Editorial Content for Sounds Like Love
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As she's done in her previous novels, Ashley Poston combines romance and just a sprinkle or two of magic in her latest outing, SOUNDS LIKE LOVE. Her prior work, however, has all been focused in some way on the publishing industry. This time around, she shifts gears somewhat and pens a tender love story set in the world of popular music.
Joni Lark has worked really hard to become one of the most respected pop songwriters in Los Angeles. She finally may have hit the big time with her song "If You Stayed," which is performed by one of the world's biggest pop stars, Willa Grey. But Joni also has a secret. Ever since learning of her mother's diagnosis with early-onset dementia, she's been utterly unable to write either music or lyrics.
"[T]his music-infused novel...is a wonderfully evocative summer romance, imbued with all the effervescent feelings of long, hot days in a beachy tourist town."
Discouraged and more than a little stressed, Joni spends one of her last evenings before her annual summer trip back home to the Outer Banks of North Carolina at one of Willa's huge concerts, where she retreats to a private box to escape the crowd. Much to her dismay, she realizes that someone else is there with her: Sebastian Fell, one-time boy band member and son of multiplatinum rock star Roman Fell, with whom her mom once performed. To put it bluntly, Sebastian does not make a good first impression on Joni.
When Willa starts singing "If You Stayed" and playfully directs the venue’s "kiss cam" toward the secluded box, Sebastian and Joni reluctantly kiss to appease their shared acquaintance. The results are surprisingly electric and set in motion an unexplainable series of events that is about to transform both of their summers, if not their entire lives.
Back in Vienna Shores, Joni is bracing herself for a bittersweet "last good summer" with her mom, who even early in her decline has both good and bad days. She's also realizing just how much space has grown between her and her best friend, Gigi, a talented singer who gave up her own chance at stardom to stay home in North Carolina while Joni chased her dreams in LA. The Revelry, the music venue that Joni's parents own, has fallen on hard times. Given the family's health challenges and their financial struggles, they've decided to sell the Revelry at the end of the summer.
Joni's relaxing summer at home is not off to a great start. And to cap it all off, she's plagued by hearing a fragment of a melody she can't identify. Compounding things, the melody is soon accompanied by a man's voice, one that seems to be able to hear all of her innermost thoughts. Once she starts listening, she realizes she can hear his too.
It's a leisurely and lovely road from this setup to the conclusion of SOUNDS LIKE LOVE. Joni not only finds her way back to songwriting but also clears up some of the mistakes of her past and charts a new course into the future. And she does so with the most surprising companion not only in her head but also at her side. The book raises questions both fanciful (Would you actually want a love interest to hear your thoughts all the time?) and somber (How would you want to spend the "last good summer" with someone you loved entering dementia?) And if that wasn't enough, this music-infused novel (all the chapter titles are based on the names of songs) is a wonderfully evocative summer romance, imbued with all the effervescent feelings of long, hot days in a beachy tourist town.
Pack this one, and maybe a nostalgic playlist, in your beach bag for a vacation this summer. You won't regret it.
Teaser
Joni Lark is one of the most coveted songwriters in LA, yet she can’t write. There’s an emptiness inside her, and nothing seems to fill it. When she returns to her hometown of Vienna Shores, North Carolina, she hopes it will spark inspiration. But when she gets there, nothing is how she left it. How can Joni write when her world is leaving her behind? Until she hears it. A melody in her head, lyric-less and half-formed, and an alluring and addictive voice to go with it --- belonging, apparently, to a wry musician with an emptiness of his own. Surely, he’s a figment of Joni’s overworked imagination. Then a very real man shows up in Vienna Shores. He’s arrogant and guarded, and he has a plan for breaking their inconvenient telepathic connection: finish the song haunting them both and hope they don’t risk their hearts --- or their secrets --- in the process.
Promo
Joni Lark is one of the most coveted songwriters in LA, yet she can’t write. There’s an emptiness inside her, and nothing seems to fill it. When she returns to her hometown of Vienna Shores, North Carolina, she hopes it will spark inspiration. But when she gets there, nothing is how she left it. How can Joni write when her world is leaving her behind? Until she hears it. A melody in her head, lyric-less and half-formed, and an alluring and addictive voice to go with it --- belonging, apparently, to a wry musician with an emptiness of his own. Surely, he’s a figment of Joni’s overworked imagination. Then a very real man shows up in Vienna Shores. He’s arrogant and guarded, and he has a plan for breaking their inconvenient telepathic connection: finish the song haunting them both and hope they don’t risk their hearts --- or their secrets --- in the process.
About the Book
A hitmaking songwriter and a bitter musician share a startling and inexplicable connection that they’ll do anything to shake, in the next sparkling, magical book from the New York Times bestselling author of THE SEVEN YEAR SLIP and A NOVEL LOVE STORY.
Joni Lark has a secret. She’s one of the most coveted songwriters in LA, and yet she can’t write. There’s an emptiness inside her, and nothing seems to fill it.
When she returns to her hometown of Vienna Shores, North Carolina, she hopes that the sand, the surf and the concerts at The Revelry, her family’s music venue, will spark inspiration. But when Joni gets there, nothing is how she left it. Her best friend is hiding something, her mother’s memories are fading fast, and The Revelry is closing.
How can Joni write when her world is leaving her behind?
Until she hears it. A melody in her head, lyric-less and half-formed, and an alluring and addictive voice to go with it --- belonging, apparently, to a wry musician with an emptiness of his own.
Surely, he’s a figment of Joni’s overworked imagination.
Then a very real man shows up in Vienna Shores. He’s arrogant and guarded --- nothing like the sweet, funny voice in Joni’s head --- and he has a plan for breaking their inconvenient telepathic connection: finish the song haunting them both and hope they don’t risk their hearts --- or their secrets --- in the process.
Because that melody, the one drawing them together...what if it’s there for a reason?
Audiobook available, read by Patti Murin
