What boundaries would you cross for love?
That's the question a grieving mother must answer when she takes in a young street musician to learn about her daughter's death and finds herself falling for him. A touching love story that will have you equally tantalized and in tears, Jane's Melody follows a forty-year-old woman on a romantic journey of rediscovery after years of struggling alone.
Sometimes our greatest gifts come from our greatest pain. And now Jane must decide if it's too late for her to start over, or if true love really knows no age.
That's the question a grieving mother must answer when she takes in a young street musician to learn about her daughter's death and finds herself falling for him. A touching love story that will have you equally tantalized and in tears, Jane's Melody follows a forty-year-old woman on a romantic journey of rediscovery after years of struggling alone.
Sometimes our greatest gifts come from our greatest pain. And now Jane must decide if it's too late for her to start over, or if true love really knows no age.
Title: Jane's Melody
Author: Ryan Winfield | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Website
Publication Date: June 16 2013
Publisher: Birch Paper Press
Length: 336 Pages
Add it to your TBR Pile: Goodreads
Buy It: Amazon US | Amazon UK
Source: Purchased (Kindle Edition)
Cover Love: Perfect, couldn't have asked for a better cover really.
Point of View: 3rd person
My Rating: 5 Stars
What a beautiful, compassionate, romantic and touching story. I was nervous when I realized that this was written in 3rd person, I just don't seem to connect to the characters as much in this perspective. But I am happy to say that it took no time at all for the connection to made, and for the story to completely grip me.
“Perhaps not all spirits are meant for this world, but they pass through anyway and change for the better those which are.”
Jane. I adored her. I don't always see eye to eye with heroines, and there are almost always moments when I get frustrated and annoyed. I never felt those feelings with Jane. At forty she has already lived a complicated, sad and lonely life. When Caleb comes into her world, I understood the worries and fears that she faced when it came to a man who was fifteen years younger than herself. I actually felt that she handled the entire situation with grace.
“Love is life and life is good”
Caleb. *sigh* Caleb is practically perfect. He is so sweet and considerate, and never once do you doubt his feelings for Jane. He is a stand up man and a very hard worker. He has had to face his own demons in the past, but he has not allowed them to destroy his character. He absolutely says the sweetest things, and I think half of my Kindle copy is highlighted with swoony Caleb quotes. And his guitar playing? So sexy.
“Okay. I don’t know if I have the right words, but love is this feeling I get when I look at you. A feeling that as long as you’re near me, or in the world even, then everything will be okay. That everything has meaning. It’s as if the world was all shades of sepia—like an old movie reel—and that everywhere I looked I saw suffering and pain. Then I heard your voice, I saw your face, and somehow the color came into everything.”
The side characters really brought this story to a full circle. Grace, Jane's best friend, is witty and there for Jane when she needs her. Even as she is going through her own struggles. I liked that Grace never told Jane what she simply wanted to hear, and never gave her straight out advice. She would would always answer questions with questions, or would be vague and this would force Jane to make her own mind up... which is exactly what she needed to do.
“I don't know if you're being smart or not, but I know that being smart doesn't always lead to being happy. And I'd rather be happy than anything else”
And even though Jane's mother is a beast of a woman, I also enjoyed her interactions. It helped to show exactly what it was that Jane had to put up with, and how this woman has helped shaped her. I loved how Jane stood up to her, and how Caleb managed to hold his tongue around her. Too many times you see the male characters who goes out of their way to stand up to those hurting the heroine. Caleb has no love for Jane's mother but he never oversteps the line that Jane asked him to stay behind. He lets Jane handle the situations as they arise, and I think this shows how much he cares for Jane. It would have been easy for him to 'blow his top' at the woman, but he respects Jane and knew she could handle herself.
My only niggle with Jane's Melody is that I want more, and if that is the only thing I can complain about then that gives you an idea of how much I loved it. Caleb is a little absent in the last portion of the book, and I would have liked to see what he was getting up to during that time. I am also getting rather spoiled when it comes to standalone novels and epilogues. But sadly, Jane's Melody does not have one. I was really hoping we were going to get a little glimpse into their future. However, that doesn't take away the fact that I was smiling from ear to ear at the end.
“I remember reading somewhere that you have to learn to love yourself before you can love someone else. But I don't think it's true. I think you have to learn to forget yourself before you can love someone else. At least I seem to forget about myself when I'm with you.”
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