The Unfinished Symphony of You and Me by Lucy Robinson is about Sally Howlett, wardrobe mistress at the Royal Opera House, who sings opera… in the wardrobe. 
Sally grows up on a council estate in Stourbridge, decidedly not a centre of opera appreciation. Playing on the radio she hears an aria from Madame Butterfly and is entranced. It is the beginning of a lifelong obsession which leads to her not singing opera at the Royal Opera House but there working as a wardrobe mistress. The story of Sally’s life story is told by weaving together the strands of her childhood with her emotionally-repressed family, her life as a wardrobe mistress, a short visit to New York to work costumes for a production at The Met, and now as Sally begins to study opera. I found the combination of chick-lit and girl-about-town bad language and the opera strand to be rather strange. What kept me reading? The storyline, I wanted to know what happens in New York to make Sally study opera at the RCM when she can’t get beyond singing in the wardrobe.
What are the big themes trying to get out? A few life lessons. That helping others is all well and good, but you must do things for yourself and not simply to please someone else. That family loyalty is important, but you also owe a duty to yourself. To never give up. And finally, Sally learns that it is not just her that struggles for self-belief, everyone does. When she understands this, she becomes an adult and an opera singer.
A page-turning read for your summer holiday suitcase.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK AT AMAZON
If you like this, try:-
‘The Audacious Mendacity of Lily Green’ by Shelley Weiner
‘The Art of Baking Blind’ by Sarah Vaughan
‘Butterfly Barn’ by Karen Power
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Done! Always wiling to show support to indie authors she got my follow ^_^
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I used to live in Stourbridge, and I can confirm it was quite light on Opera lovers. I enjoyed the review more than I think I might the book, but it certainly sounds as if the writer has a good book in them
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Thx Peter! I did enjoy the book, it was just finished it wanting more. 🙂 SD
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Interesting review. I do hesitate to slag off new and/or indie authors, whereas I’m happy to take the knife to established best-sellers, especially with poor editing! Your Bea/Fiona point is a classic example.
I don’t like chick lit. I’ll read YA, and all the other child/youth books (except for Rowling, once was enough) but chick lit induces a feeling if wasted time.
Prologues are interesting – epilogues too. I find prologues work better for me in crime/mystery novels, but I think they are often unnecessary. Epilogues on the other hand are quite good. I like the feeling of looking back, adding something to the story which can often jar as a last chapter.
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I hadn’t thought of the prologue v epilogue thing like that, but find myself agreeing with you. I must add I hope it didn’t read as if I was slagging off the book as that was not my intention – but this is her third book and she is published by Penguin and I did expect more. SD
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No it didn’t, I was thinking of my reviews! I did one a while back that was totally negative, and some said they thought it was a great bad review. From memory, I’d actually taken some time to say why it was bad, rather than it’s rubbish/boring/I don’t like it. Sadly, reading a Joanne Harris book recently I lacked the energy to go into much detail. It was just a let-down considering the fuss made over Chocolat. I started a blistering one about Breaking Dawn and lost it on the computer 😦
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