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Street Song
Cara Matheson had traveled the globe as a free-spirited musician, playing on street corners, dressing like a Gypsy and living the carefree bohemian life she loved. Mitchell Kirby, a wealthy Australian widower, was her complete opposite. A hardworking lawyer, he was ruled by a watch, and his smile was as severe as his pin-striped suit. When they clashed over the way Cara was influencing Holly, Mitchell's daughter, there seemed to be no middle ground - except for the blinding passion that gripped them.
178 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 1986
2 people are currently reading
33 people want to read
About the author
Ann Charlton
41 books15 followersAnn Charlton was born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and now lives in Brisbane. She traces the beginning of her writing to a childhood period when, in trying to avoid nightmares, she began telling herself a story, continued each night. She wanted to be a commercial artist but became a secretary. She wanted to play the piano but plays guitar instead, and she never planned to be a writer. Her professional writing began with a short-story contest. She published her first romance novel in 1984.
Now Ann writes every weekday, interspersed with looking after her family Tennis, sketching, reading, modern music and dancing are other interests. When both daughters have finished high school, Ann looks forward to travel and seeing new places. She would like to do more tapestry work and paint miniatures and has absolutely no plans to research a book in the Amazon or to learn to play the bouzouki. From time to time she abseils, which surprises her because she is afraid of heights.
Now Ann writes every weekday, interspersed with looking after her family Tennis, sketching, reading, modern music and dancing are other interests. When both daughters have finished high school, Ann looks forward to travel and seeing new places. She would like to do more tapestry work and paint miniatures and has absolutely no plans to research a book in the Amazon or to learn to play the bouzouki. From time to time she abseils, which surprises her because she is afraid of heights.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
January 15, 2019
Manic pixie dream girl heroine and buttoned up lawyer hero have insta-lust attraction. That’s the main conflict and trope. The must each change in order to have a happy ending.
Side conflicts are the hero’s teenage daughter, a wannabe OW, the heroine’s two male roommates.
Backstories include hero’s wife’s death and heroine’s live-in lover’s death.
I was loving this story until the last third when the H/h both got cold feet after their engagement. Hero reverted to his stuffy, all-business persona, missing their engagement party to meet a client and then going as far as accusing the heroine opening the cage door of his late wife’s rare birds. The heroine promptly moves to Cairns and never speaks to him again until he calls during a hurricane.
Rather than creating a black moment where true love really conquers all, this just left me wondering if they really were meant to be together. Heroine runs at the first sign of trouble. Hero accuses and goes on offense. Before this they aired their grievances in passive aggressive, public gestures – starting with their first meeting when heroine was busking.
Boogenhagen has all the details in her very thorough review. Don’t get me wrong, there are some lovely lyrical scenes describing some breathtaking scenery, but the ending just bummed me out.
Side conflicts are the hero’s teenage daughter, a wannabe OW, the heroine’s two male roommates.
Backstories include hero’s wife’s death and heroine’s live-in lover’s death.
I was loving this story until the last third when the H/h both got cold feet after their engagement. Hero reverted to his stuffy, all-business persona, missing their engagement party to meet a client and then going as far as accusing the heroine opening the cage door of his late wife’s rare birds. The heroine promptly moves to Cairns and never speaks to him again until he calls during a hurricane.
Rather than creating a black moment where true love really conquers all, this just left me wondering if they really were meant to be together. Heroine runs at the first sign of trouble. Hero accuses and goes on offense. Before this they aired their grievances in passive aggressive, public gestures – starting with their first meeting when heroine was busking.
Boogenhagen has all the details in her very thorough review. Don’t get me wrong, there are some lovely lyrical scenes describing some breathtaking scenery, but the ending just bummed me out.
July 14, 2016
Re Street Song - This one begins and ends with an escalator and a freestyle jazz version of "The Lady is a Tramp" all set in Brisbane, AU with scenic side trips where we will learn about antarctic beech trees - everyone should go google antarctic beech trees and Boobook Owls - cause you will need to know these things for the story and there might be trivia later.
