Imperfect
Harmony
Title: Imperfect Harmony
Author: Jay Northcote
Publisher: Jaybird Press (self
published)
Length: 66,000 words
Genre: Contemporary gay romance
Cover Artist: Garrett Leigh
Release Date: Friday 15th of April 2016
Series info: This book is a standalone
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Blurb
Imperfect harmony can still be beautiful…
John Fletcher, a former musician, is stuck in limbo after losing
his long-term partner two years ago. He’s shut himself off from everything that
reminds him of what he’s lost. When his neighbour persuades him to join the
local community choir, John rediscovers his love of music and finds a reason to
start living again.
Rhys Callington, the talented and charismatic choir leader,
captures John’s attention from the first moment they meet. He appears to be the
polar opposite of John: young, vibrant, and full of life. But Rhys has darkness
in his own past that is holding him back from following his dreams.
Despite the nineteen-year age gap, the two men grow close and a
fragile relationship blossoms. Ghosts of the past and insecurities about the
future threaten their newfound happiness. If they’re going to harmonise in life
and love as they do in their music, they’ll need to start following the same
score.
Excerpt
Luckily there were still some
parking spaces outside the church hall where Maggie’s choir met. John made sure
they arrived a little early so Maggie wouldn’t have to walk too far. She was
managing well on one crutch, but she still tired easily. After he parked, he got
out and hurried around to help her out of the passenger door.
“Thanks, love,” she said,
patting him on the arm. “I can manage now.”
A vicious gust of wind whipped
a strand of hair into her face. It was dark, still sleeting, and probably
slippery underfoot. There was no way John was going to leave until she was
safely indoors. “I’ll just see you inside. Let me take your bag.”
Maggie let him have it without
argument, and he popped it over his arm. He hovered close
to Maggie as she made her way slowly to the double doors. He held one open for
her and was hit by a blast of warm air. Then he accompanied her inside as she
crutched along the corridor towards an open door. Yellow light flooded out, and
the sound of a tenor voice singing “I Can See Clearly Now” raised the hairs on
the back of John’s neck with its pure, clear beauty.
“I thought you said the
emphasis was on fun rather than perfection?” he said quietly. “He’s got quite a
voice.”
“That’ll be Rhys, our choir
leader,” Maggie said with a smile. “Come and meet him, even if you’re not
staying.”
Maggie paused when she reached
the doorway and put a finger to her lips. They listened and waited for Rhys to
finish singing. John peered over Maggie’s shoulder, hoping for a glimpse of the
man the voice belonged to. Rhys, John presumed, was alone in the room. With his
back to the door, he stood at a table pushed to the edge of the room, shuffling
through some papers as he sang. All John could see of him was that he was small
and slight, and quite young, based on the cut of his clothes. A hood covered
his hair.
When he finished, Maggie
started clapping.
Rhys wheeled around. “Oh my
God! You made me jump.” He pushed his hood down and his face lit up as he
beamed. “Maggie. How are you?”
John’s eyes widened as he took
in Rhys’s front view as he approached Maggie and gave her a careful hug. His
hair, which was shaved at the back and sides, was long on top and dyed peacock
blue. His eyebrow was pierced, his arms were covered with tattoos, and the
front of his T-shirt was emblazoned with a glittery equals sign in rainbow
colours. All in all, he was at least twenty years younger than John had
expected and completely unlike how John would have imagined a choir leader to
look. In this dingy church hall in their small market town, Rhys looked like a
bird of paradise that had accidentally ended up in a cage full of sparrows.
Author Bio
Jay lives just outside Bristol in the West of
England, with her husband, two children, and two cats.
She comes from a family of writers, but she always
used to believe that the gene for fiction writing had passed her by. She spent
years only ever writing emails, articles, or website content. One day, she
decided to try and write a short story–just to see if she could–and found it
rather addictive. She hasn’t stopped writing since.
My thoughts
I feel as if I have to
apologize. Are my reviews boring you yet? Because this is yet another very
special book by Jay Northcote that touched me in deep and profound ways.
On the surface this is a story
about two men learning to live again after having lost their partners far too
early in life. It is about learning to trust again—yourself, your feelings,
other people and life itself. It is a wonderful May to December story, a trope
I tend to adore. It is a touching tale about second chances and being brave
enough to embrace them. And through it all flows a love of music and songs so
vivid it made my heart sing. For all of these reasons this book will be ranked
among my favourites.
But, for me, Imperfect Harmony,
was so much more than that.
Jay Northcote gets grief. She
knows it can be almost debilitating and at times cruel. The grief hurts but
when the pain gets less there’s the guilt about getting ‘over’ it. And she sure
gets it right when she has her characters reflect on how it can sometimes suckerpunch
you and leave you devastated when you least expect it.
“It
was weird how grief worked. You could be fine for days, weeks, months sometimes
as the time stretched out. But with the right trigger you were thrown back into
it, and the feelings were so strong it was as though no time had passed at all.”
At one point in the book,
during one of their sessions in the nursing home, Rhys dances with Mrs
Pickering, an old lady with Alzheimer’s who’s been begging him to play a
certain song for a very long time. I read the whole scene with tears in my eyes
because I could see it clearly in front of me—the simple act of kindness
meaning the world to somebody who, with most of her memories, had lost so very
much.
And that brings me to something
else that touched me deeply and made me think. This story paints the contrast
between two men who can’t quite get themselves to live full lives again because
of the painful memories they live with and an older woman who has lost most of
her past and present because her memories have been lost to her. Whether it was
the author’s intention or not I can’t say, but it made me realise that all our
memories, even those that hurt us, are valuable. They are proof we have lived
and loved. No matter how painful some of our memories are, I firmly believe,
losing them is even harder to bear.
And yet, while this book
certainly gave me all the feels, I wouldn’t call it an overly angsty read
(which is a good thing because I don’t deal too well with angst J) For me this was the most
wonderful and realistic of love stories. Everything Rhys and John do, say and
feel felt real and recognisable to me. I found myself rooting for them from the
moment they were introduced, hurting when they did, and rejoicing when they
found their happy. Yet again I’m delighted to highly recommend a Jay Northcote
title to you!
