Review: Heard It in a Love Song by Tracey Garvis Graves
Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for my advanced copy. All thoughts are my own.
I wanted to love this book. It was one I was SO looking forward to in 2021, but sadly, it just did not work for me. I think it’s a combination of where I am in my life and this book not being paced well. I’m a newlywed, this book is about life after divorce. And that is GREAT, because I think those are important stories to tell. We all deserve to see ourselves represented in love stories. I don’t need to relate to every character or story I read because what would be the point of using books to learn? But I do need to feel compelled to pick up a story and I just never wanted to reach for this book.
Synopsis:
“Love doesn’t always wait until you’re ready.
Layla Hilding is thirty-five and recently divorced. Struggling to break free from the past—her glory days as the lead singer in a band and a ten-year marriage to a man who never put her first—Layla’s newly found independence feels a lot like loneliness.
Then there's Josh, the single dad whose daughter attends the elementary school where Layla teaches music. Recently separated, he's still processing the end of his twenty-year marriage to his high school sweetheart. He chats with Layla every morning at school and finds himself thinking about her more and more.
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?” —NetGalley
What I Liked:
The Characters—I really liked Josh and Layla! I was invested in them when I was reading about them, but sadly the time jumps just felt so choppy that once I was invested in a scene, we’d be taken away and I had to try again.
What Didn’t Work:
The Pacing—Slow, slow slow. It could be right book, wrong time, but I am a reader who is so dependent on the pacing pulling me in in the first 25-50 pages and this was not it.
The Lack of Plot—When I was reading, I kinda felt like nothing was happening…ever. And now I LOVE a good character driven story, but this didn’t even feel like that. It almost felt like it had a Sally Rooney quality (spoiler alert, I am not an SR fan) of being like a mundane look at everyday life.
The Time Jumps—TGG usually rocks me with the dual timelines and time jumps but I just did not care about the scenes taking place in the past.
Content Warnings:
All are moderate to mild: chronic illness, drug use, suicidal thoughts, animal death, death of a parent, sexual violence, gaslighting, toxic relationship,