Unfortunately, this book wasn't downloaded to my Kindle, therefore was unable to give it a read. However, I can believe it was most likely a wonderful read, filled with lovely characters.

Book Review
Title: Musical Hearts
Author: Nancy Brewka-Clark
Genre: Short Story/LGBT/Romance
Rating: ***
Review: So, as this is a short story based around an LGBT F/F romance this review isn’t going to be long. Despite not knowing it was only a short story I requested this book because of the synopsis: “When Harriet kidnapped a baby girl and raised her to be a princess, she neglected the possibility that sweet little Melissa would turn into a teenage hellion. Unexpected comic relief comes in the form of Barbara, Harriet's ex, who arrives to help with Melissa's coming out ball—and reignites old sparks. Meanwhile, displeased that only men are allowed to attend the coming out ball, young, stubborn Daphne disguises herself as a man so she can meet the beautiful princess—who comes to learn that what she wants, and thinks she wants, aren't always the same thing.”
This story is quite a difficult one to describe it is essentially a look at relationships, the relationships between biological parents and children, adoptive children and parents, spouses and new-found love. While all these relationships are going on there is also a clever writing twists that completely blinds you to the fact that you are discussing LGBT relationships as they are talked about in the exact same way heterosexual relationships are talked about which they should be.
Overall, I really liked the story and the characters and the banter between them was beautiful, quirky and at times profound. However, I didn’t understand why it was only a short story when there are enough ideas and materials to make a full-length novel which I would have enjoyed more.

I actually liked the style of writing, but it this story was too short to give the characers much depths. Dialogues that weren't really funny (but wanted to be just that) and the pacing wasn't right.

Really confusing and had weird sexual moments but was at the same time a very fun read

I was unable to finish the book because it archived to quickly. I am very sorry.

This is a very short story and there are absolutely no fun moments in it! It was just blah. So maybe I am not too keen on the whole lets kidnap a baby from her parents and bring her up as my own. But then Harriet manages to screw up that as well. Melissa hates her and I couldn't help feel bad for the girl who grew up with a better name yes but in a miserable life.

And then it just ended with a ball that had no description and with a girl who managed to sneak in.

There was plenty of story here but well it seems as if the author decided to not tell it.

It was interesting.... it felt really messy seeing as there were no chapters.... no page breaks.. it was hard to read... and the story was awkward..

this story has so much potential... but i just wish there was more to it.

Sadly, I didn't enjoy this at all, so I won't be posting my review to my blog. However, it currently appears on Goodreads.

I was misled by this -- I was expecting a novel, not a novella or short story or whatever this counts as. And it's rather a shame that it was so short, because I felt there was plenty of story to go around. Unfortunately, it skipped over the interesting parts in favour of a few rather unfunny dialogue scenes (which seemed intended to be humourous), and any plot that there is feels more like a summary of what was intended to be filled in later than a story in itself.

I was particularly disappointed that we didn't really see anything of Daphne until after she's revealed to be in disguise, and even then we only see her for one scene and we're supposed to think Melissa has fallen in love with her. This relationship had about as much depth as the other characters -- that is to say, none.

I wouldn't have been so disappointed if it weren't for the fact that the story the blurb described COULD have made a fascinating and engaging novel. It could have explored witch-human relationships and magic and ghosts and growing up and disguises and cross-dressing, with a sort of queer Cinderella moment at the end where a mysterious guest at the ball turns out to be a girl courting the princess. We could have seen it from other perspectives than the entirely unlikeable Harriet's (also: she STOLE a baby and never faces justice for it). But no.

Instead, this novella has uneven pacing, and seems intended to be funny but either it's just not or I don't find jokes about sex amusing -- maybe a bit of both. I don't know. It was a let down, and I don't think that's just because I was expecting something longer.

At least it being short meant I wasn't disappointed for long. That's something.

While perusing NetGalley's huge catalog of ebook ARCs available for request, the cover of Musical Hearts caught my eye -- then I read the tags.

"LGBTQIA, Romance," they said.

I clicked on the summary.

The basic summary is this: A witch kidnaps a baby, unaware that sweet little Melissa would grow into a 16-year-old hellion. The witch calls an ex-girlfriend who once broke her heart, and when the two try to help tame the 16-year-old girl, their old relationship sparks again. As the two witches work to throw together a sweet sixteen ball full of human men, human girl Daphne doesn't believe in following the men-only rule. She slips into Melissa's ball disguised as a man, but Melissa pauses when she sees Daphne.

The story is only 10,000 words, which I wish I had known going in -- it's strange to settle in for what you think will be hours of reading only to find that it's only been a half hour and somehow the book is already over. However, those who purchase this short story online will likely see the word count before doing so, which would make that issue irrelevant.

Musical Hearts drew me in immediately. The narrator of the story, Harriet, is delightfully witchy.

"She watched and listened from her green Kia, formerly a cucumber, as the little family got ready for another Monday."

The writing dragged me into the world of a witch who sees no real reason not to steal someone's infant child. She wanted the baby, so why shouldn't she have it? "I don't understand why anyone should ever try to make me feel guilty," Harriet says at one point.

Brewka-Clark also has the wonderful habit of introducing plot points via the character, rather than via extraneous explanatory writing:

"The nerve of her, implying that (Harriet) was old. Why, she was the youngest witch in the coven by several hundred years."

It's when Harriet's story flashed forward to Melissa's 16th year that the story took a small downward dip. The bewitching feel of the first part of the story is broken a bit when Melissa starts throwing a teenager tantrum, and Harriet begins throwing verbal and even physical abuse toward her. However, the writing holds strong until Barbara, Harriet's once-lover, arrives.

Once Barbara and her strange off-key jokes about human sex arrive in the story, all traces of that bewitching story are gone. The witches become funny caricatures: they hate all men, they think sex is disgusting, they literally melt men into puddles at their feet.

Possibly the most confusing part, storyline-wise, is the point where Harriet introduces two giant spider bodyguards and Brewka-Clark makes is clear that Melissa hates spiders. Later, however, Melissa is found in a compromising position with the aforementioned giant spiders, and insists that Harriet not kill them because, "They're my friends!"

Even so, Brewka-Clark has managed to breathe life into an old Rapunzel-inspired tale of a witch who stole a baby. I still enjoyed the story -- 3/5.