e-Audio, 11:25:45
Narrated by: Patti Murin & Ashley Poston
Release Date: June 17, 2025
Published by: Books on Tape
Read from: June 10-11, 2025
Stand-alone
Source: PRH Audio App (I also received a free e-ALC from the publisher and their app. This did nothing to influence my review.)
Content Warning: Dementia, Death of a Parent, Death, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Drug Use
For Readers Interested In: Adult, audio, Auto-Buy Authors, Magical Realism, Meet Cutes, Most Anticipated, Romance, Series CompanionA hitmaking songwriter and a bitter musician share a startling and inexplicable connection that they’ll do anything to shake, in the next sparkling, magical book from Ashley Poston.
Joni Lark is living the dream. She’s one of the most coveted songwriters in LA…and she can’t seem to write. There’s an emptiness inside her, and nothing seems to fill it.
When she returns to her hometown of Vienna Shores, North Carolina, she hopes that the sand, the surf, and the concerts at The Revelry, her family’s music venue, will spark her inspiration. But when she gets there, nothing is how she left it. Her best friend is avoiding her, her mother’s memories are fading fast, and The Revelry is closing.
How can she think about writing her next song when everything is changing without her?
Until she hears it. A melody in her head, lyric-less and half-formed, and an alluring and addictive voice to go with it—belonging, apparently, to a wry musician with hangups of his own.
Surely, he’s a figment of her overworked imagination.
But then the very real man attached to the voice shows up in Vienna Shores. He’s aggravating and gruff on the outside—nothing like the sweet, funny voice in Joni’s head—and he has a plan:
They’ll finish the song haunting them both, break their connection, and hope they don’t risk their hearts in the process.
Because that song stuck in their heads? Maybe it’s there for a reason.
*MY THOUGHTS*
I have to say, this one is my favorite of her magical realism books. I don’t even know what it is about it either. I just could not put it down. It was so good! Not that it was a surprise or anything, but magical realism isn’t really my jam, and her last like 2 weren’t my faves, so I went in thinking this would be one of the same. But it was the complete opposite.
Ok so the main thing I loved about this? The inside each other’s head thing. That was crazy. My husband and I are sort of in sync after like 15 years together, but NOT LIKE THIS obviously lol But also I could not imagine this happening with my husband. I just know we would get on each other’s nerves. There was no peace! And they had to basically just tamp down their feelings, but even then they could still hear it. I would be mortified, even with my husband lol Idk, this would drive me up a wall! My brain is too busy by itself. Can you imagine adding another person to it? Lordt lol And the way she wrote it was cool too. She made it to where they had to complete the task before they could part, and only if it was put together correctly. And I loved that so much.
I did like the characters too. They were so real. As someone who has someone close to them that has dementia, this hit home. It started out small and everything just like her parent. I gotta say, it was so very heart-breaking to read this and also be watching it in real time in real life. And I loved the fact that she had to make those hard decisions about where to stay and that kind of thing. I felt that was weird too because I once had to do the same. (Right after college. Me and hubs met in college) NOTHING is wrapped up neatly and stays that way. HOWEVER, I did feel like they were a bit too damn calm when they found someone else’s thoughts in their heads lol I would have been in the psych ward, because what do you meannnnnn
The romance was cute. Again, I don’t know how they didn’t start attacking each other for being in each other’s heads all day, but it was still cute. It did seem like a bit of instalove, but I know that was because of the plot. I just know that someone people may not like this aspect, but I loved it! They were both so down to Earth and it was easy to see that they loved each other from the beginning. But watching them write together, and learn to work and listen to each other was so precious to see. I loved the way they both had to learn and they had to cooperate with each other before they got it right.
I DO wish we got more of the setting, but as an island girl I know it’s just because I wanted to know what the island life was like. I know we saw the hurricane, but I wanted to know more than just that. I did like the mention of cheerwine. The first time she said it I thought it was actual wine lol So here’s to still learning things from books!
This book was a lot of fun. After writing this review, I stand by saying this was my favorite of her magical realism books. Ok, so maybe not my favorite….. Maybe a tie with Dead Romantics. But no matter the order, I loved this book and I hope y’all will too.
Overall, I give this
