Top Ten Tuesday: Vampires, Shifters, and Witches... Oh My!
The Sunday Post #264 | October 24, 2021
Review: Heard it in a Love Song by Tracey Garvis Graves
Format: Trade Paperback (ARC)
Source: St. Martin's Press
4 STARS
Equally cautious and confused about dating in a world that favors apps over meeting organically, Layla and Josh decide to be friends with the potential for something more. Sounds sensible and way too simple—but when two people are on the rebound, is it heartbreak or happiness that’s a love song away?
Thirty-five-year-old music teacher Layla is struggling to come to terms with the dissolution of her ten-year marriage. Her early 20’s were spent as a full-time musician, the lead singer for a local rock band. When she married Liam, a successful salesman always reaching for bigger and better, and the band started to stall, Layla quit music and began teaching and giving private lessons. Liam’s drive for status and wealth, and his penchant for living beyond his means, were a constant source of stress in the marriage. Now divorced, Layla is adrift and searching for who she is and what she wants next.
Married right out of high school, Josh spent the next twenty years with a woman who now felt like a stranger. Separated, and sharing custody of his five-year-old daughter, Josh is living alone trying to figure out what this next stage in his life will look like.
Heard it in a Love Song is what I call a Quiet Book. It focuses on character over plot and, while there is the promise of a romantic relationship throughout the novel, it is not a romance. The real story is Layla’s journey back to the woman she once was, only stronger.
Graves created such down to earth characters in Layla and Josh and I loved the slow evolution of their relationship from acquaintances, to friendship, to friendship with potential. These were two people who were battle worn and weary after the breakdown of their marriages. These weren’t two fresh-faced kids rushing headlong into love. They were both gun shy and taking the smallest of steps outside of their comfort zones. They doled out small pieces of themselves at a time, getting to know one another slowly and organically.
Told in both present time and in flashbacks of both Layla’s and Josh’s pasts, Heard it in a Love Song is raw and achingly realistic, told with Graves’s signature depth and warmth. A novel of resilience, second chances, and the healing power of music, this latest release from Graves delivered a vulnerable story with plenty of heart. ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Disclosure: I received a complimentary advance copy of this book for review. This does not impact my opinion of the book or the content of this review. I received no compensation and my review is voluntary.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tracey Garvis Graves is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and international bestselling author of contemporary fiction. Her debut novel, On the Island, spent 9 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, has been translated into thirty-five languages, and is in development with MGM and Temple Hill Productions for a feature film. She is also the author of Uncharted, Covet, Every Time I Think of You, Cherish, Heart-Shaped Hack, White-Hot Hack, The Girl He Used to Know, and Heard It in a Love Song. She is hard at work on her next book.Tracey loves to interact with her readers and can be found on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Review: The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell
Format: Audiobook
Source: Overdrive
5 STARS
2017: 19 year old Tallulah is going out on a date, leaving her baby with her mother, Kim.
Kim watches her daughter leave and, as late evening turns into night, which turns into early morning, she waits for her return. And waits.
The next morning, Kim phones Tallulah's friends who tell her that Tallulah was last seen heading to a party at a house in the nearby woods called Dark Place.
She never returns.
2019: Sophie is walking in the woods near the boarding school where her boyfriend has just started work as a head-teacher when she sees a note fixed to a tree.
'DIG HERE' . . .
A cold case, an abandoned mansion, family trauma and dark secrets lie at the heart of Lisa Jewell's remarkable new novel.
In The Night She Disappeared, Lisa Jewell masterfully weaves together three timelines to tell the story of Tallulah Murray, a young mother who disappears from her small village without a trace, along with her boyfriend Zach.
Some fifteen months after the disappearance, mystery writer Sophie moves to the same village with her partner Shaun, the new headmaster of a boarding school. While exploring the woods behind their cottage on the school grounds, Sophie finds a chilling sign attached to a tree: Dig Here. Sophie unearths evidence that leads to more questions about what became of the young couple. She is drawn deeper and deeper into the mystery and becomes consumed by what became of Tallulah Murray.
I loved the structure of The Night She Disappeared. The alternating timelines kept me fully immersed in the story, both past and present. Jewell provided Tallulah’s point of view in the months leading up to her disappearance, which made it obvious that all was not as it seemed in the life of the young woman. In present day (2018), we have the points of view of both Sophie and Kim, Tallulah’s mother.
Kim is frantic when Tallulah fails to return home after a night out with Zach. What could have happened to her beautiful girl? Tallulah is a devoted mother who would never abandon her child. Kim’s frustration grows when she contacts Zach’s mother, a woman who is seemingly unconcerned and believes the two kids took off to escape the stress of parenthood. Kim learns that Tallulah was last seen at the rambling country estate of a new college friend, Scarlett Jacques. When confronted, Scarlett claims she barely knows Tallulah. But what of the others who were at the house that night – do they know more than they are telling?
Jewell brilliantly created a mounting sense of unease as the story progressed. By the night of the disappearance there was a simmering tension, intensified because, as the reader, you know that by morning something will have happened, and Tallulah and Zach will not be seen again.
The Night She Disappeared was a riveting, character-driven, slow-burning suspense that kept me completely enthralled. With intricate details, people and events not truly as they seem, and information parsed out bit by tantalizing bit, Jewell fashioned a story that was utterly compelling and totally immersive. I was listening at every opportunity and was utterly captivated by the narration of Joanne Froggatt. Her voices were distinctive, I always knew which character was speaking, and the nuances she gave to each voice, particularly Tallulah’s, brought each character to life and had me envisioning every scene in vivid detail.
I have been reading Lisa Jewell’s novels for almost
twenty years and I am confident in saying that The Night She Disappeared is her
best yet. This one is not to be missed. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Lisa Jewell is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of nineteen novels, including The Family Upstairs and Then She Was Gone, as well as Invisible Girl and Watching You. Her novels have sold over 5 million copies internationally, and her work has also been translated into twenty-eight languages.
Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Women's Fiction Novels
- In a romance, the central theme is the romance/romantic relationship between the main characters.
- In a romance, there is a happily ever after (HEA) or happy for now (HFN) ending.
- Women's fiction is about more than a central romance. The focus is more on the journey of the main female character. It is about a woman - or group of women - navigating life and overcoming challenges.
- Women's fiction might have romantic elements - the heroine may have a love interest - but it is not the central theme of the story.






















