From the bestselling author of The Bookshop of Yesterdays comes a charming novel about a woman with a special gift—her stories help people fall in love.
THE LOVE SCORE
by AMY MEYERSON
Series: Standalone
Publication date: February 7, 2023
Published by: Park Row/Harper Collins
Genre: fantasy, magical realism
SYNOPSIS
When Alice’s best friend, Gabby, is reeling from a breakup, Alice writes her a heartfelt story to cheer her up. While reading it in a café, Gabby, as if by magic, meets the man of her dreams. Thinking the story might have some special power to it, Gabby shares it with her sister and other friends, who all find instant love. Word of mouth spreads, and Alice stumbles upon a new calling—to be a love scribe.
But not all the love stories she writes unfold as expected. And while Alice tries to harness her extraordinary gift, she is summoned to a mansion in the woods where she encounters the reclusive Madeline Alger and her mysterious library. As Alice struggles to write a story for Madeline, her most challenging assignment yet, she’s forced to confront her own guarded heart. Because maybe—just maybe—there’s a love story waiting to be written for her, too.
Emotional, deeply imaginative and brimming with valuable life lessons, The Love Scribe explores love, fate and the power of stories when we choose to believe in them.
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Praise for The Love Scribe:
"As soon as I turned the first page, I inhaled The Love Scribe in one delicious swoop. Amy Meyerson has written a clever investigation of romance that reads like a most beloved fable, and she completely charmed me with her wide-open heart. Clear-eyed and life-affirming, The Love Scribe is the perfect novel for anyone who has ever wondered if it's worth it to fall in love." —Amy Jo Burns, author of Shiner
"Readers will adore this charming and thoroughly original novel! With wisdom and whimsy, Meyerson offers a series of heartwarming vignettes which explore love, loss, grief and hope. This is a story for readers and writers alike, as it contemplates the courage and fortitude that true creative expression requires. I was utterly enchanted!" —Lynda Cohen Loigman, author of The Matchmaker's Gift
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Amy Meyerson is the bestselling author of The Bookshop of Yesterdays and The Imperfects. Her books have been translated into eleven languages, and her short fiction has been published in numerous literary magazines. Amy teaches in the writing department at the University of Southern California, where she completed her master's degree in creative writing. Her third novel, The Love Scribe, will be published by Park Row Books in February 2023. Originally from Philadelphia, she currently lives in the Los Angeles area with her husband and two children.
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REVIEW
The Love Scribe by Amy MeyersonWhen I first read the synopsis for The Love Scribe, I was intrigued by the original sounding concept of a woman who could bring true love to people with her stories. This is something that I haven't come across before, so I was eager to give this one a shot. I didn't realize that there would be a magical, or sentient house involved. Coincidentally, the last book that I read just before this one also had a magical house. Reading this directly afterwards may have had a negative impact on my reaction to this story because The Minuscule Mansion of Myra Malone was a hard one to live up to. Maybe it had no affect at all. What I do know is that I didn't end up loving this as much as I hoped I would.
The main character, Alice is a commitment-phobe when it comes to dating, and her relationships with men are restricted to sexual only. She does everything in her power to maintain a safe distance from romantic feelings because of the loss of her father at a young age. Losing him hurt her deeply, and completely reshaped her world view. The fear of going through the heartache she and her mother experienced again as an adult actually terrifies her. So she picks men who want a simple physical release as she does, thinking she's keeping herself safe from harm.
Now, at thirty-two, Alice still believed in love—just for other people. Never for herself. Some peopledo not have the discipline to train to be a concert pianist.Others do not have the bravery to be a stunt person.Alice simply did not have the constitution for love.
I think the fact that she was so scared of meaningful, romantic relationships (to the point of pushing all thoughts of it out of her mind) made her sudden magical "love guru" persona less believable to me. How is it that someone so disconnected to the idea of love for herself going to aid others in their desperate search for it? It all just seemed to happen very suddenly-one minute she avoided it like the plague, the next she could read people's mistakes in love after a brief meeting/talk and write them something to bring love knocking on their door.
Everyone thinks they’re hiding their pain,their insecurities, their struggles. Really,most people are just so focused on their own issuesthat they aren’t particularly observant of others.If you stop for a second and look,really investigate someone,they unfold before you like a book.
This didn't have the most realistic edge to it. Granted, this is supposed to magical realism, so there is a level of fantasy to it. But the logistics need to make sense in order for me to be swept away in the story and believe. Also, she never seemed to derive much joy from the whole process. It was pushed on her by her best friend and mother who both begged her to help people with her gift. She was conflicted from the beginning, unsure of herself, and scared to embrace the gift so many potential clients were lining up for.
I found the pace of the story to be quite slow. I had to push myself to continue reading and often would skim through some of the many sections describing all of the different clients' love stories. I know that the author probably wanted these to be deep, profound stories that encapsulated love from many different perspectives. For me, it made the story have a rambling, scattered feel about all of these people's experiences that made the story drag.
I liked her love interest, Duncan, though he did not have a very prominent place in the story. He was seen very little, and mostly discussed when Alice would try to push her attraction to him out of her mind. She didn't really know much about him because they only hung out a couple of times. He seemed like a good man, however there wasn't enough time with him on the page to really get to know who he was as a character. When the big conflict with him happened later on in the book over his perceived betrayal, I couldn't help but feel that he was being treated a little unfairly. Alice literally did the same exact thing he did to Madeline in order to try to learn her secrets. She completely cut Duncan out of her life because of his actions, but Madeline didn't mind Alice's deception, so apparently that made it acceptable? Alice was quite sneaky and broke her promises as well so you would think that would have at least entered her mind when she was refusing to speak to him.
Madeline was mysterious, as was her house out in the woods. I didn't feel that the magic of the house was adequately explained by the end. I guess we can all take what we want from it, but personally I would have liked to have seen more of a backstory regarding the existence of the house and why it did what it did at the end.
Overall, this was an okay read for me. Not absolutely horrible, but I did find myself picking the story apart in my head and I ended it feeling unsatisfied in general. I did appreciate how unique the storyline was, it just wasn't executed in a way that I loved. I thought I was going to rate this three stars, but after writing my review I realize it's more in the 2 star range. It looks like I'm in the minority though, so don't dismiss it outright based on my own subjective take.
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