The Songbook of Benny Lament comes with its own soundtrack. No, you won't find the playlist on any digital music source. The music which defines this book is innate, created in the mind of the book's brilliant author, but definitvely and clearly heard by the ears and heart of the reader. Each carefully placed word of this story is a lyric for a song that which is sung to a melody that seeps straight to the soul.

I cannot adequately explain the complex beauty that is The Songbook of Benny Lament. It is more than a historical romance set in a time only a few decades removed from the current one. It is more than a story about two ubertalented musicians who work together and fall in love to a 60's Mowtownesque musical backdrop. It is more than a mafia family saga or a frighteningly accurate depiction of the racially tense atmosphere which defined the decade. The Songbook of Benny Lament is an entire universe and all of the cataclysmic emotions contained within.

Amy Harmon doesn't spare readers the brutal and unattractive pictures that are simple facts which are byproducts of a turbulent and traumatic decade. But, true to form, this author depicts the calm gorgeous moments that can be found in such chaos. Ms. Harmon tells a hard-hitting, poignant and haunting tale of the myriad ways love struggles to take hold, grow, and thrive in a hostile, but superficially aestheticially pleasing environment.

I have no doubt I will read many more books as the days progress. I am absolutely sure that few will measure up to the completely visceral and spiritual experience that is The Songbook of Benny Lament. I will never forget Benny or Esther and the way these two uniquely talented individuals fought to show a nation exactly what change is. Amy Harmon is the epitome of what a writer should aspire to be - well researched, accurately and evocatively descriptive, while inspiring and remaining completely original at every level.

I need to start by saying that this book is VERY good and I never wanted it to end!
The story takes place in the United States in 1960. The narrator is the pianist and lyricist Benny Lament, and it all starts when his father takes him to a bar and asks him to help the singer who is performing to be recognized.
But not only that!!! This story has Italian mafia, racial segregation, romance, action ... and a lot of good music. The author writes so well that I could hear the song while reading.
I highly recommend this book, especially for those who like 1960s American music.
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Book provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Absolutely loved. This books is beautifully written. This is my first from this author and I am so looking to reading her backlist.

I've read a few Amy Harmon books and there is no formula for her writing. She has tackled time travel to 1921 Ireland, a journey on the Oregon Trail in 1853 and a contemporary novel about finding the beauty in a person when their face isn't perfect. This time she explores race relations in the 1960s, music and the mafia.

Benito Lomento, AKA Benny Lament, loves music and can play the piano and write a song from a single word. When his father, who works for his brother-in-law as a mob enforce, takes his son to see Esther Mine sing Benny is lost. She is a tiny black girl with a huge voice and they make great music together but some people aren't accepting of a black band with a white guy playing the piano. The chapters start with Benny being interviewed by Barry Gray at WMCA radio in 1969 and then Benny telling the full story of him and Esther and their music and their rise in the music business. The characters of Benny and Esther were so likeable and I wish I could really hear their music instead of just imagining it. Benny had a complicated relationship with his Dad. Benny's mom died young and he was raised by Jack. Jack had his faults but overall he was a good Dad. Also part of the band Minefield were Esther's brothers and also Benny's uncle, Sal Vitale, head of a mob family and his body guards. The 1960's was a complicated decade with the Vietnam War starting, JFK, Martin Luther King and the change in music and the author was able to depict all that turmoil.

I want to thank Netgalley and Lake Union for providing me with a copy of this book.

A beautifully written story that reads like non fiction, The Songbook of Benny Lament is a winner. Amy’s words created a world that mirrors reality. It was heartfelt, and difficult at times but was true to the life we lived back then and even today. This is a MUST read!

The Songbook of Benny Lament was just amazing. A beautiful story of love and music. This story has mafia and Motown. Such sensitive topics like segregation and civil rights movements, the 1960s wasn’t really that long ago. Esther and Bennys story will make you laugh and cry. Amy Harmons note at the end is beautiful “maybe seek to learn each other’s stories so that we might love each other a little better” Esthers quote also is so heartwarming “if you want to see change, you have to show them what it looks like”

