The Sound Between the Notes by Barbara Linn Probst ~ a Review

by Susan Roberts

 

What if you had a second chance at the very thing you thought you’d renounced forever? How steep a price would you be willing to pay?

 

"It wasn't the outer glory she wanted but it interior cousin, the sense of being a pathway for the music and through that of being fully herself. It was the best thing she'd ever known and she wanted it back." (loc 238)

Amazon affiliate links are used on this site. A free book was provided for an honest review.

April 2021; She Writes Press; 978-1647420123
ebook, print (336 pages); women's fiction

It's difficult to describe The Sound Between the Notes beyond saying that it was one of the most beautifully written novels that I've read in a long time.  I don't know anything about music or piano but I feel like the words in this novel were like the notes in a piece of music - each word and note carefully put together to create a work of art.

Also, I did gain some appreciation for classical music because after finishing this book, I listened to many of the pieces of music that were mentioned.  I have long avoided classical music and after listening to the pieces mentioned in this book - I have no idea why I've avoided it -- it was beautiful.

Susannah quit her career as a pianist 16 years earlier when her son was born.  She knew that she couldn't handle the difficult programs and contests and give her son the love and time that she felt he needed.  She was an adoptee who was consumed with finding her birth family even though she had wonderful parents who adopted her as a baby.  Still, she felt that she'd been thrown away by her birth family and she wanted to make sure that her son never had the same feelings 

Suddenly, she has the chance to audition for a charity function that would vault her back to a prestigious status.   But she feels like she's lost some of the magic that she used to possess and strives to find it again.  She finds out that she a degenerative hereditary disease that makes her fingers cramp and is obsessed with finding a treatment.  Will she be successful at her music while she tries to balance the needs of her husband and son?

This second book by Barbara Linn Probst shows again how fantastically she writes strong women characters who are successful in navigating the problems in their lives.

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Susan Roberts lives in North Carolina with her husband of over 50 years.  She grew up in Michigan but now calls North Carolina home. Since her travel plans had to be canceled for this year, she is starting to make plans for travel in 2021. She reads almost anything (and the piles of books in her house prove that) but her favorite genres are Southern fiction, women's fiction, and historical fiction. Susan is a top 1% Goodreads Reviewer. You can connect with Susan on Facebook, Goodreads, or Twitter.

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