Voices Of Summer by Diane Pearson

Wonderful story! You don't have to love the theater or operetta to enjoy this book but if you do, then it will be more than good. It will be magical.

A struggling new opera house in the Austrian mountains. A tenor with a huge voice and an even bigger chip on his shoulder. A middle aged soprano with the voice of an angel and the body of a bean bag. Two eccentric "direktors" , an austere and secretive costume designer and a medley of fully drawn cast members all weave together into an unforgettably rich tapestry of music, beauty, secrets of the past, pride, bigotry and sabotage.

I'll tell you what I both love and hate Diane Pearson for in equal measures. She never shields her characters. Sometimes, you want to jump into the story and say "No! Don't do it!" but her characters are nothing if not human in every sense. They (some) will make what I consider to be bad choices. They may or may not pay for this. (Just like real life). And others find just one more layer of goodness you never knew they had. But they're never wooden. We learn their past and even if we don't agree with the direction their life is taking, we understand.

I love that not everything is tied into a neat bow at the end. Enough is settled to be truly satisfying but there's always a few threads left trailing to make you wonder over the next few days, "I wonder what so and so is going to do now that..." and then you smack yourself cos its just fiction and of course 'so and so ' isn't going to do anything. 'So and so' doesn't exist. But they could. That's how real they are.

CONTENT:

SEX : Behind closed doors
VIOLENCE: Mild.
PROFANITY: Mild. B's and D's.

MY RATING: PG