Heard It in a Love Song

A Novel

By: Tracey Garvis Graves

Narrated by: Andi Arndt

From Tracey Garvis Graves, the bestselling author of The Girl He Used to Know comes a love song of a story about starting over and second chances in Heard It in a Love Song.

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?

A Macmillan Audio Production from St. Martin's Press

Too many flashbacks

As someone who recently got divorced after a 29 year marriage, I really appreciate reading about older and divorced people finding love again. Tracey Garvis Graves has written some of my favorite books, so I was very excited to read Heard it in a Love Song . As someone who loves music and is the mom of a musician, I was even more excited about Heard it in a Love Song.

Sadly it didn’t live up to my high expectations. Let me tell you why. Layla, 35, is recently divorced. She was the singer in a popular local band, but due to her marital problems she needed a steady job, so now she teaches music at the local elementary school. Josh is the dad of a student. He is newly separated after almost 20 years of marriage.

The romance is very slow burn. In fact, I’m not sure this was actually a romance, it was much more women’s fiction. The story is told through a ton of flashbacks to both of their marriages. And when I say a ton…I think there were more flashbacks to their previous relationships than there were scenes of the couple currently together.

Told in third person, I had enough trouble connecting to the characters, but just as I would be getting into it, suddenly the scene would change and I’d be in one of their pasts. Without the physical cues of italics, I felt like I had to figure out where I was all the time. Besides that, I enjoyed their story, but just didn’t need to know so much about their exes.

Heard it in a Love Song by Tracey Garvis Graves is more about the personal growth of the two main characters. It was about them moving on and finding themselves, and I did enjoy this part very much. But while we needed some background to base this growth on, I would have rather spent more time in the present.

Likes:
•Loved all the music.
•Very accurate knowledge of today’s music industry.
•I really liked the characters and rooted for them.
•It felt very very real.

Dislikes:
•Too many flashbacks. I never knew whose past I was in or if it was present time.
•Though it has romance, this isn’t a romance novel.
•3rd person.
•The cover didn’t go with the book at all.

The Narration:
Andi Arndt was great at this but I think with the 3rd person narration, she wasn’t utilized to her full abilities. I think this book would be easier to read than listen to because it is hard to tell when you are in a flashback or not when you listen vs having the visual cues of italics or bold when you read it.

The Down & Dirty:
Heard it in a Love Song by Tracey Garvis Graves was an OK listen. I put it down easily to read another book I was excited for, but I did go back and finish because I really liked the characters and music references. But the way it was told in flashback just kept on feeling like a distraction from the story rather than adding to it.

Rating: 3 Stars, 4 Narration

I liked it!

Was easy to listen to - goid story with a few twists. Goid summer book to enjoy.

Well…,

This was good but it went from past to future too much for me. Are we moving backwards or forward? I was confused. I loved Andi but the story was hard to follow at times.

There was a very mature and understanding relationship story.

I loved it!!!! The story was very cute and thought out. I love a story that teaches you about the main characters past and how they grew into who they are now. It was very relatable. A nice relaxing read with no crazy plot twist.

my up your own mind

If I would have went by the other reviews, I wouldn't of pick this book. But something told me to try it and well I liked it. So listen to the sample and make up your own mind