This book was a bit tough for me to finish. The writing was lovely; however the characters all seemed one dimensional and the various plot lines were thinly developed. The civil rights issues and the mafia elements could have converged in a more interesting way. I found that neither was given enough detail to really pull me in. There also weren't any characters to really cheer for here. I wanted to like Ester more, but she wasn't given much to work with in the story. Benny was too "woe is me." This book was promising, but sadly didn't deliver what I wanted from it.

I had a hard time getting into this book because it started slow as the author really laid her foundation for a story where love triumphs amidst societal issues like racism and mob life.
It was a well written story but it was so heavy for me right now.
Based on early reviews, I was expecting an epic love story with Benny Lament and Esther Mine but this story felt more like a Historical Fiction with a subplot of Romance. I was more Intrigued by the politics of their musics and how they were going to navigate their career than their actual love story. I also found Uncle Sal and the family to be compelling in the behind the scenes kind of way. I do wish I had read this before the pandemic or sometime later.

I loved this book! Loved the premise, and loved the relationships between the characters. Thank you for the opportunity!!

An immersive story that kicked up my pulse more than once.

The characters leap off the page, as does the music, the era, and the tension. Benny was a fantastic hero, one of the best I’ve ever read. Esther’s brothers were other favorites. The only character I had trouble connecting with was Esther. I almost wish Harmon had written some chapters from her POV. This didn’t deter from me adoring this book but I wish I could have had a window into her soul.

For me the story doesn't read like classic Amy Harmon. I did like that this was a mixed plate relationship in a time when that just wasn't social acceptable (which is the worst!!) I think the relationship was pure and lovely and I liked that the story was past and present and ugly and pretty and REAL. I did expect pure heartache tho and I am glad it didn't happen but it wasn't my ultimate favorite of amy

The Songbook of Benny Lament by Amy Harmon is an extraordinary read. What a powerful story. Loved this quote from the book “May we seek to learn each other’s stories so that we might love each other a little better.” #TheSongbookofBennyLament #NetGalley

This one honestly fell a little short for me. I was hoping for more of a “Daisy Jones and the Six” or Behind the Music kind of vibe and the pacing seemed a little off for what I was expecting. I did love the Pittsburgh/Cranberry Twp mention though!

Thanks to NetGalley & the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The story of Benny Lament and Esther Mine drew me in right away. From descriptions of the people and places I saw them in my mind's eye. Benny saw people rather than skin color. Esther couldn't help but be very aware of color difference. Yet, because of music, they were drawn together. Could her brothers accept Benny? Could Benny's world accept Esther? Could a musical group form and survive? How did Benny and Esther each get where they were.

I liked the format of Benny being interviewed on radio followed by the story.

Good book in my view. I have enjoyed each book I have read by the Author, Amy Harmon

I did it!

I finally finished this book. It took me three months and two plane rides (where there was nothing to distract me) to get through this incredibly long story…but I did it.

I’m not sure what the deal was. I’ve loved all the other books I’ve read by Amy Harmon - Where the Lost Wander was one of my favorite books of 2020. Ms. Harmon is a brilliant writer and an epic storyteller. But The Songbook of Benny Lament failed to pull me in and I never felt fully engaged with either the characters or the plot.

The story is told in duel timelines - in 1969, where songwriter Benny Lament is a guest on a radio show and the host is walking him through the early times of his collaboration and relationship with singer Esther Mine, and then 1960, where the story of Benny and Esther is revealed through Benny’s point of view.

There’s a lot going on in the story. Benny is Italian, and his father Jack works for the mob (having married the boss’s sister). As it turns out, Benny’s father was good friends with Esther’s dad, Bo Johnson, a black boxer who fell in love - and fathered a child - with a white opera singer, Maude Alexander (whose father was a politician and also had ties to the mob). When Jack takes Benny to hear Esther and her three brothers perform at a nightclub, it sets in motion the path for Esther and Benny to become a famous singer/songwriting duo, but also gets them into trouble with the mob.

Based against the backdrop of the beginning of the civil rights movement, this book was both timely and difficult to read. As a country, we’ve come a long way since Blacks were unable to stay in the same hotels as Whites, or legally marry in all 50 states. And yet, we clearly still have a long way to go. However in this story, the challenges Benny and Esther faced were more because of the mob and less because of the color of Esther’s skin.

After pondering for a couple days, I think the reason I didn’t connect well with this book is because it had too much going on. I’m still not sure what the main storyline of the book is supposed to be. Was the author telling a story about an interracial couple in the early 60s? Was it about the music scene of that era? Or how about the mob? Every time I felt like one storyline was gaining some traction, another clip of the radio show would pop up and we’d switch to another storyline.

