A hitmaking songwriter and a bitter musician share a startling and inexplicable connection that they’ll do anything to shake, in the next sparkling, magical book from Ashley Poston.
Joni Lark is living the dream. She’s one of the most coveted songwriters in LA…and she can’t seem to write. There’s an emptiness inside her, and nothing seems to fill it.
When she returns to her hometown of Vienna Shores, North Carolina, she hopes that the sand, the surf, and the concerts at The Revelry, her family’s music venue, will spark her inspiration. But when she gets there, nothing is how she left it. Her best friend is avoiding her, her mother’s memories are fading fast, and The Revelry is closing.
How can she think about writing her next song when everything is changing without her?
Until she hears it. A melody in her head, lyric-less and half-formed, and an alluring and addictive voice to go with it—belonging, apparently, to a wry musician with hangups of his own.
Surely, he’s a figment of her overworked imagination.
But then the very real man attached to the voice shows up in Vienna Shores. He’s aggravating and gruff on the outside—nothing like the sweet, funny voice in Joni’s head—and he has a plan:
They’ll finish the song haunting them both, break their connection, and hope they don’t risk their hearts in the process.
Because that song stuck in their heads? Maybe it’s there for a reason.
Joni Lark is living the dream. She’s one of the most coveted songwriters in LA…and she can’t seem to write. There’s an emptiness inside her, and nothing seems to fill it.
When she returns to her hometown of Vienna Shores, North Carolina, she hopes that the sand, the surf, and the concerts at The Revelry, her family’s music venue, will spark her inspiration. But when she gets there, nothing is how she left it. Her best friend is avoiding her, her mother’s memories are fading fast, and The Revelry is closing.
How can she think about writing her next song when everything is changing without her?
Until she hears it. A melody in her head, lyric-less and half-formed, and an alluring and addictive voice to go with it—belonging, apparently, to a wry musician with hangups of his own.
Surely, he’s a figment of her overworked imagination.
But then the very real man attached to the voice shows up in Vienna Shores. He’s aggravating and gruff on the outside—nothing like the sweet, funny voice in Joni’s head—and he has a plan:
They’ll finish the song haunting them both, break their connection, and hope they don’t risk their hearts in the process.
Because that song stuck in their heads? Maybe it’s there for a reason.
Title: Sounds Like Love
Author: Ashley Poston
Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group
Publication Date: June 17, 2025
Review:
Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this title to read and review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
I've never jumped up and down so much as when I got approved to read this title. I only had a week before publication so I threw everything else aside to get it done. And it was a great ride! I've grown to really enjoy Poston's stories. The romance is always run and I love her inclusion of magical realism in her stories. They give the plot just that bit more umph than just a straight romance would give.
I don't know much about the music industry outside of loving music so catching a glimpse of the song writing side was truly interesting. Joni Lark has what many would call the yips, she's blocked and despite being a hit making writer, she cannot get out of her rut. But her chance encounter with bad boy band member Sebatian "Sasha" Fell changes that all. When they have an unexpected connection after a chance meeting in a balcony, they don't expect to ever see each other again. But a supernatural connection brings them back together.
I really enjoyed watching the creative process the main characters went through to create their song. I will say it was hard for me to hear it, if that makes any sense. There was a lot of flowing prose in this story that seemed a bit like filler at times.
Poston has a way of transporting you to something magical, though. And that magic helps the characters grow and change. This book did remind me of her other title, The Dead Romantics. It has a very similar feel to it. I loved the inexplicable force that brings the characters together. And how they see how that connection would always bring them into each others lives in the end.
The pacing was a bit slower for this title. Lots of build up to romance and connection for the characters. Definitely a slow and steady burn.
I loved the chapter titles. So many nods to great songs that you can see mean so much to the characters.
There is a big nod to family and connection and found family in this book. About how memories are made and cherished and kept. How we take them with us and keep them safe.
There are some serious topics touched upon in this book, specifically death of a loved one and a loved one with a progressive neurological disease. Both were handled with great care and thoughtfulness.
Overall I enjoyed this one. It was a big slower for me than Poston's others books. And this book had some more serious tones than her past books, at least for me. If you're a Poston fan, you'll love this one just as much as her others.
Author:
Ashley Poston is the New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of The Dead Romantics, The Seven Year Slip, and A Novel Love Story. She has also written over half a dozen young adult novels.
After graduating from the University of South Carolina with a BA in English, she pursued a career in the publishing industry where she helped design and implement marketing strategies for novels. Now, she writes full-time from her little grey house, and spoils her three cats. When not writing, she bides her time between South Carolina and New York, and all the bookstores between.
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