The Rock Star in Seat 3A

The Rock Star in Seat 3A
By Jill Kargman

The Rock Star in Seat 3A was a really well-done novel about true love. However, I must warn you that it has lots of cursing in it. Do people really talk that way? So, if that is something that really disgusts you, this is not the novel for you.

Just-turned-thirty Hazel Lavery is a New York city native who seems to have it all. Then her boyfriend is on the verge of proposing and she is afraid to commit. On her flight to LA, she gets bumped up to first class and finds herself sitting next to her all-time favorite rock star, Finn Schiller. During an extremely rough ride, they hit it off and suddenly Hazel is spending more time checking her phone for texts than she is helping to find the perfect setting for her boss' unveiling of his newest video game. She ends up breaking up with her boyfriend to explore these wonderful new feelings and a lifestyle she never dreamed of living.

But what, really, is true love and how do you know if you have found it?

Despite the extreme amount of foul words, this book really caught my attention. The title was interesting and the whole premise of sitting next to your fantasy (much less meeting your fantasy) really got me thinking. Then, the book and the character of Hazel really hooked me in so that I finished this in one afternoon.

What did this book have to do with my faith? One issue Kargman brings up in the book was whether there is anything more in life than the dark stuff.  Is life more than gloom and doom? Should we not be able to celebrate the good things and not just go on and on about the bad? Even as a Christian, I know some Christians that really enjoy hearing about others' tragedy. They may disguise their interest in either caring for the other person or in trying to pray for them. But they are really looking for the dirt on the other person. In some cases this is to spread gossip but I think in others people are looking to see how others have it so bad in their own lives. They would rather go explore the dark side of human nature -- and claim that we are all bad at the core due to sin -- than see the goodness in human beings -- and the innate goodness in all that God has created. I think that Jesus was able to see the goodness in everyone he met and I would rather emulate him. Alas, I think I also get the wrong kind of energy hearing about others' tragedy -- part of that being the nature of my calling. Perhaps I need to focus on what good others are doing more often in my life and my ministry.

I recommend The Rock Star in Seat 3A.

Happy reading!

Amelia