The 25 yr old h is a bohemian flute player who travels along from town to town in a very Gypsy-like fashion. She and one of her roommates go to a local mall on Friday evenings to busk music for extra income (the h is currently a music teacher at a private school,) and while she is there, she notices a very un-bohemian man all buttoned up in a three piece suit and a Superwatch. The h thinks the man is good looking in a Vogue/CG kinda way, but she is more concerned with how tense and focused he looks, for some reason her compassionate heart wants to make him smile.
The h and her roomie are playing music and the h is also on the look out for one of her teenage music students - the girl is currently learning the flute with the h and has the habit of stopping by of an eve to hang out.
The h is a bit concerned about her young student, the young teen is clearly unhappy with her home and her instrument, but the h isn't really sure how much is the usual teen angst and how much is a serious family issue.
The teen has confided that her father is always working and her mum died some years ago in a plane crash, but since she never really wanted kids anyways, the teen isn't sure she minds the loss that much. The h, for all her free spirit ways, is a concerned, involved teacher and hopes to make a better assessment of her student's situation when she meets the girl's father at a music recital she will be playing in and the father is hosting at his large house.
In the meantime, the h is playing crowd requests and then sees the man from the escalator walk by and basically dismiss her as itinerant trash, tho he does leave some cash in the collection bowler. When the h asks him if he has a request, he asks for "The Lady is a Tramp." - the insult being fairly obvious. The h isn't delighted by this put down, but she is happy person at her core and button down prigs never really appealed to her anyways.
The h has a tragic love in her past and the collection bowler is a sentimental reminder of the lover she had when she was 19 in Paris. She won a prestigious flute scholarship offered in France. While there she met her first love and they were very happy for year, then he was hit by a car and died. The h comes from a very bitter home where her parents were fighting so much, they neglected their kids and after seeing the mess her parents are and the seeing her brother go through two nasty divorces, the h isn't really thinking marriage is an option for her. She has no aversion to love, she just wants to be flexible and marriage seems too much of a cage for her.
So the h is bobbling along and getting her musical groove on, when the evening of the big reception at her student's house arrives. She dresses fairly conservatively for her style and when she gets there and is playing, she notices the man from the escalator and the Tramp song is also attending. He doesn't recognize her until she does a Lady is a Tramp riff. Then she finds out that Escalator Prig Boy is also her teen student's father.
He drags the h off for a private conversation and starts interrogating her about her lifestyle and the fact that she shares a flat with two guys (platonically, but the Escalator Boy doesn't seem interested in details.) The h isn't used to wearing high heels, so when her spiked heel gets caught in the flagstones of the garden, she and the H take a bit of a tumble. The passion flares and the h is sure Escalator Boy is going to kiss her, but then the Superwatch beeps and the moment is lost.
Things take a turn for the worse for the h when the H has his daughter removed as her student and also gets her fired. The h goes over to his law office (which is also at the mall where she busks music,) and gives the H a firm talking to - when he calls her itinerant trash, she punches him in the jaw and lets him know how sleazy getting her fired for connecting with his much neglected daughter really was.
Then she leaves the office and considers that good riddance to Escalator Boy, not that he probably registered very much of the h's speech because he was answering faxes, telexes and phones and issuing orders to his secretary the whole time she was there. The punch in the jaw did have a bit of an effect, but it did not keep the Superwatch from beeping or the H from answering the phone for too long.
The h is at home later that evening and we learn a bit about Boobook Owls, the h has a poster of one on the wall of her flat. There is mention that the Boobook's are endangered, but I think AC means the Norfolk Island Boobook not the Southern Boobook that would be common in the Queensland area - Norfolk Island is in the middle of the Pacific ocean between Australia and New Zealand.
(The Norfolk Island Boobook is officially extinct in 2016 - tho they were able to successfully pair the last pure NIB with a Boobook from New Zealand to establish a new sub-line prior to 1996 when the female NIB disappeared. The progeny of that pairing is happily making little houses in hollow trees on Norfolk Island to this very day - and isn't it AMAZING what we all learn in HPlandia!)
So while the discourse on Boobook's is taking place and the h's roommates have their shirts off while one paints and the other is having the h attend to his bleeding wound from where his blind student threw a guitar at him, the H shows up and knocks on the h's door. The h answers it and the H is overcome by the shirtless men and the enigmatic stare of the Boobook. He is also overcome once again by the wild boho look the h favors. The H winds up dragging the h to restaurant, where she makes him eat a meal to prevent ulcerative colitis and he tells her he got her job back for her.
