I think there are few situations in life that can’t be made better with singing. Obviously there are some pretty huge exceptions, but for the most part music is magic.
When Nat’s husband utters the words that no-one ever wants to hear; “I don’t love you anymore” she is left to pick up the pieces. Also making some huge life adjustments is perfect PTA Queen Caroline who is left with no choice but to take care of her estranged mother with dementia when her care home is unable to meet her needs.
Both women are dealing with hugely emotional life-changing situations, and both happen to live on the wonderfully named Hope Street where the local community hall is under threat from property developers.
Faced with all this drama, there’s only one logical solution….let’s SING! (I very much buy into this philosophy) As luck would have it, a handsome new music teacher has just joined the local school. Can good old community spirit bring everyone together and help both women find their way, find friendship and find their voices?
This is just the loveliest book! I’ll be honest I couldn’t STAND Caroline for a large part of it, she is infuriating and brilliantly depicted as one of Those Mums (we all know them, they’re on every committee, annoyingly perfect & determined to make you feel inadequate) It is quite a skill to take a repugnant character and bit-by-bit make you fall in love with them. Annie does this really well with Caroline’s character and there is a quite a significant turning point where you start to really feel for her. Caroline’s Mum who lives with dementia is also really sensitively written. As someone with personal experience of this awful disease, I think Annie has captured the associated heartache really beautifully.
This easily gets a melodic five cwtches from me, it’s a perfect pick-me-up read and will make you want to join a choir (and eat cake) Big thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the copy in exchange for an honest review.
I hope (sorry) we’ll hear more from Hope Street, they are such a lovely bunch and I think there is huge scope to find out a bit more about each of the cast. Fingers crossed for more please – ENCORE!
Five cwtches – get your copy here!
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