Dougherty, Hope Toler. Forever Music. Morrilton, AR: Scrivenings Press, 2020.

Guide to categories: Adult Review – review of books for adults – may or may not be appropriate for a school library

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Summary of Forever Music

A battered heart needs healing.
A community needs rescuing.
A chartered course needs redirecting.

College history instructor, Josie Daniels is good at mothering her three brothers, volunteering in her community, and getting over broken hearts, but meeting aloof, hotshot attorney Ches Windham challenges her nurturing, positive-thinking spirit.

Josie longs to help Ches find his true purpose, but as his hidden talents and true personality emerge. Will she be able to withstand his potent charms, or will she lose her heart in the process?

A rising star in his law firm, Ches Windham is good at keeping secrets.

He’s always been the good son, following his father’s will to become an attorney and playing the game for a fast track to partnering with a law firm. Lately, though his life’s path has lost whatever luster it had—all because of his unlikely, and unacceptable, friendship with Josie. He struggles between the life he’s prepared for and the one calling to him now. Opposing his father has never been an option, and spending time with Josie can’t be one. The more he’s with her, however, the more he wants to be.

When a crisis tarnishes his golden future and secrets are revealed, Ches is forced to reexamine the trajectory of his life. Will he choose the path his father hammered out for him or the path that speaks to his heart?

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My Adult Review of Forever Music

They come from two very different worlds. Josie is the daughter of a couple spending their retirement years as missionaries. She has 3 older brothers. Ches is the only child of a couple for whom upward advancement is the reason for living. His father has dictated almost every step of his life. He does have a Christian uncle and aunt who are very influential in his life which plays heavily into the story.

I was initially drawn into the story (as a former librarian) because the two begin to spend time together planning fundraisers for the local public library. Readers will at times wonder “what is she thinking” and at other times wonder “will he ever shake free of his father.”

There are many situations in the story designed to push the two apart, yet they seem to keep coming back together. Will the final tragedy be too much for their relationship?

Forever Music is written for an adult audience yet it could find a place in a K-12 Christian school library. I think high school students would enjoy it. 

I received a complimentary copy of Forever Music. This is my honest review. 

 

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