I’m thrilled today to be bringing you the sparkly new cover for The Choir on Hope Street by Annie Lyons, which I really enjoyed! Plus at the moment it’s only £1.01 on Amazon! And so to the lovely new cover!
Length: 337 pages
Please note that the cover image leads to a universal buy link for the book
What they say:
It’s time to face the music…Natalie’s husband has just dropped a bombshell she never expected. Six little words no women ever wants to hear – ‘I don’t love you anymore’ – and her whole world has been turned upside-down.
Caroline’s difficult mother has been kicked out of her nursing home! And with no one else able to take her in, she’s going to have to put the past behind her and invite her to stay.
Nat and Caroline might live just a few doors away from each other but the two neighbours couldn’t be more different! Yet when the beloved Hope Street community hall is threatened with closure, only the community choir can save the day – if they can just find the perfect song in time…
A gorgeously uplifting romantic comedy to make your heart sing! Perfect for fans of Debbie Johnson and Kat French.
Review (posted first on April 3rd (read here instead if you want!) but reposted to make it a bit easier on you to find it again!): I think one of the best parts of being a book blogger is when you review a book from an author that you know you enjoy (as you can see from my review of the brilliant Life or Something Like it which you can find here ), so to be part of the blog tour for said author is something very special indeed.
The book began simply but with a bang.
“‘I don’t love you any more.’ That was it. Six words delivered so simply, as if he were reading the news.”
From these few lines on I felt for Natalie Garfield, who had just been delivered the life shattering lines. Natalie isn’t quite sure where it all went wrong, they were the solid couple, the couple that would never be in trouble and yet here she is. Natalie was one heck of a character. A children’s book writer (yay!), she was understandably a bit of a mess, trying to muddle through for the sake of her child Woody (who was just so so gorgeous). What was so excellant was that even as she muddled through, even as she was down and falling apart, we could still see her character shine through, you could still see how much fun she was, how thoughtful and how out there she was and this made me want to read her story. There was another story going on at the same time, and what a tribute to Ms Lyons that I wanted to hear this one as much as that of the amazing Natalie.
Caroline, said other voice in the book, was right before my eyes from the second I began to read her- an always smiling, always in control, never a hair out of place, need to look good for the husband to keep the marriage alive type of mother who was just perfection.
“I don’t mean to sound judgemental but I despair of playground mothers sometimes. Where is their self respect? We’re all pushed for time in the mornings – the least we can do is apply a little eyeliner and make ourselves presentable. We’re supposed to be role models for the next generation, after all.”
I adored her too and couldn’t wait to see how the two characters would work/ clash with each other when they both decided to work towards keeping open the community centre on Hope Street by setting up a choir and competing to gain some coverage of the centre’s plight, aided by Natalie’s noteriety as a writer and Caroline’s can-do, must-do attitude.
When I tell you that the two characters were both amazing in their own way, the journey they go through together is something special as they try to understand each other (including parenting styles), getting Caroline to face up to some very harsh realities, including her relationship with her mother which was both shocking and so so moving (yes, I did cry). Natalie and Caroline were a very special coupling, and it’s difficult to stop talking about them, but I have to, to remind you that this is a book about the setting up of a choir, with, again, brilliantly written, genius personalities, and magnificent descriptions of locations, buildings, songs and harmonies. I’ll be honest, I could gush about this book all day, a fun, funny, beautiful, gripping, fantastic story that just cements Annie Lyons in my authors to remember list (yes, I do have one of these!) and tells me I have to get back to her excellent backlog (see them here). A must read. Thanks so much to Harpercollins and Ms. Lyons for this lovely book in return for an honest review.
About the author
Do you know sometimes you can’t beat the words from the author themself? Read a detailed, absolutely lovely description of Ms Lyons’ Works and brilliant achievements here
Her books (again lifted from her lovely website!)
Amazon Author Page
Hope you enjoyed that, plus it reminded me to go back and read the review for Life Or Something Like It (read it here), which I adored, and in the meantime I also bought Not Quite Perfect here !)
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