Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Book Review: Our Song

By Melissa Amster

What would you do if your husband was the love of somebody else's life? And when faced with an agonising decision, could you put the past behind you and do the right thing?

This is the story of Ally and Charlotte, whose paths have intersected over the years though they've never really been close friends. Charlotte married Ally's ex and first true love, David. Fate is about to bring them together one last, dramatic time and change their lives forever.
(Synopsis adapted from Amazon.)

I instantly became a fan of Dani Atkins’ writing after reading Fractured a few years ago. Her words flow beautifully, making her stories feel realistic and easy to visualize.

Some of my favorite parts of Our Song were the courtship scenes. They made me reminisce about when my husband and I first met and fell in love. Dani really captured the excitement and anticipation of those moments and allowed me to feel the way her characters did. I was able to get into their heads even better as a result. Some parts of the story were very emotional in other ways and the characters’ feelings jumped right off the page, making me teary-eyed at times. It was all very heartfelt, honest, and gripping. While a bit lengthy at over 500 pages, the story went fast, as it was hard to put down. I found myself breezing through it when I had a chance to sit down and really spend time with the characters. I also liked that most of the story took place during the winter holidays, as it really got me in the mood for the month ahead.

Being an avid reader comes with some consequences, and one of those is being able to predict what will happen in any given novel. I love when a writer throws me off my game and manages to surprise me. However, with this novel, I found myself being right about what was going to happen on more than one occasion and I wasn’t always happy that the prediction came true. Some of this could also be due to foreshadowing. If you aren’t into making predictions and just want to go with the flow, then you have nothing to worry about. There are plenty of game changers and you might still be more surprised than I was.

Our Song is a testament to love, heartbreak, and friendship. Definitely have some tissues handy. I would enjoy a sequel to see what happens next for the characters. In the meantime, I’m glad to know that Dani has another novel coming out soon.

Dream movie cast:
Ally: Susannah Fielding
David: Joshua Sasse
Charlotte: Sarah Gadon
Joe: Chris O’Dowd
Max: William Moseley

Thanks to Simon and Schuster UK for the book in exchange for an honest review.