Saturday, June 28, 2014

Book Review: Night Music by Jojo Moyes

Title: Night Music
Author: Jojo Moyes
Enjoyment Rating: ***
Source: Audible
Content Alert: A (pretty tame) sex scene

When Isabel's husband died in a car accident nine months earlier, it sent her into retreat. She hasn't paid a bill or paid much attention to her two suffering children. Instead, she has spent most of the year crying and playing her violin. She's on the verge of losing her London home, her son has stopped speaking, and her daughter has grown old beyond her years when she receives word that she's inherited a house in the English countryside from a distant relative, and it seems the answer to all of her problems. So she packs the kids up and moves to the house, completely unaware of the disaster she will face, both by the state of the manor home, and by vengeful Matt McCarthy, the only contractor in town, who expected that he would be the one inheriting the home.

I have read a few of Moyes's more recent novels and have found them complex and delightful, while Night Music was fairly predictable and not as well-written. It was a compelling story, and I loved to hate McCarthy, and had more complicated feelings for some of the other characters in the story. The ending was satisfying, but not completely surprising, and I appreciated watching Isabel and her family heal and grow stronger over the course of the novel.

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