“Music is the last thing we forget. […] We’re wired up to feel something special when we hear music that reminds us of something.”
The Lost Love Song is the second novel by Minnie Darke, the author of last year’s bestselling novel Star-Crossed. This new book is a romantic story centred around one musical composition and it’s a tale about love, loss, and how the power of music can transform lives.
The book is rightfully named after a love song that gets lost… and then found, and found all over again. It’s a song that travels all over the world, passed on to the next person as an act of love. It begins its journey in Australia, when Diana Clare, a famous classical pianist, begins to compose a song for her long-time lover, Arie Johnson, to finally tell him what he’s been waiting to hear after she returns from her world tour. In Singapore, Diana finishes writing the song and is eager to come back to her lover so she can play it for him in its entirety. However, the song’s course takes a different turn when it falls into the hands of someone else. And therefore, the journey of this beautiful love song begins a tour of its own: from Singapore to London, Edinburgh, Canada, New York, and back to Australia. Will it find Arie again? You’ll have to read this enchanting tale to find out!
The song inspires and touches the lives of those it comes across with. First, it’s Bene Romero, who overhears it in Singapore and brings it back home to London where he shares it with her daughter Beatrix, a flautist who later plays the song to her cellist lover in Edinburgh —and together, each with their own instrument, they play a beautiful duet of the magical piece. That’s where Evie Greenlees, an aspiring poet who dreams of publishing her own book, hears it; and that prompts her to reassess her whole life, and so leaving a toxic relationship behind and ultimately deciding to go back home to Australia where she’ll retrieve her confidence and self-respect. In the US and Canada, the song (brought there by the cellist lover) helps brothers and couples reconnect and it encourages people to make the decisions they otherwise wouldn’t have had the courage to make. The song finds its way back to Australia, where it all began. This full-circle journey is followed through a series of interludes that are intertwined with the main chapters throughout the book, this is how we get to know more of these secondary characters and how they relate to the main story, that of Evie and Arie. The way everything connects to one thing and another is very beautifully done and wonderful to discover.
The novel also offers a very likeable set of characters. These are characters that aren’t perfect, because nobody is, and that’s what makes them human and more believable. Darke invested a lot in these secondary characters and that’s why they don’t feel flat. The reader can’t help but connect with their hopes and dreams and root for them every step of the way. These people face every-day struggles and deal with them the way any of us would, in the best way we can with the means we have.
Darke has a magnificent way of capturing the emotions we experience when we listen to music: songs are with us in our best and worst moments, they make us feel, and we even lose ourselves in them sometimes. The author describes this so well and portrays the effects of this song in such a beautiful way that it makes the reader wish they could listen to this love song as well. In addition, at the end of the book, there is a list of songs that inspired each character’s theme! It makes a nice little playlist to listen to whilst reading the book.
Furthermore, this novel unexpectedly deals with some more heavy subjects, through an event that could be deeply upsetting to some readers. However, Darke portrays grief and the reactions of others to those who are grieving with great sensitivity and honesty. The book shows how grief and the loss of someone dear to you can shake up your whole world and not allow you to live your life for you. It also shows that there isn’t one set and magical way of accepting a big loss, everyone deals with it in their own different way and at their own pace. But it ends up sending out a big hopeful message, it prompts characters (and the reader) to “live now”.
All in all, The Lost Love Song is a tribute to living and loving, with all its ups and downs. But ultimately, it’s solid proof of the power of music as a way to bring people together and to touch people’s lives. It’s not a standard romance contemporary, in the sense that it offers much more than just one love story. The Lost Love Song is a heart-warming, bittersweet, and moving story about life, loss, love, friendship, music, poetry, and second-chances. Perfect for music lovers and those who crave uplifting reads in these trying times.
The Lost Love Song is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good retailers, like your local bookstore, as of August 6th 2020.
Will you be picking up The Lost Love Song? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
This is the story of a love song . . . And like any good love song, it has two parts.
In Australia, Arie Johnson waits impatiently for classical pianist Diana Clare to return from a world tour, hopeful that after seven years together she’ll finally agree to marry him. On her travels, Diana composes a song for Arie. It’s the perfect way to express her love, knowing they’ll spend their lives together . . . Won’t they?
Then late one night, her love song is overheard and begins its own journey across the world.
In Scotland, Evie Greenlees is drifting. It’s been years since she left Australia with a backpack, a one-way ticket, and a dream of becoming a poet. Now she spends her days making coffee and her nights serving beer. And she’s not even sure whether the guy she lives with is really her boyfriend or just a flatmate.
Then one day she hears an exquisite love song. One that will connect her to a man with a broken heart . . .
