Windy City Blues

Author: Renee Rosen

Genre: Fiction

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2017

Pages: 480

Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: In 1960s Chicago, a young woman stands in the middle of a musical and social revolution. A new historical novel from the bestselling author of White Collar Girl and What the Lady Wants.

Leeba Groski doesn’t exactly fit in, but her love of music is not lost on her childhood friend and neighbor, Leonard Chess, who offers her a job at his new record company in Chicago. What starts as answering phones and filing becomes more than Leeba ever dreamed of, as she comes into her own as a songwriter and crosses paths with legendary performers like Chuck Berry and Etta James. But it’s Red Dupree, a black blues guitarist from Louisiana, who captures her heart and changes her life.

Their relationship is unwelcome in segregated Chicago and they are shunned by Leeba’s Orthodox Jewish family. Yet in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement, Leeba and Red discover that, in times of struggle, music can bring people together.

Review: Some chapters/sections could have been eliminated with nothing lost from the story, but still a very good read. This was another I couldn't read fast enough. I love the time frame, 1930s to 1950s, and the subject matter, the birth of R&B in Chicago. Leeba was an easy character to love and the story was just fascinating, especially since it was based in fact.

I asked my music teacher/band director husband if he had ever heard of Chess Records, and he told me that he had a ton of Chess Record stuff in the basement. He disappeared for a few minutes and came back up with several CDs. I took them from him and said I wanted to listen to them on my commute. Some of the songs/artists he had were mentioned in this book.

Other Renee Rosen Novels:
What the Lady Wants