I thought the way the story was told - with alternating chapters of Benny on the radio show followed by a chapter of Benny telling his story, worked well and was a unique storytelling technique for the author to use. But it wasn’t enough to pull me in or keep me engaged. It took me being on a plane where there’s no wifi, no household chores, nothing else for me to do but put my head down and keep reading, to get through the majority of the book. Then it took me two more nights to finish.

Amy Harmon books usually pull me in and don’t let me go so I was determined to get through The Songbook of Benny Lament. I will say I loved how this book ended - the ending for Where the Lost Wander left me completely deflated, so it was good to get a glimpse of how things were going for Benny and Esther almost ten years later. But this one left me wanting more - especially of Benny and Esther’s relationship - at just about every turn.

* thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review

What more can I say about this author. She is a true storyteller. Her books are simply wonderful. And this one was no different. The emotion and intensity of it was on point for the time period and the issues these two characters were in and dealt with. I can't recommend this love story enough and this amazing author.

Everything Amy Harmon does is magic. Her writing is absolutely beautiful. She always delivers deeply developed characters and layers of emotion.

“None of us can help who we are. We are born into the world we are born into. The family. The skin. Nobody gets to choose those things. You can’t be mad at a man for who he is. Only what he is . . . and the choices he makes.” The Songbook of Benny Lament- Amy Harmon

Harmon’s Where the Lost Wander was one of my favorite novels of 2020 and she has wowed me again with her latest novel.

The story bounces back and forth between 1960 & 1969… Benny is being interviewed on a radio station for the ‘End of the Decade’ broadcast. This format worked very well in conveying the impact those years had on society and the changes that occurred. In her trademark way Harmon again allows her readers to walk in her characters shoes. I was immersed in Benny & Ester’s journey every step of the way. I really wanted these characters to be real and was greatly disappointed to discover they were fictional. Would love to have had the added pleasure of hearing their music. In the end this is a love story that survives despite all the forces trying to destroy it. A journey no reader will easily forget. Highly recommend.

Some of my favorite quotes…

“Music doesn’t scare me. Love scares me. Family scares me. Commitment scares me. But music . . . being on stage or even behind a microphone, that’s a game. An escape. Music doesn’t hurt anyone. I’ve seen plenty to be afraid of, but music was just never one of those things.”

“Controversy. Trouble. People can be ugly, no doubt. But newspapers and television and magazines don’t always expose the truth. I think the truth is that most people don’t care that a white man kissed a black woman, or vice versa. But the magazines claim everyone is all upset about it. One person in a hundred or a thousand might be upset about it. The upset gets all the attention because it sells.”

“May we seek to learn each other’s stories so that we might love each other a little better.” Amy Harmon

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.

Amy is a phenomenal writer. I’ve been a fan of her books since the beginning. She has a way with words that touch her readers body and soul.
This book, like all of her other ones, was beautifully written, emotional and just overall a must read. I don’t know how the author comes up with these characters that go through so much and you feel everything they are feeling. It’s incredible. Another win for Amy.

When I finish a five star read, I have such a hard time putting into words the depth of the myriad of feelings and thoughts warring and rumbling within my being. How do I describe everything beautiful and wonderful and awful in a way that allows other readers a glimpse of the experience that this book offers? How do I let the review speak of the ability that this book has of leaving a mark on their soul? My heart wants to touch on Every. Single. Thing. that I loved and cherished about this story and about the writing that makes this book above so many others that I have read. BUUUUUUT my head knows that short and sweet will nearly always be more appreciated to anyone reading reviews. 😉

One thing that hits me so strongly with so many of Amy Harmon's books is that the material within them feels so timeless and REAL. It never feels like fiction. Her historical novels never seem stuffy. But they also never seem like unrealistic fluff.
The parallels between history and present times has always astounded me. And Amy manages to capture that in her books. The experiances - the victories and the struggles - of her characters seem to bleed through the pages in such a raw and relatable way. We have changed so much over the course of history in so many areas and yet... not as many as we sometimes believe. I think that's one thing that makes Amy's books so beautiful and set apart somehow.
She captures the timelessness.
She weaves with a thread that is vibrant and endless and seems to flow seamlessly between the old and the new. The struggles and the hope. The fear and the excitement. The deep, healing love... and the corrosive hate for the things we don't understand. Creating a tapestry with the threads of time that reminds us that we aren't so distant from our ancestors and their experiances. May we never get so blinded in our humanity and our outlook that we fail to acknowledge how much we still need to learn and strive for.

Amy Harmon does a great job transporting you into the sixties! Through her writing we experience the music, as well as the feel of the time period. At the heart of this novel is the love story of a talented white song writer who fell in love with a phenomenal black singer. Racism, civil rights, jealousy as well as the music business are all on display in this book. Add mafia to the story and the tension builds. Motown and some of their artists also play a small role in the storyline. Great writing! #TheSongbookOfBennyLament #AmyHarmon #NetGalley

Another outstanding book by the author. You can not help but get wrapped up in the worlds she creates and this one wasn’t a made up other world...it was set in our own hate filled past. Even today people treat others differently when their skin colors do not match, but for those that look to the character of an individual, the rewards for both parties are unlimited.

