HOT WAX

Hardback Published on: 09/09/2025
Price: £20.00
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Bookseller Reviews

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Hot Wax
No notes, just perfection!
Hot Wax is musical literary perfection. It's part gritty glimpse into the underbelly of the 80s rock n roll music scene, part road trip of trauma healing. ... READ MORE
Victoria at Aviemore
Hot Wax
A mad whirlwind through one woman’s psyche
A great and fantastic read, that explores the impact of unresolved childhood trauma on an adult psyche, and the madness of our society that expects us all ... READ MORE
Lewis at Huddersfield
Hot Wax
M.L. Rio at her very best!
Listen: ‘Hot Wax’? Sublime. A love letter to music (particularly vinyl) and invoking a strong sense of nostalgia for the ‘80’s and ‘90’s, we get to peek b... READ MORE
Gem at Witney (@theblackcatbookseller)
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Synopsis

A vivid and immersive tale of one woman's reckless mission to make sense of the events that shattered her childhood, and made her who she is.

Summer, 1989: ten-year-old Suzanne is drawn like a magnet to her father's forbidden world of electric guitars and tricked-out cars. When her mother remarries, she jumps at the chance to tag along on the concert tour that just might be Gil and the Kills' wild ride to glory. But fame has sharper fangs than anybody realized, and as the band blazes up the charts, internal power struggles set Gil and his group on a collision course destined for a bloody reckoning - one shrouded in mystery and lore for decades to come.

The only witness to a desperate act of violence, Suzanne spends the next twenty-nine years trying to disappear. She trades the music and mayhem of her youth for the quiet of the suburbs and the company of her mild-mannered husband Rob. But when her father's sudden death resurrects the troubled past she tried so hard to bury, she leaves it all behind and hits the road in search of answers.

Hitching her fate and Gil's beloved car to two vagabonds who call an old Airstream trailer home, she finds everything she thought she'd lost forever: desire, adventure, and the woman she once wanted to be. But Rob refuses to let her go. Determined to bring her back where she belongs, he chases her across the country - and drives her to a desperation all her own.

Drenched in knock-down drag-out rock and roll, Hot Wax is a raucous, breakneck ride to hell and back - where getting lost might be the only way to find yourself and save your soul.

Publisher information

  • Publisher: Headline Publishing Group
  • ISBN: 9781035421169
  • Number of pages: 400
  • Dimensions: 238 x 164 x 40 mm
  • Weight: 620g
  • Languages: English

Customer Reviews

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Hot Wax
Rock n' Rolling Good Time
Thank you so much to Headline and NetGalley for this ARC. Hot Wax tells the story of two very different summers in the life of Suzanne Delgado. In 1989 she... READ MORE
Molly O'Connor
HOT WAX
Beautifully Devastating
This book was so beautifully devastating. M.L Rio set themselves a difficult task in writing a book on the same level as If We Were Villains, but they succ... READ MORE
Emily Gibbs
Hot Wax
Compelling
I read an eARC of this book on NetGalley so thank you to the author and the publisher. I’ve read three books by this author and this was my favourite. ... READ MORE
Jennifer Charlton
Hot Wax
So atmospheric and sad
Thank you so much Headline for the arc! „They had ruined each other, in some unspeakable way, and no matter how many years they spent apart they were s... READ MORE
Rina
Hot Wax
Five stars!
Hot Wax by M. L. Rio is an electrifying dive into the chaotic, dark heart of rock and roll, and the lingering shadows of a fractured childhood. Set in 1989... READ MORE
The Secret Book Review
HOT WAX
Daisy Jones with some grit
It's hard to put into words my feelings about Hot Wax because the book itself is hard to put into words. It's not a thriller, not a mystery, not quite lit ... READ MORE
Victoria Hall
Hot Wax
Four stars!
Hot Wax by M. L. Rio is an electrifying dive into the chaotic, dark heart of rock and roll, and the lingering shadows of a fractured childhood. Set in 1989... READ MORE
The Secret Book Review
HOT WAX
ML Rio has done it again
The writing has me more emotional than I expected. I knew Rio's writing could make me cry, but this was a rough read, especially the first half. Now thi... READ MORE
GEMMA PEARSON
Hot Wax
On the road
At its heart, Hot Wax is about a daughter of a wannabe rockstar trying to make peace with her unresolved childhood trauma. In the Summer of 89, Suzanne ... READ MORE
Rebecca J