When
Jeremiah Springfield and Matt Ripke met at camp, they thought they
would be saying goodbye at the end of the week. However, in Adam
Palmer’s KNUCKLE SANDWICH, a chance encounter between two
high school seniors turns into an unexpected adventure. Both
Jeremiah and Matt are members of their respective church’s
praise bands, and what starts out as a friendly competition turns
into a friendship. They part ways when the week winds down,
promising to keep in touch but knowing that they probably
won’t.

Fast forward one year. A college-bound Jeremiah is working the
register at his summer job when a familiar face walks in the store.
Matt, as it turns out, not only lives in the same town as Jeremiah
but also is going to the same college. Their friendship picks up
right where it left off, and destiny seems to take over when they
meet Amanda and Liz, their perfect matches.

Matt tells Jeremiah that God has given him the vision to start a
band. With Matt’s striking talent on guitar and vocals,
Jeremiah’s skill on bass and Liz’s powerful drumming,
the band, which gets the name “Knuckle Sandwich,”
starts gaining some local notoriety. After being scouted out by a
manager, they move from playing the school battle of the bands to
some more impressive venues. While Matt and Liz are enthusiastic
about the band, and even more so about God, Jeremiah seems to be
more interested in Amanda. She’s his first real girlfriend,
and being the band’s unofficial “roadie,” they
are allotted plenty of time to spend together.

As Knuckle Sandwich’s popularity continues to grow, things
become more and more strained for the group. Jeremiah and Amanda
have been making some choices in their relationship that may have
big consequences. Meanwhile, Matt’s ego seems to be growing
even faster than the band. As the tension mounts, big secrets are
revealed, leaving everyone to wonder if Matt really ever was the
God-fearing rocker he portrayed himself to be. With its group
members torn apart and a big tour coming up, will Knuckle Sandwich
ever reach the heights of stardom?

KNUCKLE SANDWICH is quite different from the majority of Christian
teen novels. Most notably, it targets the adolescent male audience
that is often forgotten in the world of fiction. The book is set
during the heyday of Christian rock music in the 1990s. However, as
most readers would be far too young to have experienced this, many
of Palmer’s clever pop culture references and parallels will
be lost on them and would be better appreciated by a
twenty-something crowd. Music fans will enjoy the inside look at
the industry from the former musician, but those without a keen
interest might find the long descriptions of composing, rehearsing,
recording and touring to be a bit drawn out. Nonetheless, Palmer
creates a very likable protagonist in Jeremiah, whose story most
readers will be eager to follow.

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