HEARD IT IN A LOVE SONG
A Novel
From Tracey Garvis Graves, the bestselling author of The Girl He Used to Know comes a love song of a story about starting over and second chances in Heard It in a Love Song.
Love doesn’t always wait until you’re ready.
Layla Hilding is thirty-five and recently divorced. Struggling to break free from the past—her glory days as the lead singer in a band and a ten-year marriage to a man who never put her first—Layla’s newly found independence feels a lot like loneliness.
Then there’s Josh,
From Tracey Garvis Graves, the bestselling author of The Girl He Used to Know comes a love song of a story about starting over and second chances in Heard It in a Love Song.
Love doesn’t always wait until you’re ready.
Layla Hilding is thirty-five and recently divorced. Struggling to break free from the past—her glory days as the lead singer in a band and a ten-year marriage to a man who never put her first—Layla’s newly found independence feels a lot like loneliness.
Then there’s Josh, the single dad whose daughter attends the elementary school where Layla teaches music. Recently separated, he’s still processing the end of his twenty-year marriage to his high school sweetheart. He chats with Layla every morning at school and finds himself thinking about her more and more.
Equally cautious and confused about dating in a world that favors apps over meeting organically, Layla and Josh decide to be friends with the potential for something more. Sounds sensible and way too simple—but when two people are on the rebound, is it heartbreak or happiness that’s a love song away?
- St. Martin's Press
- Hardcover
- November 2021
- 304 Pages
- 9781250235688
Buy the Book
$27.99
About Tracey Garvis Graves
Tracey Garvis Graves is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author of contemporary fiction. Her debut novel, On the Island, spent 9 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, has been translated into thirty-one languages, and is in development with MGM and Temple Hill Productions for a feature film. She is also the author of Uncharted, Covet, Every Time I Think of You, Cherish, Heart-Shaped Hack, White-Hot Hack, and The Girl He Used to Know. She is hard at work on her next book.
Praise
“I cannot get enough of Tracey Garvis Graves. She just keeps getting better and better.” —Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author of Daisy Jones & The Six
“Tracey Garvis Graves’s Heard It in a Love Song is filled with so much warmth and so much hope, reading it feels like listening to your favorite song while curled up with someone you love. I’ll be thinking about these characters and their passion for life for a long time to come.” —Jill Santopolo, New York Times bestselling author of Everything After
“A warm, witty story with plenty of heart and characters that jump off the page, Heard It in a Love Song hits all the right notes.” —Meg Mitchell Moore, author of Two Truths and a Lie
“A moving novel about the resilience of hope and love . . . Full of humor, warmth and depth. It’s pure magic on the page.” —Madeleine Henry, author of The Love Proof
“Graves has a sure hand with depicting the complexity of dating after divorce. This will please readers looking for a realistic spin on taking a second chance at love.” —Publishers Weekly
“[Layla and Josh] are appealing, sensible characters who have good banter, and it is especially satisfying to watch Layla’s journey back to her rock-and-roll roots. [A] quiet, romantic novel that delves deeply into how relationships fall apart and how love can blossom again.” —Booklist
Excerpt
prologue
Layla
now
Layla Hilding smiled at the man standing next to her. He gave her a thumbs-up and she flashed the peace sign back at him. The room smelled of beer and fried food and sweat and cologne and she would always associate these smells with happiness. Underneath her shirt, she could feel the steamy dampness of her skin, and she knew her face would be glowing from the exertion of doing what she loved.
She had arrived at a crossroads, personally and professionally.
For years, she’d put the hopes and dreams she’d been chasing on the back burner.
Not by choice.
Not without resentment.
Now, she stood on the precipice of a whole new life.
Layla strummed the opening notes, and as she sang the words written by the man who stood beside her, it was as if she were hearing them for the first time. She’d been singing them for months, but she was finally paying attention to what they said.
She drew in a breath and her voice rose as she belted out the words. The lyrics were an anthem, one she would proudly sing whenever she could.
Her instincts were screaming by then. Layla pictured the words as if they were arrows pointing back at her. Toward the answer.
What do you love? What do you really want?
She’d finally figured out the answers, but what she hadn’t expected was that failing would feel so sweet.
She glanced his way again, and they exchanged a triumphant smile, his voice joining hers on the last verse in beautiful harmony.
She had to tell him it wasn’t working.
She had to tell him she couldn’t chase it anymore, and more importantly, she didn’t want to.
But that didn’t mean she couldn’t have it all, because she could.
Layla didn’t need the universe to send her a sign that the decision she’d made was the right one.
Layla didn’t need any help at all.