Book Review-The Girl in the Love Song by Emma Scott

This review may contain spoilers, so fair warning, upon reading the review.

About The Book

At Santa Cruz Central High School, they called them the misfits, the outcasts, the weirdos. But most of us knew them as the Lost Boys…

Miller Stratton is a survivor. After a harrowing childhood of poverty, he will do anything it takes to find security for himself and his mom. He’s putting all his hopes and dreams in the fragile frame of his guitar and the beauty he creates with its strings and his soulful voice.

Until Violet.

No one expects to meet the love of their life at age thirteen. But the spunky rich girl steals Miller’s heart and refuses to give it back.

Violet McNamara’s life hasn’t been as simple as it looks. Her picture-perfect family is not so perfect after all. Her best friend Miller is her one constant and she is determined not to ruin their friendship with romantic complications.

But the heart wants what it wants. As Miller’s star begins to rise to stratospheric heights, what will it take for Violet to realize that she’s the girl in all of his love songs?

I kissed my best friend. I altered us forever. No going back nor wanting to. Not wanting anything ever again but this.

My Review

First Impressions

This author has been on my watchlist for quite a while, I know many who read new adult or coming of age romance, and have really had a fun time reading her work. I saw in my random wheel that I needed to pick up a new adult romance and wanted to pick up an author I hadn’t read yet, and when I reached out to a bookstagram group, this is the book that came out to be the most recommended and I instantly grabbed it up and read it right away. I won’t be too ashamed to admit that I was so nervous at reading this author, I always get apprehensive with new authors, especially in recent years (you can blame illustrated books for that) but I can safely say that this author just worked so well for me and even though this book wasn’t a perfect read for me, I definitely had a fun time reading their story and seeing the layers in which this author writes.

I only wished everyone at school could see what I saw when I looked at him. I saw the kid who’d lived in a car too, but it’d made him more in my eyes, not less. More beautiful, stronger, braver. And he never complained but instead channeled himself through his music. And it was high time that everyone at school knew it.

Summary

The gist of the book is that we have our two main characters: Violet and Miller. Violet and Miller meet when they are just young teenagers and a quick friendship forms between them. Miller is recovering from being in poverty and living in their car and has a diagnosis of diabetes. Then we have Violet, and appearance-wise she may have wealth, but her parents fight constantly and it harms her on an emotional and mental level. Violet and Miller, we skip ahead to their senior year of High School, where they have been friends for years, but there has been something more building between them but we see a turn of unrequited love build. Miller is not ashamed of his feelings that are growing for Violet, but Violet is consumed with the social structure and a boy she has had a crush on and doesn’t see what is staring at her in the face with Miller. There are definitely some romantic complications that form between Violet and Miller, but as Miller grows in his talents for music and a career forms for him, Violet also has to come to terms with her mistakes and if she can redeem a romantic interest with him?

“I know. You’re a good guy, too.” “Try telling that to Vi.” “She already knows. That’s why she’s fighting so hard. In her mind, things are either falling apart or they’re standing still. Never becoming something beautiful.” She gave me a sad smile. “She’s trying to hold the two of you still, so you don’t fall apart.”

What I Loved

There were many aspects to this story that I actually dearly loved. I was really drawn into this romance and I hardly ever read young adult romance, I know many will categorize this as a new adult, but that stage in their relationship happens toward the end of the book, it’s really a coming of age romance where much of the story takes place in their senior year of high school. I was really drawn to this story and I hardly ever read with characters that are of this age. I did feel that the characters didn’t act super immature, and the hero especially didn’t feel 17 to me. He has a sense of maturity that really drew me in, and plus a hero that battles diabetes (I was all in for as my father battles in so I really loved seeing this portrayed so well in a romance). The author really did her research on the type of diabetes that the hero deals with, and even the heroine I really loved in this aspect because she researched so much because of how much she cared for the hero and wanted to make sure he stayed healthy. I really did enjoy the way that the unrequited love trope aspect was implemented, and we see some great character growth on both sides. I absolutely adore a hero who pines for the heroine like this, and he was so devoted to her, it just was so beautiful to see these intimate moments of love and affection build between them. I did enjoy seeing the journey of them falling in love from when they were 14 years old to when they are adults, and I can definitely see how the author’s writing style will work for many readers, as she offers many layers to her writing that just delivers in heart and emotion for the reader.

A person often meets her destiny on the road she takes to avoid it.

What I Struggled With

My issue that keep this book from being a five-star read is the heroine, and anyone that knows my reading tastes and has read this book can probably figure out why. I wanted to like the heroine, I really really did. I attempted to stay objective, especially with her still in high school for much of the book. But she seems so flighty and didn’t seem to be as invested in the care of Miller, as Miller was in Violet. It just didn’t seem equal to me, and even after high school, I just felt like she wasn’t willing to sacrifice much for the relationship, not as much as Miller was willing to. I just felt so much more effort on the part of the hero, and the heroine not doing half as much for him and I just felt he deserved a heroine that was willing to fight for him a bit more than what we got here.

Overall View

I found The Girl in the Love Song, to be a worthwhile coming-of-age romance, that will feed your soul with the essence of song, heart, and devotion and will bring such moving emotion throughout the journey of reading this gem!

The urge to protect one’s heart is the strongest urge of all. But it’s also impossible if you want to live a rich, full life.

Title: The Girl in the Love Song

Author: Emma Scott

Genre: Coming of Age Contemporary Romance

Format: eBook

Source: Kindle Unlimited

Length: 368 Pages

Book Links

Amazon| Goodreads| LibraryThing| StoryGraph| Literal Club

Series Order

Lost Boys

The Girl in the Love Song-Pub 2020 #1 in the Series

When You Come Back to Me-Pub 2020 #2 in the Series

The Last Piece of His Heart-Pub 2021 #3 in the Series

About The Author

Emma Scott is a USA Today and Wall St. Journal bestselling author whose books have been translated in seven languages and featured in Buzzfeed, Huffington Post, New York Daily News and USA Today’s Happy Ever After. Her first MM romance, Someday, Someday won the Utopia Con Award for LGBTQ Book of the Year. Emma writes emotional, character-driven romances in which art and love intertwine to heal, and in which love always wins. If you enjoy emotionally-charged stories that rip your heart out and put it back together again, with diverse characters and heroes who treat their heroines like gold, you will enjoy her novels.