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Genre: 🎹 Christian Historical | Age: 👩🏼 Adult | Buy: Bookshop or Amazon | Series: A Midnight Dance duology (this is a stand-alone) | ⭐Star rating

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Vivienne is a touring pianist who is smothered by her father’s pressure to perform. After her father’s death, Vivienne is convinced to work at a country asylum to find out what she can about her father’s ward who has passed away.

While she is there, Vivienne starts to feel that the asylum is causing her to go insane. Or maybe hearing music that isn’t there means she has been crazy all along. In her lucid moments, she must solve the mystery of the asylum and help the women who have become her friends.

🎶 High Expectations

As you may remember, I absolutely adored A Midnight Dance. The world was wonderfully built, the twists were surprising, and the romance was sweet and didn’t overwhelm the story.

Needless to say, my expectations were quite high for this second book. And the book fell just slightly short for me. If I had read this one first, I might be singing a different tune, because the writing is phenomenal. Politano weaves musical lingo and phrases into her prose and it is so beautiful. It’s like the prose itself is music.

💜 Characters and Romance

Vivienne is an amazing character. She is steady, is forced to question her beliefs (and, at times, her sanity), and has a heart for helping others that will not be deterred. The twists were fun and not altogether surprising.

But I have to admit that my favorite parts were those that involved the characters from A Midnight Dance. Seeing them again, several decades later, was so. much. fun.

The romance was actually the only thing about this book that I really didn’t care for. Not because it was beyond my comfort level or anything like that, but because it was kind of not believable. The hints were so subtle that I may have missed some of them.

🎼 Delightfully Musical

I also very much enjoyed how music was incorporated into the story. The author’s note at the end mentioned this being a look into how music therapy began, and I had no idea of the origins of music therapy.

Having studied it briefly, I think the original purpose of it may have been lost over the years. It has become more formulaic and requires less of an artistic touch than is portrayed in the book. I would have loved to have seen a true music therapist in action.

🦉Who Would Like This Book

Music lovers.

Mood readers looking for an interesting historical, slightly creepy read.

Those interested in asylums of past days.

Pianists and performers.

Mystery readers.

Happy Reading!

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🤖 Always written and edited without the use of AI.