Benny Lament is giving a radio interview with Barry Gray on New Years’ Eve, 1969 on the last show of the year, the last show of the tumultuous decade. They talk about how Benny got his start as the son of a mob guy. Benny has grown up knowing who and what is father is and choosing to live a very different life and careful not to ask, accept or owe anything to anyone. Benny writes songs for some of the biggest names in the business but chooses to stay out of the limelight. While on a visit home his father asks him to go meet a young singer named Esther Mine. . Benny is suspicious as to his interest in but from the minute he hears her sing he knows she is special. When he returns to his hotel that night Esther is waiting for him and a vague promise to write her a song turns into an album, a partnership and love. The two will face adversity not only of the racial inequalities of the time but from powerful people who want to keep Ethel Mines’ story hidden.
This is beautifully written and touches the struggles of entertainers who had audiences clamoring to see them perform but facing laws about segregated audiences, not able to stay in the same hotels or eat in the same restaurants or being arrested for the songs they sang and the forbidden love growing between Benny and Ethel.
I think most readers will guess what happened to Ethels’ mother long before it is revealed.
The banter, song writing and chemistry is palpable and you can almost feel the crackle as you turn pages.
I loved the flow of this story and the inclusion of artists and names we all recognize.
This was released this week, don’t miss it.
Thank you to #netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

You know a book is really, really good when you can’t wait to find out what happens next but you also don’t want it to end. That’s how I felt about The Songbook of Benny Lament. This book encompasses so many aspects of life in America in 1960: music (obviously), race relations and interracial relationships, politics, the mob, and so on. The main action takes place in late 1960 and early 1961, but the author has interspersed between chapters, snippets of a radio interview that takes place at the end of 1969, whetting our appetite for what is going to happen in the following chapter. There are even a few mysteries to try to unravel throughout the book!

I loved how Amy Harmon mixed very believable fictional characters in with quite a few real people, like radio personality Barry Gray, Ray Charles, Berry Gordy of Motown fame, and one of the founders of Atlantic Records, Ahmet Ertegun. I was a kid in 1960, so I wasn’t all that aware of what was going on in my hometown of New York City at that time, but over course of the 1960s I was one of many faithful pop radio listeners and remember WMCA and their “Good Guys” fondly, along with other radio personalities on rival stations WABC and WINS. I even went to a couple of live shows hosted by these radio stations, of the sort described in the book. So this all felt very real to me. The interracial relationship between Benny and Esther was so well written. I loved Esther’s brothers too, and Benny’s father. I can’t recommend this highly enough.

Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the opportunity to read an advance readers copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed this book and I have no further suggestions on how it could be improved (which is good because the book is already publised). Below you can find my review on goodreads.

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The Songbook of Benny Lament is about music, family, love and civil rights – not always in that order. It tells the story of Benny lament, Esther Mine and their respective families. Benny is a songwriter who comes from a family of Italian mobsters and Esther is an amazing singer and the sassiest protagonist you’ll meet in a while. She is also black, which is relevant because story takes place in the USA during the 60s, a time where there were still segregation laws in place and all kinds of discrimination against black people.

I really liked this book. Like Benny’s songs, it has rhythm, content and great balance between fun and serious topics. The characters have depth and the author was, in my opinion, able to show us how different people's reactions to difficult situations can be and how valid and understandable most of those reactions are. It was also particularly great at capturing the vibe of the music scene in the 60s, the way family ties work within the mob and how morally grey most of our decisions are.

(Disclaimer: I read an ARC of this book. While I really enjoyed it, I am aware that I do not have direct experience with topics that are central to the story, like interracial relationships and discrimination against the black community. Therefore, I encourage you to read reviews from sensitivity readers whose voices and opinions are more important than mine and who can tall us if this book is a good representation of their community’s experience. I will do the same.)

Standing by for the movie of this one! As I read through this wonderful book, I could hear the musical score in my head and the songs took on a life of their own. Set in the Bronx in the 1960s and about the love affair between an Italian-American man and an African-American woman who make amazing music together, this historical fiction book is also a murder mystery. The characters are all incredibly vivid and it’s so nostalgic and atmospheric.

The Songbook of Benny Lament by Amy Harmen

Wow! What a fantastic story! This book worked for me big time! I enjoyed every single word. It brought me to an era of music, gangsters, racial injustice and so much more. It’s a story of love, family, determination.

This is the story of Benny Lament and his family’s ties to the mob in New York City in 1960 and how his love for Esther Mine kicked off a series of events or just maybe all these events had started long before Benny and Esther fell in love. Benny had always tried to stay away from his family’s gangster ties preferring to keep his music as his priority but sometimes the only way to protect the people you love are by mobbing up, joining the family. Esther’s brothers (Minefield) were her protectors and her bandmates but when Benny comes into Esther’s life there is just no stopping this incredible duo. Colour, racial tension and family secrets are in the forefront and you can’t help but worry yourself sick over what will become of Esther, Benny and Minefield.

