Zoe Wylde is a woman at a crossroad. Five years ago, she fled her successful career as a concert harpist in London to return to her Bondi home. She still plays, but now her audience is on the way out ... literally. It's complicated and complication is something Zoe understands well. Her best friend is chasing a new love, her brother's chasing too much love and her father has been married far too many times. Compared to them she thought she was doing okay. She's met the guy she is sure is the ONE. He wooed her and has been sleeping with her for almost five years. It would all be perfect ... if he wasn't married.
Zoe is learning that hearts, like harps, are capable of beautiful music if treated the right way and can be tricky to manoeuvre. She's over the old tune. But does Zoe have the courage to rewrite the song of her own life?
THE SONG OF US is a soulful story of family, love and the notes that define our lives by the author of THE SECRET RECIPE FOR SECOND CHANCES.
*Includes a BONUS extract from J.D. Barrett's debut novel, THE SECRET RECIPE FOR SECOND CHANCES*
Review by Emily Winter
If it's possible for fate to put a book in my hands, then this made me a believer.
The characters and situations in J.D. Barrett's The Song of Us resembled those in my own life, which made this read a brilliant one for me. In a nutshell, this is chick lit but with a lot more quirkiness, and it's absolutely hilarious.
Set in Sydney, Barrett's work as a scriptwriter (Love My Way and East of Everything) is evident in the way she has delineated her characters and constructed the multiple storylines which all converge. Her protagonist, Zoe Wylde, is a music therapist whose life is surrounded by drama, and has a fascinating posse of friends, clients and family to witness it all. Life changing events of course ensue.
Clichéd? Most definitely. Emotion provoking? Yes. Do you want to shake the characters at times to tell them to wake up to themselves? Oh yes. But that's what made this read so delicious.
Imbued with love, fate, laughter, family politics, and the occasional reality check for both the characters and the reader, The Song of Us is a fun, light read that reminds us no matter where we are in life, it's never too late.
