A song is composed and then the composer dies, but the song lives on as a butterfly effect, changing people's lives. This is the story of how that song touches people in different ways, it intertwines the story of many different characters and floats from person to person.
Arie and Evie are the main characters though, and the story follows their will they won't they relationship, as Arie struggles with his grief and Evie her nomadic lifestyle.
It was clever how the author put everything together, I didn't feel that at points the other people's stories took me out of the book though and it would have been nice to spend a bit more time with them.

What a gorgeous book! I don't why it took me so long to read this one. It was so heartwarming and I just wanted to give it a huge hug when I finished. Absolutely loved how the author made everything about a single song and how it brought people together.

I'm not crying, I'm not. It's just rain in my eyes. Inside. On a sunny day. Okay, I'm crying. This was a beautiful love story, held together by music, in particular, one piece of music composed by talented pianist Diana Clare, trying to tell her fiance Arie how she truly feels; because she can't find the words, she uses music instead. And so begins the journey of the lost love song because when tragedy strikes, Arie never gets to hear the finished piece.

As the song flits around from place to place, and character to character, it is heard by Evie, a drifter and poet looking for her own happy ending. She crosses paths with Arie, neither of them knowing the song composed by his first love would lead to his second. It also bounces in between other couples and families, touching them all as love songs and love itself do.

The characters in this book were all engaging although at first, I struggled to keep up with them all. Some were integral to the plot and storyline, others were 'interludes', brief flirtations with the song, helping it on its way home. The only downside was the couple who made the song public were my least favourite and therefore I resented them for having the fame the song brought them. I wanted the song back with the man it was meant for, but maybe this was intentional, that he never needed the song after all. I adored Arie from the moment we meet him, I can't recall if he was described as a spectacle wearer or not but my image throughout the book was that of Milo Thatch from Disney's Atlantis movie. Just an adorable geek, shy and unsure around people but people were drawn to like him.

All in all, I loved this book. It was one of those that kept me reading until the early hours, way past a healthy hour but I couldn't wait to find out what happened next, only to be sad to see the story end because I wanted so much more, despite the happy ending.

A beautiful story about love, loss and the ability of music to heal and transform. The perfect read for true romantics.

Gorgeous book. Re-read as it’s almost Valentine’s Day - would be a great gift! Beautiful writer and so well-written, you’ll fall in love with this one.

So many good reviews but unfortunately I really struggled with this. It wasn't what I expected and to be honest I gave up with it part way through - I may revisit and if I do I will update my review but it is unlikely at present.

This was a brilliant read and is being featured on my blog for my quick star reviews feature, which I have created on my blog so I can catch up with all the books I have read and therefore review.
See www.chellsandbooks.wordpress.com.

I have had this book on my TBR a long time, and I finally got around to it! This is a proper romance story, which the title makes obvious. It spans a long time and multiple couples, and it would make a good movie.
There is this tether that brings many of them together and binds them to their other half. The tether is a song born out of emotion but never properly presented. The song's history is not acknowledged to my satisfaction by the time the book ends, and this bothered me a little.
We have different families shown at varying times, some encounters I enjoyed better than others, but the song lingered in the background, which helped provide the actual feel of the entire read. There is not much more that I can say in a review because the tale is all about the people, and a reader would be introduced to them within the pages and then travel with them. All of that forms the bulk of the book, so I will leave with saying that there are happily ever afters in here, as is lingering sorrow. I would recommend it to readers of this genre.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

A story of loving and losing.

There were chunks that I really struggled with, which I won't go into as ...y'know,...spoilers but on the whole, this was an ok book.

I loved this story so much. It was so moving and lovely, I cried a *lot*. And I don't regret a single tear, this was beautiful.

I received this book courtesy of NetGalley in exchange for a fair review..

3.5 Stars (Rounded Up)

This was such a different romance.
Diana is a piano prodigy, famous for her life-altering performances.
Wearing a red dress with long strawberry blond hair she stuns audiences with her talent.
Arie is a computer nerd and is one day tasked with setting up Diana's computer at the Conservatory.
Their romance blooms and is such a beautiful and breezy relationship.

That's until tragedy strikes and Diana is involved in a plane crash.
But, before that, she was composing a beautiful melody that surmised her love for Arie.
The melody was heard by a passerby and then begins to spread between other people.
Traveling the world and mending relationships everywhere.

I love the concept and the Interludes. Arie was such a great protagonist.
But, I'm afraid I never got over his relationship with Diana, and therefore even though Evie deserved a great love, I just wasn't as invested in them as a couple.

An interesting read that I'm glad to have discovered. I'll definitely be seeking out more by this author.

I started this when we first went into lockdown (part 1) but for me, this was a really busy time and I had to put it down for a while. I am so glad I came back to it. It was a beautiful and well crafted story with lots of little touches that just made the whole thing work. Having read the book club questions at the end I may have misread this but it did feel like fate, magic or perhaps a ghostly presence was taking control. I felt this book just got everything right, never being ‘too much’ of any one thing but captivating throughout. I knocked off a very harsh star at the end as I did wonder if at times it was a bit too long if that can be possible when you’re loving a novel.

#TheLostLoveSong is a beautiful story about love, loss and the power of music and how it connects so many.

Diana composes a love song for Arie to express how she feels about him & that she is ready to marry him, but tragically dies before being able to return home to him in Australia. Bene hears her play the song and carries the story home with him to London and from there it journeys through the world.

We follow Arie as he grieves Diana, and how her song might just find its way back to him and help him move on. It’s bittersweet, nuanced, romantic and made me sob! If you enjoy love stories, buy this book!

Thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher for my free advance copy in return for an unbiased review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for this ARC that can only be described as unputdownable.
My first impression was ‘wow that started in only the most upsetting way a book can’ and developed into ‘how am I mourning the loss of a song more than the loss of Diana?’.
I love how the song is like a thread of gold running through the book, it makes me sad in a way that beautiful things make a heart ache.
Darke seemed to capture this ancient quality of how one small thing, never solidified and memorialised the way things are in this modern world, can be spread through the hearts of humans and becoming something of meaning to so many, and that even though Diana may have passed, her legacy will always be passed on through to many in a way that was so special to her. That I think, is what makes the book what it is.
I don’t really have any points of bits I didn’t dislike in this story, or collection of stories, in a way, a lot felt unresolved but also, I like how we’re left to give everyone the happily ever after, or really whatever, ending that we feel they should have.
To summarise, 5 stars because I can’t fault this book and the feeling it gave me.

A beautiful story of love and loss, it was a very comforting and enjoyable read. I highly recommend. 5 stars

I nearly didn’t read this but with another lockdown in place I felt the need for some comfort reading. I am so glad I picked this book. It is an extraordinary book spanning the globe via a love song written by a pianist who struggled with words to express how she felt so resorted to music. It is a sad, happy, magical book and if you are in need of a lift I would urge you to read this. I loved it.

I adore Minnie Darke’s first novel, Star-Crossed, when I read it last year. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on her next book, regardless of what it was about. And then I found out this book was going to feature music, which is one of my all-time favourite elements to feature in the book, the release date couldn’t come soon enough. If it’s possible, I think I love The Lost Love Song even more. Honestly, I was no expecting the emotional punch of this book. I was already sobbing at least 60 pages in.

This novel is a fantastic exploration of love and loss. Talented pianist, Diana finally plans to marry her long-term partner, Ari and she’s going to tell him when she returns from her world tour. While away, she composes a love song for him. As the song, starts it’s own journey and stops in at Edinburgh we meet Evie, a poet, who’s been drifting from place to place for so long that she’s forgotten her dreams and longs for a place to call home.

Evie is in a rut. She spent the last year living a nomadic life, but she’s lost sight of what she wanted to do, write and publish poetry. When she hears Diana’s love song, Evie remembers her goals. I adore Evie. She is one of my bravest characters I’ve ever read. I wish I had the guts to move overseas and see where life takes you. She reminds us that it can be easy to lose sight of your creative goals once you settle into a routine.

Ari is awkward, nerdy, a total sweetheart and he’s also stuck in a rut. He met Diana at university when he helped set up her computer. My heart went out to him when he assumed that Diana dropped into his office so he can fix her computer problems. It never crossed his mind that she was would ask him on a date.

Diana’s love song becomes a character of its own, which is one of my favourite elements of Minnie Darke’s writing. I love how we get a glimpse of the lives of the people who overhear the track as it journeys from Singapore to Europe, America and finally home to Ari in Australia. Having the song as a character highlights the universal nature of music. Also reminds me of just own connected people are, even if oceans separate them.

Much like Star-Crossed, Darke’s writing has an omniscience nature to her writing, as we branch into the lives of the side characters. In these interludes, we get to see into their lives before and after they stumble across Diana’s song. I did adore seeing the blossoming relationship between flautist Bextrix and cellist, Felix. It goes to show how music belongs to the listener just as much as it belongs to the composer.

I think I can officially say that Minnie Darke is on my auto-buy author list. I will read anything she writes, even if the next book focuses on math! This is a wonderful novel, which highlights how some songs will be forever linked with those special people in your life long after they have left your life. This novel left me feeling like I had received the biggest hug. I will reread The Lost Love Song whenever I need a little pick me up.

Loved the idea of this, how music can affect everything. That it’s a song, not an actual character who is the star. I wanted to love this, could see that so many others did love it but I thought it was stilted, so much so that the way it was written completely put me off the book and I didn’t enjoy it as much as I would’ve done had it been written in a different style. Obviously I’m in a very small minority here but this really wasn’t for me!

I’ve read quite a few books this year which heavily focus on music, and I love what Minnie Darke has done with The Lost Love Song. Diana Clare, an acclaimed pianist writes a love song for her fiance, Arie, it’s more than just a song though, as it conveys everything she feels and yet cannot say in words. But then tragedy strikes. This song, unheard by Arie, then becomes a character in its own right, evolving and touching lives the world over as it journeys from person to person. It’s a beautiful concept, that this musical legacy can hold so much power and be so affecting to so many people. I absolutely loved it.

Whilst the story focuses very much on Arie and his coming to terms with Diana’s death, I actually found myself most drawn to the song’s journey. Whilst introducing so many characters and connections could have been confusing, not to mention problematic in terms of disrupting the main story arc, it is delivered perfectly. The reader is allowed to dip into characters lives for a short while, and it’s a testament to the skill of the author that these characters so seamlessly slip into the narrative, and I found myself very quickly drawn into their story, and wanting more from them. As the song travelled it seemed to gather strength, becoming fully formed ahead of the ending, which was just so lovely and I adored picking up on all the threads that had been gathered up throughout, culminating in a fatalistic climax.

It’s a gorgeous novel, and one I absolutely adored. There is an ethereal quality woven throughout the narrative, with love and loss sitting side by side throughout, each strengthened by the other. It wasn’t quite the easy read I was expecting, and the chapter which details Diana’s death I think will haunt me for quite some time, as the descriptions were so vivid that I felt as if I were there in that moment. Death is not meant to be an easy topic, but I think the author has done a wonderful job of creating something beautiful from something so tragic.