I felt like I was on such an amazingly entertaining ride reading this book. I loved the parts about the music, combining real people like Ray Charles, the executives of Atlantic Records and Motown with politics and Bo Johnson. Amy Harmon’s writing is incredible and the research that went into this book must have been so thorough. I had this book sitting on my shelf for a couple of weeks before I picked it up to read and once I started I couldn’t put it down. Here it is days after I finished and Benny, Esther, her brothers, Pop, Bo Johnson are all still on my mind. I think this would make a great movie and am trying to work out who would make the best actors to play the parts.

My synopsis doesn’t do this book the justice it deserves, I can’t write highly enough about it. Read it! You’ll love it!

My sincere thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for granting me this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Songwriter and gifted pianist Benny Lament tells his story on a radio show in the last hours of 1969.
His story is about family, liability, making music, organized crime, segregation and love.
I'm not really sure how Amy Harmon managed to make all these things fit together so naturally, but they do.
Benny meets Esther Mine. A tiny singer with a huge voice, and they have a special kind of chemistry right away, onstage and in real life. Not everyone like it - they are a mixed couple in the 60's.
There is a strong message here - music has the power to change public opinion.

"If you want people to change, you have to show them what it looks like.”

This book is truly a work of art. To be exact - it is a work of mixed arts.
I found myself not only picturing the characters and scenes as I usually do when I read, but also imagining their singing. The piano played background in my head to whole parts of the story.
What an experience!
You know how you wish for some books to be adapted to the big screen? well,.. This book would make an amazing musical.
This is an important book and I enjoyed it from the first page to the last.

What a beautiful and heart wrenching story. Amy Harmon just has this way of captivating you and writing beautiful novels that you get so wrapped up in.

The struggles of violence and racism that Benny and Esther had to endure in the 1960s was just so heartbreaking and unfair.

This was such an amazing story.

Thank you so much for an ARC for my honest review.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you for the advanced copy @netgalley @lakeunion in exchange for my honest review.

Songbook of Benny Lament • Amy Harmon
⭐️⭐️⭐️/⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3/5)
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“Don’t let me down, Benny Lament.”
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👍🏼 Thumbs Up:
Awesome and unique plot. Great writing. Important themes of race, class, family (the one we are born into and the one we choose), love and art.
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👎🏻 Thumbs Down:
A little slow for my taste! I would have enjoyed this more on audio I think.
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🤓 For Readers WHO:
Are fans of Daisy Jones and the Six, The Godfather, or are interested in music/music history, or historical fiction set during the civil rights movement.
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👉🏼 This is what’s WHAT:
Benny Lament is a musical son who wants nothing to with the mob family he’s born into. He’s swept away by a new singer he meets, Esther who wants him to be her manager. Can they seek fame while avoiding their backgrounds that seek to ruin them and their connection?
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⏳WHEN I read this book:
It made me want to listen to jazz and blues! I found the historical backdrop fascinating.
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🚨WHERE you should watch out:
Death, murder, violence, racism
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📍WHY you should read this book:
It’s by Amy Harmon, duh!
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📚 HOW I read this book:
eARC from @netgalley and @lakeunionpublishing

I'm such a fan of Amy Harmon. She is a talented author with the ability to write such diverse books covering all the genres. It's amazing to me.

This book has such a somber feel to it. It was engaging and interesting but definitely somber and a bit heavy. Each chapter starts with part of an interview between Benny and a radio show host which kind of sets the stage for the next bit of the story. I really liked how that was set up. As the story progressed I began to understand the characters and I really grew to love them. I was invested in them, their stories and what motivated them.

Esther says, “If you want people to change, you have to show them what it looks like.”

Isn't that so true? It's a timeless message worth repeating over and over. This author doesn't shy away from writing the hard things. She challenges her readers to think and feel in ways that may feel uncomfortable. Uncomfortable but necessary.

Of course I adored the love story of Benny and Esther. It was real and it was deeply rooted.

Unfortunately, there was content that crossed my personal boundaries. Frequent swearing (some strong language) and some sexual content. It's a personal preference, not a judgement call. There was violence, some graphic in nature. Of course this is expected when dealing with mobs. I just had a harder time with all of that together. This wasn't my favorite book by this author but her talent is undeniable. I'll be watching to see what she does next.

