Book Review: A Perfect Love Song by Patti Callahan Henry

I am so happy to welcome Melony Grant as a contributing writer and reviewer to A Novel Source!  I hope you will enjoy her thoughts and reviews as much as I do!

Melony is a 19 year old college student studying English and Cultural Anthropology. She also works part-time at Banana Republic.  According to Melony she enjoys "reading (of course), baking, hiking and photography. I have previously worked on my high school newspaper, yearbook, and literary magazine staff. My idea of a perfect day includes rain, a good book, a cat on my lap and a cup of vanilla rooibos."  Doesn't she sound like the perfect addition to A Novel Source!

             While reading the back cover of The Perfect Love Song I had an idea of what I would find amongst the pages. As expected, I found a romance that bordered on the edge of sappy and a semi-predictable plot line. But, I also found a descriptive style of writing that surprised me and a beautiful, cultural back-story that weaved breezily throughout the book. The story follows two couples from Palmetto Pointe, South Carolina through their romance, fights, and a ‘perfect’ love song. The book has a third party omniscient narrative. Although the narrator is never officially revealed, the reader can make an accurate assumption by the last chapter. 

The main characters are Jimmy and Jack Sullivan, brothers who are members of a country band called ‘The Unknown Souls.’ They date two childhood best friends Charlotte and Kara, respectively. The Unknown Souls are little known and small time until Jimmy writes a perfect love song for Charlotte. The love song turns into the perfect Christmas song and the Unknown Souls are asked to perform with some big names in the country music biz. Soon, the band is traveling all over the country performing the hit song for millions of fans.   

Meanwhile, the story follows Kara and Charlotte as they prepare for Kara’s wedding to Jack, in Ireland. The reason for Kara and Jack’s reunion is revealed as the story progresses.  Maeve Mahoney, an elderly Irish woman, told Kara a story of love and the mythical Irish claddagh ring; A story of love that transgressed time and possibility. The story inspired Kara to contact her childhood neighbor, Jack Sullivan, whom she had always loved but never acted on the feelings.  The story carries on with wedding planning, sentimental chatter, and endless tour dates. While there are slight twists and turns along the way the story as a whole is one that is very expected, a happy beginning, a dark time that nothing seems to be going right, and a happy ending. The saving grace of the story is the detailed nature the words take on, a cultural element, and the wonderful atmosphere of the Irish countryside. I found it very easy to identify with the characters as they could be any minor band trying to make it in a local Southern town. The setting added a personal element that any southerner could identify with, and a cheery ending that would make any sour puss smile.

My advice to Ms. Henry would be to remove some of the elements from the romance side of the narrative and amp up the Irish culture element. The book is a perfect little holiday read, tied up in a nice little package for the reader. I recommend it as a good traveling companion for that Christmas-time journey.

~Melony

Sources of Interest: Author's site | Chapter 1 | Purchase Book Here

Publisher: Vanguard Press | Released: October 12, 2010

Hardback | 224 pages | ISBN: 9781593156169