The Unfinished Symphony of You and Me by Lucy Robinson, author of A Passionate Love Affair with a Total Stranger, is a wonderfully witty and gorgeously romantic story of facing your fears and falling in love.
Sally is an incredible singer but she sings only in her wardrobe where nobody can hear her. She’d rather join a nudist colony than sing in public.
That is until she ventures to New York where a wild and heady summer of love and loss changes her forever. No longer able to hide in the shadows, Sally must return home to London to fulfill a promise she cannot break – to share her voice.
But just as she’s about to embark on her new life, a beautiful man turns up on Sally’s doorstep bearing a sheepish smile and a mysterious hand-written message.
How did he find her? Why is he here? Does he hold the truth to what happened back in New York? And, with him back on the scene, will she still have the courage to step into the spotlight?
Laugh out loud and follow your heart with Lucy Robinson’s The Unfinished Symphony of You and Me.
My Thoughts
The day we’ve been waiting for finally came, Lucy Robinson shot up from her sick bed and bust out yet another show stopping novel, and you know what? Its bloody brilliant!
The Unfinished Symphony of You and Me is another side splittingly wonderful novel from Lucy Robinson and I wouldn’t have expected anything less. A tale of both love and self discovery with a twist, as always Lucy’s humour is utterly flawless and bursting with belly-laughs throughout.
Following the story of Sally Howlett, an opera aficionado who loves nothing more than belting out opera, from inside her wardrobe. Sally is quiet literally a closet lover of the opera. Although she spends her days working on the wrong side of the curtain as a seamstress at the Opera House, their is a lot more to sally than a needle & thread and everyone is going to know about it.
As we follow Sally and her cousin Fiona on an adventure of self discovery and following dreams we meet a whole host of exceptionally brilliant characters, from instant favourites like Jan Borsos who wins you over from the off with his humour, poor use of English and stories from trekking his way to London while wearing only one shoe. Then their are those who are impossible not to love. For instance, Julian, who will have your belly doing tiny flips. Sally’s too. My favourite has to be Barry of Barry Island. (It’s 110% impossible not to have a Welsh accent in your head while reading Barry!)
Not everything about this book is laugh out loud which is what I usually anticipate when I pick up one of her novels, Lucy has managed to touch base on a rather sensitive subject filled with grief and put it into a novel that is filled with humour. I usually see these as two things that don’t always mix well, but when done by the Robinson it works beautifully.
Verdict
I may have read this book many moons ago now, at least two moons anyway. I was one of the first to read it and to my dismay probably one of the last to actually finish their review. I’ve read this book twice in that time through a misty-haze of morning all day sickness and toilet hugging in a bid to keep it all fresh in the forefront of my mind. I don’t know of any authors who have such a way with word as Lucy does, including those that may not be in the dictionary. 😉
Lucy’s writing should come with one of those content warnings you see on TV as you just never know what to expect, one thing for sure is its going to make you laugh, if theirs one thing Lucy does well it’s that.
The Unfinished Symphony of You and Me will have you rolling with laughter one moment and gasping for air the next. This novel shows us a darker much grittier side to Lucy Robinsons writing, and it’s probably her best yet!
Many thanks to Katie Sheldrake of Penguin for the superb ARC of this book and to Lucy for writing another blooming marvellous read!
I was also lucky enough to attend the launch party for this particular novel and you can read a little about it here by clicking the link on the image below!
