Customer Reviews

Love's Melody Lost

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Divorced and in the process of redefining her life, Anna Reid, an early 30-something woman in a graduate program for Landscape Design, needs a place to live and, at least, a part time job. She finds both when she answers a classified ad for a housekeeper. She's surprised to find that she will be more of an administrative assistant to the enigmatic Graham Yardley.

The famed master pianist and composer, Graham has locked herself away at Yardley Manor for more than a decade, since a tragic accident took her sight. She bears her blindness as a kind of penance and uses it to keep anyone from coming too close. Graham is not prepared for the energy of life and love of nature that Anna brings to Yardley. Love's Melody Lost is the story of these two women on their path to love each other.

An old fashioned gothic romance of the kind written by the late Victoria Holt, Love's Melody Lost is almost so cliché as to be amusing. -- The beautiful, vibrant, young woman brings life to a fading, historic estate by the sea and sparks the possibility of salvation through love for the mysterious, reclusive, heartbroken estate owner. -- However, Radclyffe gives the cliché a new life. She depicts two interesting and well drawn female leads with unapologeticly lesbian content. Her plot is fast paced with several touching moments. And the romantic encounters, when they finally occur are explicit and, to this reader, powerfully erotic.

Radclyffe uses sight and the lack thereof, in an interesting manner. Previously heterosexually experienced, Anna is aware of Graham's physical attractiveness from their first encounter. She describes the appearance of the tall, dark haired, musician with increasing detail as she falls in love with Graham. Yet, the reader is not given a description of Anna until Graham, in a very touching scene, asks the housekeeper, Helen what Anna looks like.

There are a few mildly annoying inconsistencies in the story. The setting's time frame and age for both lead characters seems to change. Anna's height also appears to fluctuate. Radclyffe glosses over Anna's coming out process as well as the question of Graham's being out professionally. And finally the angst is almost too much. "Pig-headed" is one of the nicest ways to describe Graham, exceptional talent notwithstanding. Having said this, Love's Melody Lost is a charming gothic lavender romance.

Other readers have compared this novel to those of the wonderful romance writer, Karin Kallmaker. This reader feels a comparison to Chris Anne Wolfe's romantic fantasies is more accurate. Or perhaps, specifically, it is more like early Kallmaker novels. Love's Melody Lost provides more than enough promise for this reader to look for other Radclyffe titles and will be curious to see how Radclyffe continues to develop her craft.

I have a guilty fondness for LOVE'S MELODY LOST, although in too many places its narrative is so over the top in earnest melodrama and painful plot cliches that I found myself laughing rather than being moved. Yet it's that very excess which marks this book as a turning point in Radclyffe's long career of writing pulp romances. Her earlier books were, in comparison, more flat, almost timid in their expression of emotion between the characters. Then something broke loose in LML, a florid outburst of passion that was rawly expressed, but definitely not timid. In subsequent books, Radclyffe pulled back to less flamboyant emotional levels, but there was a subtle shift forward rather than a retreat to earlier habits. She emerged a more controlled writer, one with a firm confident hand on the turbulent love life of her characters. They could encounter heartache without the violent violin passages crescendoing in the background.

My decided preference is for understatement rather than overstatement, but I recognize that tastes vary in this regard. For readers who love the emotional swells of Romance, you'll adore this book. For readers who are less inclined to appreciate the resoundingly obvious, try Radclyffe's ABOVE ALL, HONOR instead. And finally, for those who, like me, find the journey of the writer as fascinating as the journey of her characters, don't skip this novel. I've read all of Radclyffe's books (many more than once) and this title is a fascinating step in her progress as a writer. She's a delight to read.

Love's Melody Lost was the first lesbian romance I ever read and to date, I have yet to find its peer. I found it at a time when, unaware that such love stories existed, I was merely looking for writing that moved me in a way that only eloquence in style, characterization, and plot could.

And find it I did. Radclyffe creates a world that is passionate and intense, fantastic yet real, dark yet triumphant. The story is not so much told as painted in words and characters and moods that draw the reader in and bewitch them with breathless wonder.

At the story's core is the turbulent relationship between Graham Yardley and Anna Reid. Radclyffe takes the archetypes of dark and light and imbues them with a depth of character that makes this a love story less about the consummation of physical attraction and more about the unique way in which two lost and damaged souls can come together.

Of course, as is the Radclyffe hallmark, the love scenes are exquisitely crafted to capture the desire and intensity of two passionate women united.

But what is truly unique and wonderful about Love's Melody Lost is the blending of style and form. That Graham is a brooding composer living on a barren clifftop mansion is reflected in the lush drama of the prose. The beauty of the writing makes reading a pleasure on multiple levels: the engaging and page-turning plot, as well as the vivid and lyrical descriptions. It is an experience, as all great novels should be.

It comes with my highest recommendation and I encourage everyone to experience it for themselves.

Last March, when a new name in lesbian romance hit bookstore shelves, a wide range of readers learned that Radclyffe was something special -- a first-rate storyteller with a gift for creating sexy, strong, contemporary women whose stories are at once heartstoppingly romantic and sexy enough to fry every last one of your circuits. Now with the release of LOVE'S MELODY LOST, it's quite clear that the talent evidenced in SAFE HARBOR was far from a one-off phenomenon. And although both of these stories are unabashedly romantic love stories, Radclyffe manages to keep her stories -- and her characters -- always new, always vibrant, always fascinating.

