I really enjoyed this novel. It was paced really well and kept me interested and wanting to see what would happen next. I really liked the character of Dan, he reminded me a lot of Don Tillman from the Rosie Project series, but I didn't feel like we were given quite enough backstory or time to connect with his character as I would have liked. I loved that this book was set somewhere different and such a unique topic of harps and harpmaking. It was a sweet ending and I would definitely recommend this novel to fans of books such as Eleanor Oliphant and The Rosie Project.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Berkley Publishing, Penguin Random House Canada, and Hazel Prior for an ARC in exchange for an honest book review of Ellie and the Harpmaker. My thoughts and opinions are 100% my own and independent of receiving an advance copy.

SPOILERS AHEAD - PROCEED WITH CAUTION

I have a bone to pick. I know you are supposed to be carried away with the romance and root for Ellie and Dan BUT I don’t like it one character is married while falling in love with another. Especially in this story, we are not really sure if Clive is a bad guy or not. Clive flips flops as a character, sort of being who the author wants him to be depending on the circumstances. Is a violent, wife abuser? Or a wounded man who was once cheated on and now extra sensitive to it happening again. Is he a psychopath who burns down a barn? Or is he alcohol dependent and in need of rehab? I mean come on, pick a lane. Commit. Again, I will reiterate, if you don’t like your husband, leave him. Deal with your shit. Then find someone else to fall in love with.

Clive’s worst nightmare came true. Ellie snuck around, got the hots for the harpmaker and then wants to leave her husband. She lied to him for months while developing this relationship. Ellie made jam for Dan, she wrote love poems about him. Yes, Clive lost his shit. I couldn’t relate to Ellie at all. She was weak, self-indulgent, dishonest and a bunch of other characteristics that made me dislike her. I remember when “Eat Pray Love” came out. Everyone loved that book so much, but I kept thinking that this was the most selfish, narcissistic, self-indulgent woman I ever heard of. Ellie gave me the same feelings.

The minor characters were also something I couldn’t relate to. Ellie’s one and only friend, Christine, was awful. As someone whom Ellie admits can’t hold a relationship, maybe don’t go to her for advice. She just encourages Ellie to lie to her husband, take off for vacation at Christmas and basically do whatever it is you feel like, regardless of the consequences. If Clive really was a violent husband, she could have gotten Ellie killed. Thomas, Dan’s friend, was another odd friend that isn’t really a friend.

I think the character of Dan was also mishandled. Obviously, there is something that makes Dan different. But it isn’t dealt with in any meaningful way. The people in Dan’s life mistreat him. The girlfriend who completely takes advantage of him and his character, who dates him and then breaks up with him, except, oops, she doesn’t tell him for five years. Don’t get me started with having sex with Dan and he doesn’t even really know what it is. If this was a female character we would be crying rape. Dan’s sister seems to be using him financially and again taking advantage of his quirks, or condition, or whatever it is. This is awful!!

I felt like the character of the boy was also mishandled. Is he like his Dad? If so, why isn’t it addressed by the adults in his life? It seems like the boy is a problem to both his mother and his grandparents. Although Dan’s condition reminds me of “The Rosie Project”, that novel deals with it honestly, openly and in a beautifully touching manner.

So, in case you can’t tell, I just wasn’t into this book. I was so angry most of the way through. Then ending was even worse. It was so unrealistic where it seemed like the author just made arbitrary things happen so it would all work out with a happy ending. I did enjoy the nature, the bits about the harp making and the soul of the harp. I could have had more of that. I really liked Dan even though I don’t feel like his character got a fair or honest shake. My favorite character was probably the pheasant. That says it all.

This is a book that I have mixed feelings about. I thought that the writing was beautiful and I adored Dan as a character. I also appreciated the descriptions of the harps and the focus on music. Phineas the pheasant was also a highlight!

I think my main grip was with Ellie. While on some level I understood her choices, they still frustrated me. This is a personal thing but I struggle to read stories that involve cheating, even if it is just emotional. I don't find it romantic! I always wonder if the character truly loves the love interest or if they are just using them to escape their current situation.

