Julie's Review: Heard it in a Love Song

Author: Tracy Garvis-Graves
Series: None
Publication Date:  November 9, 2021
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Pages: 304
Obtained: publisher via NetGalley
Genre:  Contemporary Fiction, Contemporary Romance
Rating: 4/5
Bottom Line: Realistic love story
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Summary: Love doesn’t always wait until you’re ready. Layla Hilding is thirty-five and recently divorced. Struggling to break free from the past―her glory days as the lead singer in a band and a ten-year marriage to a man who never put her first―Layla’s newly found independence feels a lot like loneliness. Then there's Josh, the single dad whose daughter attends the elementary school where Layla teaches music. Recently separated, he's still processing the end of his twenty-year marriage to his high school sweetheart. He chats with Layla every morning at school and finds himself thinking about her more and more. Equally cautious and confused about dating in a world that favors apps over meeting organically, Layla and Josh decide to be friends with the potential for something more. Sounds sensible and way too simple―but when two people are on the rebound, is it heartbreak or happiness that’s a love song away? ~amazon.com

Review: My musical abilities lie dormant unless of course I'm singing at the top of my lungs to Pour Some Sugar on Me or rapping to Ice, Ice, Baby; so, I have an appreciation for characters who have a gift to really play an instrument. Layla has the gift of being able to shred a guitar and use her voice to sing as well. The band she is a part of seems destined to at least go a bit further than playing local pubs but then of course life happens and things change. 

Years removed from her days of playing in a band and live, Layla is an elementary school music teacher that really does love her job but given everything she's gone through she yearns to express herself. Her marriage to Liam ended and now she's free to do what she wants and be herself. She has no interest in dating or anything but she does feel herself drawn to Josh. 

Josh is co-parenting his daughter, Sasha with his high school sweetheart, Kimmy but they are separated. Josh is focusing on his business, Sasha and trying to figure out what he wants out of life. Like Layla he's drawn to her but unsure of where to go and how to go there.     

What I loved about Heard it in a Love Song is that it is definitely rooted in reality. Josh and Layla have real issues to work through, life has dealt them each a hand they were expecting. They each have things from their previous relationships they are working through and none of it is necessarily easy. Also, Layla has some goals for herself and her music that she doesn't want to get distracted from achieving. 

Josh and Layla could be people you know which makes their journeys all that more relatable. It is also a story that will stay with you long after you close the book on the final words. I definitely recommend this one by Ms. Garvis-Graves. 

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