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of LML is the way the story straddles several genres. The story of Graham -- aristocrat, artist, a soul in torment -- and Anna -- strong, independent, rebuilding a life from the earth up -- is lesbian pulp, playing with butch/femme roles; and it's a Gothic novel, full of atmosphere and mystery and a dark brooding wounded hero who would not have been out of place in a Bronte novel, if Bronte had written stories of women who love women. And above all this -- and this truly is what sets Radclyffe's work apart from other fine writers writing lesbian romances today -- LML qualifies thoroughly as erotica. Because it's not just the story of women who fall in love and about the healing properties of soul-binding, life-altering romance. It's about the physical aspects of that relationship -- about women who express their love not only spiritually but physically. And there is no lesbian writer on this planet who combines romance and erotica the way Radclyffe does. She is the best.

So read Love's Melody Lost -- it will make you cry, it will make you ache, it will bring your heart ease. If you believe in passion and love and romance -- if you have them or yearn for them -- this is the book for you. You'll want to read it over and over and over.

This one of the best romance books I have ever read. It was original and fresh. I read it twice already and I know I will read it again

This book is full of grand and gothic passions. Graham, the blind musician, is not exactly sour-tempered, but certainly too embittered to take a chance on more pain by hoping for the future. Anna has shed her husband and wants to move on, but needs a job before making any huge plans. She winds up as a so-called housekeeper, actually secretary/gopher, for Graham on a neglected estate. Lack of real work drives Anna into the garden to try to stop the fade and to perk up the grounds. The estate perches above the ocean, and Graham likes to walk along the edge to enjoy the wind and the sound of waves. They are bound to cross paths, and they have a two-steps-forward and one-step-backward rocky progression toward friendship that deepens into love. The re-appearance of Graham's old flame is bad enough, but Graham is actually courteous and welcoming to her, much to Anna's chagrin. The whole thing is tied together with Graham's obsession with music and fear of life and Anna's re-introduction of life via her gardening and other estate restorations. Can she make Graham "see" a future with them together?

This book is well-written and well-edited with a minimal amount of "purple prose." Graham Yardley, the tall, dark, handsome one, is appropriately moony and crushed by her troublesome past. Anna, the small, blond, sunny, optimistic one is aimlessly wandering---until she finds a new home working as a garden landscaper and secretary for the unsighted Graham.

The tone is good, the story line flows, and the gradual attraction and caring that develops is believable. It is only slightly cloying that the great woman/pianist/rich person ends up being waited upon hand-and-foot by the poor/lowlier character. This leads me to ask why so much lesbian fiction is peopled by codependent seeming couplings? Why is the power relationship so noticeable that it appears that the love that develops is unbalanced? Why is one character so emotionally crippled and the other so all-knowing and willing to bear the others' pain for her?

Someone wrote that there is "no lesbian writer on this planet who combines romance and erotica the way Radclyffe does." That's a bit of an overstatement, especially since there really isn't much erotica in the book at all. Suspense, yes. Mood and tone, yes. Romantic angst, definitely. But not erotica. This is tame stuff by those standards. Karin Kallmaker is vastly more skilled as are a number of others.

Still, the book is engaging and will likely be around for quite a while.

This is the type of book you will want to read. I made the mistake of starting it at 2 AM, thinking I would read a few pages before going to sleep. Four hours later I finally finished it. If it had been longer, I never would have gone to sleep. The great thing about this book is that, in a relatively few pages, you actually care about what is happening to these characters. You feel Graham's pain and Anna's confusion and you want them to finally figure each other out. I read this book right behind Jackie Calhoun's Tamarak Creek. What a contrast! At the end of Calhoun's work, I didn't like the characters, much less care about them. With Radcliffe's book, you'll find yourself hoping for a sequel because you won't want to lose these characters. This is the second novel by Radcliffe that I've read and she's been excellent both times. Read this. You'll like it.

Within the walls of a beautifully remote cliff-side villa, the graduate student Anna falls in love with her new enigmatic employer, Graham, who is full of angst and bitterness over her past. It is that past that leaves her playing dark tunes, and so very much alone. Anna manages to draw Graham out of her shell, but only to find that Graham's past will return to haunt her, and the notion of propriety, create an unwanted distance between what they both truly want...

It is the promise of a musically orientated plot, the unraveling of Graham's past, and the expectation of a tormented, drawn out love plot that I purchased this novel. I was not disappointed. Despite its surrealistic tendencies (which may be a deterrent to some-though certainly not me), the plot is engaging and vibrant, and the characters well thought out. Truly, it is one of my favorite works from Radclyffe (and she has written many, many more stories of novel length than has actually been published)-however, the quality of printing has been somewhat unsatisfactory (and is the reason for my retracting a star). The blurb is not finished, and the printing styles within, a bit (but noticeably) unprofessional, making it somewhat of an annoyance.

That having written, if you have not yet experienced Radclyffe's rich imagination through her works, this is a great story in which to start. Safe Harbor, which is more in line with other novels within the niche of lesbian romance (but much more subdued in comparison to this novel in terms of `erotic escapism'), may well be another option.

then this tenderhearted modern Gothick tale of lesbian desire should leave you fairly wrung out--and I mean this as a compliment. For those who are familiar with Radclyffe's writing, this is the least "contemporary"-feeling of her novels (not least because the object of the heroine's desire is a preternaturally gifted--and emotionally crippled--old-timey Romantic creative/performing artist whose spiritual complexity is almost inconceivable). If you can deal with her implausibility (and you should, for the pleasure of sharing her would-be lover's angst), you'll find the book very satisfying.