Book Review: The Weiner Across The Way by Amy Award

‘The Wiener Across The Way’ by Amy Award is the second book of the Cocky Kingmans’ series. It was released in early 2024, and is preceded by ‘The Cock Down The Block’, which I reviewed back in March.

I cannot even begin to say how excited I was to read this book. I was counting down the days from the moment I finished the first book in the series, until I could read the second. I had high hopes, after how much I loved the first book, including the infamous animal mascot, Luke Skycocker.

Trust me, a resident dog lover to be over the moon at the idea that the animal mascot for this book was a dachshund called Weiner The Pooh! Anyone who knows me knows its hard for me to say anything negative about books that highlight the highs and lows of loving dogs.

I’m not one to bash references to other things in fiction. I loved that the Cocky Kingmans series was compared to Bridgerton, and thus, a supporting character in this book was named Penelope Quinn – a mix between the names of Penelope Featherington, the love interest in Romancing Mr Bridgerton, and Julia Quinn, the author of the series as a whole. Similarly, I loved how the youngest character in the Kingman clan’s name refers to Julia Quinn, too. But, I felt like the Taylor Swift references hit a bit too close to home.

The premise for this book was laid out to be similar to the first book, a fake dating scheme that turns out to be much too real. However, it was very different to what it said on the tin. Although I was confident that in having a blonde popstar dating a football player could allude to a handful of Taylor Swift references, I was astounded to see how many references to Swift. her life, her relationship (as of the book’s publication in January 2024), and her music there could possibly be in this book.

At a glimpse, some are easier to see than others, for example, a high-profile popular female celebrity, who is treated negatively by the media, ending up in a relationship with a professional football player, but what I hadn’t expected in a book that doesn’t actively claim to be inspired by Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, was for the couple to meet and bond in the way it is speculated Swift and Kelce did; by Kelce managing to get a friendship bracelet – or in this case, a Bestie Bracelet with his phone number to the popstar herself.

My concerns about this being heavily inspired by the real-life love-life of Taylor Swift only increased toward the end, when, as a solution to everyone’s problems, Kelsey finds out she owns the masters of all of her music – something Swift is notorious in the music industry for also having done, re-recording and re-releasing albums dedicated to each era of her career between her debut, and the release of her 2017 album, ‘Reputation’.

It was very hard to read this book as anything other than fanfiction about real-life celebrities, disguised as a romance novel about fictional characters. I have been a fan of Swift and her discography since I was a child, and can argue that perhaps I’m seeing things that aren’t there, but, it felt like Kelsey Best, Declan Kingman’s love interest – yes – her name is Kelsey, like Travis Kelce, was a bit half-baked without the references to real-life popstars and celebrities.

Although I appreciate that Kelsey was her own person with her own struggles, she seemed to be reinforced by a lot of real-world celebrities, like Kelly Clarkson, the winner of a TV singing show, Ella Henderson, Jesse Neilson, women the industry tried to push to lose weight to achieve success, and Taylor Swift, who explicitly exists within this universe, and is on many of the Kingman boys’ playlists. I really struggled to connect with her in that respect.

Pooh was definitely my favourite character in the book, in her sparkly jumper glory, this gorgeously flirty and protective pup clearly loves her human, and grows to love Declan too. From the beginning, we get the sense that Pooh is a silly girl who thinks she’s the best thing in the world, and probably immune to anything and everything bad. We first encounter her squaring up to a rattlesnake, now that’s some crazy dog behaviour!

Throughout the story, Pooh becomes a character that gets cosy with Declan, cockblocks Declan and offers room for laughter in otherwise tense scenes toward the beginning. I loved how Award utilised the idea that dogs are excellent judges of character and blamed Kelsey’s attraction to Declan on Pooh having a crush on him.

Saying that, I did enjoy aspects of this novel, I loved how Award explored the theme of burnout and being overworked in the music industry, and how celebrities are expected to go above and beyond to appease their voracious fanbase. I loved that Declan was able to take Kelsey away from the stress, having expressed concern about her health etc. from the get-go, and put his foot down about it in the fall-out of her health taking a turn for the worse. Award didn’t shy away from showing the rougher side of the industry, and how it impacts artists. She showed the rougher elements to living a life without privacy, and control.

As Award herself acknowledges, she took some artistic liberties with the mechanics of the music industry while writing this novel, but I felt like the things she did highlight were incredibly important. I respect her for doing that, as many celebrities in the public eye are expected to have their lives on display for the public to ogle at.

Although my opinion of this book was overall not the best, it hasn’t completely deterred me from keeping an eye out for the next book in the Cocky Kingmans series. I loved Amy Award’s first book, and yes, this book has taken me by surprise, but hasn’t totally thrown me off. I hope the third doesn’t feel as underbaked, and heavily inspired by real people and real events as this one did. I am praying for a love interest in book three that will feel like her own person, like Trixie did.