Heard It in a Love Song

A Novel

By: Tracey Garvis Graves

Narrated by: Andi Arndt

Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

From Tracey Garvis Graves, the best-selling 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 35 and recently divorced. Struggling to break free from the past - her glory days as the lead singer in a band and a 10-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 20-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

©2021 Tracey Garvis Graves (P)2021 Macmillan Audio

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.

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

Another favorite by TGG

The song has been stuck in my head since the day this hit audible shelf. :-)

Great story, fantastic characters and wonderful performance!

Basic story

She has written some amazing stuff. I was disappointed with this one. Very vanilla story line.

Too many people

Had a problem keeping up with all the people all the way through. When I got to the end still not sure who they all were.
The narrator is really really good, she’s one of the best!

Good, Solid, Second Chances Romance

Oh my gosh. What a great story!
First of all, I listened to this in audio. Andi Arndt can never do any wrong so it was outstanding as usual.
Secondly, I love the way this story was strategically told with flashbacks to Layla and Josh's demise of their marriages.
I think this story is such a good reminder of several things.
-- Sometimes, marriages can fail and that is okay. People can move on and stay amicable. People grow and change and sometimes people don't go in the same direction. How you handle yourself during that time speaks volumes about your character.
-- You only owe anything to yourself. You have to learn who you are and remain true to yourself and sometimes that means that things have to change.
Layla and Josh were just good people. I really enjoyed their characters.
Also, this was told in third person and I hardly even noticed it. I usually can't continue on when I find books are in third, but gifted writers can get me not to realize it.
Lastly, if you are looking for some erotic romance, you will NOT get it here. It didn't take away from the story, but just know that going in that it is very fade to black.

Difficult to follow

Maybe it's clearer in book form but the Audible was very difficult to follow past/present and which characters were currently being talked about. It didn't help being in 3rd person. I've loved the author's previous books but this one fell flat and vanilla and was too hard to follow.