I have been in love with Dolly for as long as I can remember. This book brings her to life in the best way. She is truly an American Icon and I loved learning about her life and music. If you are a fan of her Netflix show, and want more this book is it!!! 

My favorite part was that the author takes you through Dolly’s songs verse by verse with a breakdown of what it means. 



Thank you NetGalley and University of Illinois Press for this ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I have read the first part of this book ,but found it challenging to read on my kindle.  I wanted to look at the appendix when comments made during the introduction, but it is not easy to access in this format.  The book felt that it was very much about the author and her encounters with Dolly and her musical preferences. I think  I expected it to be more of an autobiography than it is.  Unless you are interested and understand music I think it will not be of interest to you.

I had such high hopes for this book but sadly it wasn't interesting to me. Despite Dolly being an extremely talented and well known country artist, I didn't get that from the book. I was about 10 pages in and I had to stop reading it because it was the authors opinion and her take on Dolly. I understand that this book is about Dollys music I just wish it went into detail about how she got to where she was in 1964. What made her want to get into music? Who was her inspiration.

I am a huge Dolly Parton fan. I simply adore her, yet  I cannot seem to get into this book. I've picked it up so many times and each time I set it down I have to force myself to pick it back up. It feels extremely repetitive and dry. I'm giving up. Life is too short to read something you don't enjoy.  I hate writing bad reviews so I won't be reviewing this on goodreads.

This is an interesting read.  It wasn't what I thought it was, which was to tell about Dolly's life through her music.  It does that to some degree, but this is more of an actual technical look at her writing and music.  Music-y people will really enjoy reading this.  I liked the blips about Dolly's life--her songwriting processes, inspiration, and influences, but being that my music education ends with being able to simply read it, I really couldn't appreciate the dissection of her score and songs.  I think this is a really neat way to write about Dolly Parton though; it feels authentic and genuine.  Hamessley really wanted us to get to know the whole real, true Dolly.

Sorry, too much like a text book for me. As much as I like Dolly this book could not keep my interest.
It might appeal to others but I struggled to get past the first few chapters.

The layout of this book made it too hard to read on Kindle, this I was unable to finish it. It appeared to just be an issue with formatting and layout so hopefully it would be resolved in a printed version

Dolly Parton is a national treasure, and she must be recognized as such. People underestimate Dolly's genius, and this book helps by exploring her songwriting. What makes Dolly so special is that she's not just an entertainer: she's also savvy at business, a philantropist, and a prolific songwriter. I hope many read this to learn more about her prowess.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts are my own.

Anyone who knows me well knows about my love of Dolly Parton. This was a great insight into the stories behind the songs, some I knew and some were surprising.

Sweet Dolly...I really enjoyed this book and I was able to shed the stress of todays world by reading her story! I learned a lot about Dolly's career ad her personal life~ 
I will be purchasing this book for my sister ad niece for they too are big Dolly fans!!

As a Dolly Parton fan, I enjoyed learning more about her songwriting.  I learned several new things about her rough childhood and how it had an impact on her lyrics and music.  A great book for Dolly fans!

Unlikely Angel is quite a unique book in that it isn't a musician biography- its a history of Dolly's songwriting. I'm a pretty big Dolly fan but I found there was a lot in this book that I didn't know about. It's a really fascinating look at the history of celtic and mountain song and strips back more of the 'cartoon character' of Dolly Parton and truly honours the incredible songwriter that she is.

This books dives into Dolly Parton's discography. It is a perfect read for all fans of not just Dolly's music but music in general. Whether you are a songwriter or a Dolly's fan you will find this book very informative.  It focuses on all of her career and her song and records, with some touches on Dolly's personal life and things that influenced and inspired her. I knew some things but just because I am familiar with her music. I also learned some stuff about this incredible woman. She really is a powerhouse and a legend. I would definitely recommend this book to people who are not all that much familiar with country music. It is a brilliant way to learn so much about it. 
If you are a fan of Dolly, you will know most of these things already. 

Thank you NetGalley for the copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Excellent biography of Dolly Parton, highly recommended for serious music fans. 

This is not your ordinary biography of a music legend. This book, by a musicologist, looks at Dolly Parton as the serious songwriter and musical genius that she is. It doesn't cover all the gossip and wild stories about Dolly's personal life. A small portion of the book covers her relationships with Carl Dean, Judy Ogle, and Porter Waggoner - but only as these relationships affected Dolly's songwriting career. Instead, this book takes a very deep dive into Dolly's Smoky Mountain musical roots and songwriting influences. If you care to, the author takes you verse by verse into many of Dolly's important songs, providing analysis while you listen to each song.

Dolly Parton cooperated with this book, providing the author with long answers to questions posed to her. Steve Buckingham, Dolly's longtime producer, also cooperated with the author. 

I'm delighted to see a book devoted to taking a close look at Dolly Parton as the musical genius that she is.

Unlikely Angel by Lydia Hamessley is an excellent book for any Dolly Parton fan. 

The author goes through Ms. Parton’s extensive list of songs that she has produced and written and talks about her inspiration and thoughts that helped create each masterpiece. As a fan, I knew about some things, however I did learn quite a bit more. 

Very impressed.

5/5 stars 

Thank you NetGalley and University of Illinois Press for this ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR account immediately and will post it to my Amazon and B&N accounts upon publication.