kate and Lake Superior.  
• London, Nicki's oldest daughter, is a teenager and obsessed with sharks.  She is in love with the star of a shark show and they are online friends.

This was a wacky story and I liked it.  It is written in third person perspective from the various characters' points of view (ten in all).  As such, something that happened is retold a couple times from the different points of view.  Sometimes the story jumps back and forth from the present to the past but I found it was fairly obvious.  As a head's up, there is swearing, self-harm and adult activity.

I look forward to reading future stories by this author.