I’ve always wanted to be able to sing in such a manner that people smile instead of groan. But my vocal cords don’t cooperate with the right chords. Because of that disconnect, stories about singers draw me in. But it takes a strong melody to keep me there.

This book delivers.

If any book needs an accompanying soundtrack, this is it. We need to hear the Mock Kings greatest hits, Isaiah’s gospel album, and the song Isaiah writes for Raven. All of these songs are part of the unchained melody that works its way through the pages.

Or maybe we don’t. Perhaps each of us already hears tunes in our hearts that play along with the words and they’re all different, but all perfectly in sync with this delightful tale.

Raven’s dreams and ambitions are tied up in the Candlewick Lodge and its converted barn, the Eyrie. She loves managing the place and making the visitors feel special. This potentially historical site, dating to the 1800s, has been in the Faulkner family for generations. As the story begins, a huge storm threatens. The family bell, a harbinger of sorts, rings four times. While Raven is investigating, a tree limb crashes through her stained-glass bedroom window. Now she has lodge repairs to deal with and two guests arriving tomorrow. Fortunately, the Eyrie was undamaged and they can stay there.

Isaiah has been trying to start a new life since he left the Mock Kings. While he enjoyed singing for a living, he just didn’t find his life as a rock star compatible with his faith. But since nothing else has been working, he’s decided to take a retreat of his own making at the Candlewick. Of course, you know from the moment he sets foot on the property that he and Raven (his biggest fan—including a poster of him on her wall) are meant to be a couple. They just have to negotiate their relationship in the shadow of unscrupulous businessmen and botched roof repairs, retiring grandparents and well-meaning relatives, and floundering careers and ambitions.

Piece of cake.

Each struggle, each trial forces the two of them to be more honest about their faith and the growing chemistry singing between the two of them.

As the melody of the song goes, you know it will wrap up with a sigh. Even so, like the best of songs, it is one you want to hear again and again.

Buy it Friday! https://www.amazon.com/Unchained-Melody-Candlewick-Lodge-Revell-ebook/dp/B0DW8Z8Q4Y/ref=sr_1_1? or https://pelicanbookgroup.com/ec/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=37_46&products_id=1714

Back cover copy: Candlewick Lodge is the only home Raven Faulkner has ever known—one her family has run since 1820. When the bell—which according to legend, rings to warn of danger—chimes just before a tree falls on the lodge, Raven tells herself it’s a coincidence. Just as well, because Raven doesn’t have time to decipher supernatural messages. Her biggest worry is keeping her family’s legacy alive.

Fame and fortune are not all they’re cracked up to be. Just as well, after Isaiah Beringer’s meteoric music career nosedives. He’s sure God wants him on the mission field, but every mission society he’s applied to thinks otherwise. Needing someplace secluded and peaceful to lick his wounds and figure out what God wants of him, he books into Candlewick. The problem? The woman who runs the lodge turns out to be his biggest fan.

Rising repair costs and failing health make the future uncertain. Unless Raven and Isaiah can work together to write a new ending to the unchained melody of the Lodge.

Bio: Clare Revell is a British author of dozens of books. (I counted 84 on her website, but I could be off by a couple.) She lives in a small town just outside Reading, England with her husband, whom she married in 1992, their three grown-up offspring, Tilly the black cat, who is now 11, and Ty the black collie cross huntaway, who thinks he’s a lab and honestly looks like one. Follow her blog at https://telscha.blogspot.com/ to learn more about her work and those of her fellow authors.