Author Raven Taylor brings us her first novel, entitled If I Fall Back Down, the title lifted from a Rancid track (if I am correct), a story of love, life and loss, with punk rock at its center.

Tobias Grave and Morven Strike have nothing in common, or so it would seem. A punk rock legend in his thirties who's had a poverty stricken life on the streets, plagued by a drink and drug problem, and a teenage girl, who, well, has had a pretty normal life so far. Just doesn't seem right does it? Yet it works, somehow, for a while at least, until it all comes crashing down. You can open this memoir of a punk rock lifestyle almost at any point and be entertained by touching stories of Tobi and his band of street punks or harrowing accounts of drug and alcohol abuse. Tobi has had to overcome some huge trials in his life but see how this hardened die hard punk will cope when he looses the love of his life to a group of racist, Nazi skin heads.

I don't really want to spoil this book for readers, as I believe you should buy it, but what I can say is that many of the things we in the "Punk Scene" experience day to day is covered in this story, and for myself as someone who has been in punk bands for many years, some of the story felt very close to home. This isn't just some easy read, throwaway story but something that will stick with the reader - through the unusual pairing of its well fleshed out characters, through the drink, drugs, families, the highs, the lows and the loss.

I have to admit, this book would make a great film, which would sit alongside something like "This Is England," but for the modern punk generation. I once read a similar themed book called "England Belongs To Me," about two skinheads, but that book was written in a very drab way with characters you felt nothing for and a story which, once completed, left you as it found you - not so with "If I Fall Fall Back Down" - you are taken on the journey with Tobi and Morven, and come away feeling like you knew these people and really do feel for Tobi at the books conclusion.

In short, This is a book you shouldn't be without. A literary equivalent of smack in the face from a punk you have just spilled the beer of, and I cant wait to read more of Raven Taylor's work.

Go get "If I Fall Back Down " by Raven Taylor from an Online stockist, or the New Haven Publishing website.