“Heard it in a Love Song” by Tracey Garvis Graves

Title: Heard it in a Love Song
Author: Tracey Garvis Graves
Publisher:  St. Martin’s Press
Year: 2021    
Genre(s): romance
Part of a Series: No

Rating: 

Why I read it: Got it as part of Once Upon a Book Club’s 12 Days of Bookmas a couple years ago.

Summary: Layla and Josh meet at his daughter’s school where Layla works as a music teacher. Slowly, they form a friendship that turns into more. But they both have just gotten out of marriages for different reasons so they aren’t quite ready for love. Will they prove to be what each other needs right now? Or are they still playing with fire that could burn them all?

Review: I love a second chance romance. Almost as much as I love friend-to-lovers.

Which is one of the reasons why I really enjoyed this book.

I also enjoyed the book because it remained relatively light and was ultimately what I call a fun read. You didn’t have to turn off your brain and still had some interesting themes but didn’t really need to be too dramatic or angsty.

Josh and Layla were great characters to read. They felt real and I felt like I went on a journey with them. Layla reclaimed her love of music and her identity, emerging stronger and more confident now that she was free from her ex-husband, a man who tried to smother her light and made her life chaotic.

Meanwhile Josh found a way to move forward after separating from his wife, his high school sweetheart. He discovered what true companionship was and finally embraced the man he had become, releasing the boy he had been when he first got married. He found a way to find peace with his ex-wife and to move forward as co-parents with her.

I thought the glimpses into Layla’s and Josh’s previous relationships was great as well. We got to see who they were before they met their respective former partners (Liam for her, Kim for him) and see how they first fell in love. We also saw how it fell apart as well and how that changed them into the people we first met.

I also liked that Graves had them be friends first and that she laid that foundation. Their start definitely stood in contrast to how their previous relationships started and gave you the feeling that they would last past the final page of the book.

And sometimes, we just all need a happy ending.

Bottom line: A light, heart-warming read.

Sex: Mentions but nothing graphic.

Moonlight Musing

Have you ever gotten a second chance at something and taken it?