This story is set during a troubled time when people were openly treated poorly for their differences and Amy made a pull at my heart with all the sad truths. But of course there is love, friendship, and family all throughout this book making it an epic read. And of course music is spread into every chapter and pulls you into the world of Benny as he takes a risk and follows the slightly untraveled road. An amazing story of a girl with a voice and a boy with the words.

I absolutely loved this book! This is a really emotional story about family, race, the mafia, songs and songwriters, and an interracial relationship. I could not put it down. The characters of Benny and Ester were so well developed, and I just fell in love with them. I could not put this book down and I highly recommend it!

If you are asked to provide a pair of five-letter nouns beginning with 'm' but that don't go well together , 'mafia' and 'music' would be a very good answer. So imagine a beautifully woven tale that unifies these two discrete elements into a delectable story. What you get is "The Songbook of Benny Lament".

Our eponymous lead, Benny Lament -- or to be more accurate, Benito Lomento -- belongs to an Italian mafia family bossing over the Bronx area in NYC. Benny is the black sheep of the family as he's a singer, songwriter and pianist with no time or interest in his mobster relatives nor in romance. Fairly successful in his career, he gets bowled over by the voice of Esther Mine when he hears her at a night club. Circumstances and choices bring them together in a musical and friendly partnership that is difficult for the external world to digest. After all, this is the America of the 1960s, and a white Sicilian-American man singing alongside a half-black woman on stage doesn't sit well with the segregationists. What follows is Benny's and Esther's deadly yet exciting adventure dealing with music, mobs and mayhem. The entire story is told in flashback through a radio interview with Benny in 1969. This structure works very well to create curiosity about what event in the past led to Benny Lament''s responses in the interview.

Sometimes, a book progresses slowly and the story takes its time to unveil itself. But the writing is so beautiful and the character development so fantastic that you feel a compulsion to keep turning the pages. I found it very difficult to keep this book aside, it is that gripping. There are so many themes beautifully layered and completely in harmony with each other: music, family, the civil rights movement, interracial relationships, mafia connections,... At its heart, you may call this book a love story. But to simply look at it as a love story is to trivialise its scope. Within the realm of fiction, it offers a factual glimpse into the struggles of the past, some of which are still extant.

Benny Lament and Esther Mine are two of the best written characters I've seen in contemporary literature. Their chemistry, their repartee, their music, their humanness, their strength,... Oh my! Everything was so well-sketched that I felt like I was watching them rather than reading them. Actually, every character in the book barring a couple of secondary ones is intriguingly developed. But the two leads are simply outstanding. (A side thought: how is it that female authors can write male characters so beautifully but most male authors cannot do the same with female characters?)

The story is a nice intermingling of fact and fiction. Most of the musical, political and gangster names thrown about in the book are real historical figures. To take actual people and events from the past, adding in some fictional characters, and ending up with a believable story not dealing with any catastrophic historical event is a heck of a writing task. Amy Harmon deserves accolades for doing complete justice to her attempt.

What made the book even more special to me was that I'm a music lover. (Note that understanding music will help you better enjoy the book, but it's not mandatory.) If you've ever riffed to music or banged your head along with the beats, you'll know the high music generates. So to see Esther and Benny creating magic with their words and tunes is an awesome experience. How I wish I could hear their songs! This might remind you of "Daisy Jones and the Six", another fabulous book related to the music of the past. But music is the only linking factor; there's nothing else in common between the two books.

Where this book skids a little is in the last couple of chapters. After a splendid build-up of suspense and fear, the ending feels quite tame and hurried in comparison. But don't let this take you away from the book. The whole reading experience is mesmerising, regardless of this little flaw.

If you still haven't gauged my feelings about the book, here's the recommendation: Go for it if you
- love music.
- love well-developed plots and characters.
- enjoy a mixture of genres within the same story.
- want to try historical fiction beyond stories of wars or natural disasters or plain old romance.
- simply want a good book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this beautifully written story. Set in the 60s, it involved music, love, racism, family, and the mob. The writing was fantastic, I could vividly see the characters and setting and the story was engaging while dealing with many heavy themes. This book will stay with me for a while for sure. Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for an arc of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

The Songbook of Benny Lament is pure historical romance and it is excellent! This book will have you feeling all the feels. Immediately, I was transported into 1960. I fell in love with the characters. Each character was well-developed and thought out. The romance had depth. The plot was interesting and kept me flipping the pages until the end. This book touches on different aspects of life in the sixties, including racial tension and mob life.

I already bought myself a copy.