The Lost Love Song…

About the Book:

The Lost Love Song is a bewitching novel about love, second chances and the power of music, from the author of the critically acclaimed, bestselling Star-crossed . . .

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.

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My Thoughts:

I read Star-crossed by Minnie Darke last year and instantly loved it. This year she has returned with a new novel, The Lost Love Song, and while it’s completely different to Star-crossed, it’s resulted in another case of insta-love with me. I love music: the way in which people can be brought together and connect over it, the way it can soundtrack your life, the way in which it can make you feel, and the way in which you can lose yourself in it. I would listen to music all day and night long if I could and I’ve always been that way. So this novel appealed to me right from the outset, given that it completely revolves around music and all of those things I just mentioned loving about it.

‘Music is the last thing we forget…
Apparently, we have this special place in our brains for remembering music, and it’s completely separate from the parts where we store every other thing. And when we hear music that we know, our brains light up in completely different ways than when we hear music we don’t. We’re wired to feel something special when we hear music that reminds us of something.’

The Lost Love Song is so named after a love song that gets lost…and then found. And found again, and again. A song that is written but left incomplete, then finished by the person who finds it, then passed on as a love gesture to the next person, and so on and so on, until the song eventually makes its way back to the person for whom it was intended, just in a completely different format to the original. We follow this song’s journey through a series of ‘interludes’ that bracket the chapters throughout. But the interludes do not exist separate from the main story, that of Arie and Evie, but rather have a connectivity that builds with a serendipitous quality that was just gorgeous to discover.

This novel is written with the intent to make you feel, and with this reader, it achieved its purpose. It’s a moving tribute to living and loving, in all its glory and pain. And it’s above all a testimony to the power of music as a means of communicating and bringing people together. I adored The Lost Love Song and feel entirely certain now that anything written by Minnie Darke will be a crowd pleaser. Is this a love story? Yes, but not like what you’re thinking. It has that marvellous Love Actually/Valentine’s Day/New Year’s Eve quality about it. It’s a very special book indeed.

☕☕☕☕☕

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Thanks is extended to Penguin Random House Australia for providing me with a copy of The Lost Love Song for review.

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About the Author:

Minnie Darke is the author of the bestselling novel Star-crossed, winner of the Margaret Scott People’s Choice Award, and which has now been published in over 30 countries. Her fantastic new novel, The Lost Love Song, will be released in March 2020. She lives in Tasmania with her husband and family.

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The Lost Love Song
Published by Penguin Random House Australia – Michael Joseph
Released 3rd March 2020