I enjoyed Ellie and the Harpmaker. It was a good, easy read, most of the time.

Ellie is married to overbearing, to the point of being controlling and abusive (in my opinion), Clive. Ellie is a complete doormat and it is hard to like a doormat, though I did want her to get out of her marriage. Ellie thinks she's happy but clearly isn't. She has no self esteem, which she blames on her mother, and nothing in her life except for her husband, one friend he doesn't like, a sister who lives far away, and writing bad poetry. Clive has made sure she has nothing else and must rely on him for everything. I found this part of the book hard to read because I so wanted Ellie to stand up for herself and see what was going on. I wanted her friend and her sister to say something. Everyone knew how horrible Clive was but no one did anything.

But, maybe that's realistic and why it's so hard to read about?

Ellie discovers a secluded barn one day where Dan, a (probably) autistic harpmaker lives and works. Ellie is in love with the harps and wants to learn. She feels the music so deeply, but her husband (of course) won't let her have one. So, she goes to Dan's while Clive is at work and learns to play the harp.

Dan is an interesting character. It's not said, but he is clearly on the autism spectrum and is very rountined. He is a brilliant harpmaker and his sister takes care of the business aspect for him. He is observant, clever, and innocently wise. It's easy to like him and get pulled into his observations about nature, stones, the sky, trees, etc. Some of these descriptions are wonderful.

Another great addition to the book is Phineas, a pheasant who is saved by Dan. The pheasant actually adds quite a bit to the book.

There is great tension in the book about the harp lessons and how/when Clive will find out and how he'll react. There is also a budding attraction between Ellie and Dan.

Like I said, I enjoyed the book and would recommend it for a light, summer, kind of romance read. The writing is great and the descriptions are fantastic, especially of nature, music, and harpmaking.


Thank you to Netgalley and Bantam Press for the review copy.

What a lovely, surprising and musical tale. This is a love story not just between two lonely creative souls finding each other and the power of unexpected family, but a love story of nature and art in all of its elusive forms.


Ellie wants so much more than to be Clive's wife. She wants to write poetry and find words to describe the beautiful Exmoor Country around her. She wants to reconcile her future with the loss of her father and her mother's memory the same by finding something that will open her heart. Clive, of the skimped paycheques, beer consumption and football has little in common with a woman who wants to carve a corner of the world for herself.

When Ellie meets harpmaker Dan-- she finds something in the smell and poetry of his wood shop that whittles the slopes, curves and designs of harps into something beautiful and enigmatic. Dan, notices her socks--her hair--- her openness and offers her sandwiches-- and a harp of her own.

But a harp is too extravagant a gift and something Clive--pragmatic and suspicious Clive--could never comprehend. Because he doesn't understand it, it cannot happen and Ellie's harp is sent back to live at Dan's. Until Ellie begins to visit it and learns how to play...


I am always hankering after gorgeous prose-- which this novel has in spades--- but also in the lyricism of author's passion projects. It is so very clear that Prior worships the art of harp-making and also the unique, angelic sound conjured from fingertips on strings. This is an anthem to wistful music, to innocent souls, to simplistic moments. Though tragedy looms and misunderstandings undercut wholesome intentions, Ellie and the Harpmaker never wanders in to unnecessary dramatics. It keeps to its poetic cadence and light: a soft character piece unraveling with the gentle meter of music.

There is a little boy named Ed and a pheasant named Phineas and all manner of sandwiches and stolen moments under the trees that loan their wood to the malleability of Dan's skill.


And there is Dan--of which any dreamer who loves to count and make coffee for the smell rather than the consumption and who can remember so many things while forgetting even the most simple constructs of human interaction will settle in close-- will adore.


This is an escapist read with themes of redemption, recovered art and holding on to evasive dreams.


Quiet, stirring and ultimately soul-hugging, Ellie and the Harpmaker woos you with words and keeps strong hold until the characters are friends and you're not sure if your tears are because of something happy or melancholy, found or lost--- or perhaps both at once.


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