1.12k reviews for:

The Music Shop

Rachel Joyce

3.69 AVERAGE

emotional hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Really loved this. Great character development. I cried at the end. And I loved the history and descriptions of music.  I also loved the use of silence in this book. How they seemed most in love when they were silent just near each other. How hearing the music in someone often starts with silence, what's missing. The silence between notes, the pregnant pause. 

If a book mentions a song, I have to play it. This book actually has a playlist on Spotify (The Music Shop Playlist). I didn't discover this until the end of the book sadly, but I did YouTube a lot of the songs mentioned.


Right out of the shoot I found 'Oh No Not My Baby’ by Aretha Franklin. You can never go wrong with Aretha and this song truly was amazing and perfect for the characters woes.


I enjoyed this book more when I listened to music along with it. I usually read in silence but this book NEEDS music. Without the music I probably wouldn't have enjoyed this book at all. I felt like it was trying too hard at times. That it was just missing something. Maybe that it moved too slow, but when I had music playing it moved just right. So it's possible it really just needed music.


The writing was well done. I haven't read anything else by this author though I have heard good things about other books she's written. I liked the characters, they were quirky and real. I think it was the writing for me, the passive dialogue and mostly description that I didn't like. I also felt like it wasn't moving forward and the mystery of who Ilse was was overdramatic. Almost this magical realism quality about their relationship that I didn't like personally. I also found the ending in the mall a cool climax but also cheesy and underwhelming. It was wrapped up too nicely for my tastes.


Overall this was an ok book. I appreciate the music and Frank's love of music. That's really what made this book for me.

beeley10's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH

Ran out of library time will try again later
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
lighthearted fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

3.5. I wasn't really on board til the last quarter of the book. Rudeness & miscommunication made it a no-go in the romance department for me.
SpoilerThe last big scene was wonderful, though, and took it from a wish-I-hadn't read to a glad-I-did.
Enjoyed trying out some of the music mentioned (there's a playlist mentioned at the back of the book, or several other less-official ones).
emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I really enjoyed this book! The story has some slapstick elements that make it funny, but what I think makes  it  really worth reading are the lovable characters that together form a wonderful quirky community. The observations about a great variety of pieces of music are an invitation to listen to them with new ears.
hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
medium-paced