- I received a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

MY REVIEW

I received an ARC through NetGalley for an honest review. Thank you!

The Songbook of Benny Lament by Amy Harmon is a book about courage, love, change, and fighting for the right to be who you are. I loved this book and the journey of Benny Lament and Esther Mine.

Benny Lament loved music and he works as a songwriter. Benny through his father meets Esther Mine with an unforgettable voice and he knows that he had to write a song for Esther Mine and to help her to succeed in her career.

His dream will come true,” Esther had reminded me then.”The biggest dreams always do. I dreamed of you, didn’t you?”

Esther wants to have a career in music and she wants to succeed. When she meets Benny Lament she knows that he is the perfect man to help her to succeed and to have a career. They began to work together at Esther’s song but somewhere Benny become part of Esther’s band and they began to sing together. But not everyone was happy that they began to be seen together because Esther is Black and Benny is white or because of Esther’s parents. Neither was sure why they are the target but they weren’t ready to give up their right to work together.

“You wanna change the world, you gotta show’em what it looks like”.

Benny Lament and Esther Mine fall in love and they knew that will not have an easy journey but they fought for the love and for the people like them. I loved the banter and the easy relationship between them.

I loved all the characters and I loved the story of Benny and Esther. Amy Harmon, it’s truly an amazing author and I’m happy that I read this story. The Songbook of Benny Lament is a must-read for everyone.

Violence isn’t the answer. Change is the answer.

Blog post: 3/16/2021
Bookbub: 3/16/2021
Goodreads: 2/23/2021

Only Amy Harmon could make me enjoy a story about mobsters! To be fair, this book is so much more than that. It's about family, music, love and passion, strong women. The banter between Benny and Esther is so good! I loved them and their romance. The complicated dynamics of being an interracial couple and musical team in the 60s is sadly still so relevant. The secondary characters, especially the Mine brothers, were well-developed and lovable.
I didn't love the pieces of the radio interview in between each chapter (I actually felt it pulled me out of the story), but The Songbook of Benny Lament is just as engrossing and well-written as Harmon's previous books and it's one I'll be recommending often!

TW: Racism, violence, death of a parent, child abandonment

Amy Harmon is one of my favorite authors. She has this spectacular way to pull you into her stories and enrapture you while simultaneously hitting you in all the feels. The Songbook of Benny Lament did just that...

The story of Esther and Benny is a poignant and raw one that shares the complexities of interracial relationships and marriages during the 1960s before Loving vs Virginia was passed by Supreme Court. Set along the backdrop of Harlem and the mob scene with the soundtrack showcasing the rise of Motown, this story was a slow burn with an important message of love- familial or chosen, forbidden or accepted. I loved that the format was set as a radio interview done between Benny and a famous radio personality at the end of 1969. Kudos to Harmon, for not just writing a lovely story but also writing song lyrics to accompany the story! I would have loved to hear those songs!

I do think it would have been fascinating to get some of Esther’s point-of-view, I would have loved and maybe even preferred more insight directly from her considering the racial climate of that era. Esther is such a strong character I can’t help but want to know her more!

Sublime!
This hauntingly beautiful story touches on my generation where music soothed the soul of all the heartbreak and pain in daily life.
Is that enough for Benny and Ester?
Intriguing and insightful, unputdownable is an understatement!
Benny and Ester’s story is a heart wrenching journey that is equally applicable today as it was in the 1960’s.
Late 1960’s New York City is the other character impacting Benny and Ester’s story. It took me a minute to understand how this story was engineered. Once I understood it this book was hard to put down. The characters were so well developed I felt I was watching their life unfold.
I “needed” to know how their story evolved and developed.
Each chapter was broken up with flashbacks of the past along with a late night radio interview on New Year’s Eve 1969. This offered me a wide angle view of how their lives unfolded. Their meeting and how their relationship developed was passionate and bittersweet.
Won’t say more except read it!

“Violence isn’t the answer. Change is the answer. But that’s hard. A whole lot harder than throwing a punch.”

Amy Harmon did it again, she has a way of writting stories that are captivating and take your breath away.
Emotional, raw, beautiful and inspiring.
A story about interracial love, inclusivity and the power of music that you need to read. Another favorite book from this author and a five star read.

Thank you Lake Union Authors and NetGalley for this ARC.

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