The Bottom Line: A steamy romantic suspense novel tailor-made for music lovers. Highly recommended.
Indiana bartender Flair Montgomery is obsessed with lucid dreaming and waking hallucinations, but she isn’t into drugs. Instead, she achieves mind expansion by floating in a sensory deprivation tank while listening to neo-psychedelic rock playlist. All is well until one night, during the middle of an exquisite soak, she feels someone caressing her in the darkness. Flair is both filled with terror and ecstasy. Is she being assaulted, or has she actually found by her soulmate?
Several erotic minutes later, the person wordlessly slips out of the chamber and heads to his car, where he finds a note taped to his car: “…It’s all your fault. But not for long. Not for long at all. Pretty funny, really — You picturing your future.”
Floating on Secrets is a delightfully quirky romantic suspense novel set within a small town mystery that is chock full of surprises. As in all Bensko’s novels, her protagonist is a standout, one-of-a-kind character that defies all genre conventions. Yet somehow, Flair remains entirely relatable, longing for human connection while immersing herself in a mystery that grows more intriguing and complex with each succeeding chapter. Despite Bensko’s playful tone and the implicit humor throughout the book, there’s plenty of suspense.
What’s more, the book joins an elite club of classic novels tailor-made for music lovers. Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity created an entire generation of indie music snobs, while David Levithan and Rachel Cohn’s Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist is a treasure trove of early 2000s alt rock references. Accordingly, Besko gives the ultimate playlist treatment to under-the-radar neo-psychedelic bands like the Brian Jonestown Massacre and the Allah Las. As the scenes unfold, music fans will relish seeking out each and every track (learn more about the book’s music on Pinterest).
