Stevie‘s review of Listen by Kris Bryant
Contemporary Lesbian Romance published by Bold Strokes Books 12 Feb 19
Having noted that I hadn’t read any rock star romances lately, I came across two books featuring relationships between musicians in as many months. This, the second of the pair to be released doesn’t feature a rock star as such, although one of the protagonists was a famous musician and composer in her youth, before anxiety issues forced her to seek a new career away from the public eye. Since her breakdown, Lily Croft has avoided music altogether, finding comfort in numbers and doing as much of her actuarial work as possible from home in order to minimise her contact with other people. While on secondment to a purely office-based job, Lily hears a pianist practising, and is soon drawn into the world of the Leading Note Music Center, a non-profit organisation providing music therapy, and music lessons to children who would otherwise miss out on such opportunities. When Lily meets the pianist herself, she is attracted to the woman’s looks and personality as much as she was to her talent.
Hope D’Marco, like Lily, was encouraged to take music lessons by her parents, after showing interest following a trip to a concert. Unlike Lily, she wasn’t pushed beyond her comfort zone, and now she plays for pleasure, as well as teaching and performing in recitals with her young students. Hope appears entranced by Lily’s shy, awkward nature and encourages her to become more sociable just as Lily is taking steps to get to know her temporary co-workers.
The pair begin a relationship, although Lily worries about telling Hope about her past brush with fame – she changed her name after giving up music and mostly avoids events where she might be recognised by fans of her former self. Meanwhile, Hope worries what will happen to the music centre now that their major sponsor has pulled out due to a business relocation, and the rent on their premises is about to increase significantly. Lily makes plans to help, using both her own resources and the contacts she has through her employers. All is going well, until a revelation from Hope causes Lily to panic over whether she can really trust anyone she lets into her life.
While I had a lot of empathy for Lily and could completely understand why she would want to keep her past and present lives completely separate, I had a harder time figuring out Hope. I couldn’t understand why she both concealed an important fact from Lily and also set things up so the truth was bound to come out at the worst possible moment (maybe a little too much of a deus ex machina from the author?). Also, the glimpses we saw of her family didn’t completely fit with what we knew about her or the way she’d described them previously to Lily. Overall, this wasn’t a bad book, but I didn’t completely love it either.
Grade: C
Summary:
Former child music prodigy Lily Croft spends most days in her home office crunching numbers and analyzing data as an actuary. Once she filled concert halls across the world, until the pressure got to be too much and forced her retreat. When her boss hands her a temporary assignment, Lily has to leave the safety of working from home to work with people at an office. She keeps her head down and stays focused, but one night on her way to the train station, she hears music wafting from The Leading Note and the life and feelings she suppressed for over a decade bubble up to the surface.
Lily is inexplicably drawn to Hope D’Marco, Leading Note’s gorgeous and brilliant founder. But falling for Hope and re-exploring her passion for music force Lily to face her past. Will she go back into hiding, or have the courage to confront the consequences of her past and present colliding?
Read an excerpt.