He never meant for her to be fired, but the school's headmaster wanted to be helpful to the powerful persona of the Escalator Boy and decided to curry favor and future recitals by firing the h when the H removed his daughter as her student. The H got her job back, but it will be two weeks before she can start back as there is a locum in place who has a contract.
The H and h talk about the difficulties the H is having with his daughter and the h jokingly suggests that he let his teen shave and spike her hair into a punk style. The H is appalled but the h uses the hair issue as a way to help the H connect with his child. The teen wants to change her appearance cause she is a teen and that is what they do, but the H isn't listening to his kid and it is causing problems.
The H is also constantly with his dead wife's best friend (who wants to be Mrs. Escalator Boy the second,) and the woman is causing more problems with the daughter by treating her as if she was six and had no mind of her own. The H gives half an ear, but isn't really interested and when the arguments erupt again, the h storms off and the H and her wind up passionately kissing in the street. The H takes her home, but the potential for romance is wasted as the H is too busy doing business deals on his car phone.
Then the H's daughter shows up at the h's flat and she has totally punked her hair out, complete with shaved sides and spiked top. It actually looks fairly good on her, but the H is going to flip out, so the h offers Punk girl a ride home and tactfully prepares the H for teen mutiny. He almost tolerates it but when Punk girl gets kicked out of school for two weeks, he blackmails the h into moving in with them to look out for PG and maybe so he can throw a leg over the h a time or two as well.
The h needs a job for a few weeks anyhow, so she moves in and proceeds to introduce the H and Punk Girl to a slower, more involved with people and nature way of life. She takes them to look at the stars and we all go to the rainforest mntn area where there is abseiling and antarctic beeches. (There is mention that the antarctic beeches can't reproduce in the warmer atmosphere of today, since some of the beeches are 12,000 years old, it seems adaptation to warmer climes comes very slowly. Not to worry tho - the trees actually do still reproduce, it just takes a loong time and they only do it in cooler areas - I guess if you live for 12,000 years you can take your time about reproduction.)
The h and H realize that they are falling for each other and after a few passionate kisses, the H decides that they are going to date. He takes the h to a professional dinner (but neglects to tell the h that it is for business and not just a social occasion) and the h dresses very, very bohemian. The H isn't perturbed tho, he just takes the h skinny dipping in his home pool later and then the boudoir bouncing begins. The H and h are happy and the h wryly acknowledges the joke when the H turns up for HER party in full formal tuxedo and cummerbund.
The love affair is on and they both avow true love, but the h begins to realize that she is the one doing all the changing by becoming more restrained and conservative. She does manage to get PG convinced that her mum and dad really wanted her tho and the H seems to be happy about that.
The H's house has a bird aviary where his dead wife raised exotic birds in a cage, the h and the dead wife's parents get into an argument about the merits of caging birds who should be flying free and the h makes her point that why would anybody want to raise these wild birds in captivity to begin with.
This doesn't exactly endear her further to the H and it seems to provoke the wanna be Mrs. E Boy the second into a nasty little verbal spat as well. The h isn't actually bothered by the wanna be OW. She feels sorry for her cause the wanna be OW is so well bred and polite, she just internalizes all her envy and rage against the H's dead wife who was supposed to be her best friend but was really more an frenemie instead. The h thinks it would do the OW good to bust a rage out.
The H convinces the h to marry him and after they argue over the chandelier the H wants the h to have vs the simple sapphire the h wants, (the h wins that round, but the H never heard of padparadscha sapphires or the h would be flaunting that around,) and the h's friend's all chip in to throw an engagement party.
Which the H blows off to go flatter a big client. When the h takes him to task for missing the activities that are important to her, the H tells her that his client is IMPORTANT, which implies that the h's life and friend's are not. Then Tacky Escalator Boy shows up at the h's flat the next morning (and never showed at the party,) and accuses the h of letting all the birds out of their cage at his house.
The dead wife's favorite bird is missing and Punk girl is distraught. The h denies the accusation but the H isn't listening, he is just ranting a lot about how important his stuff is and her stuff is trivial and she is also petty to boot, cause she let innocent birds out to get eaten by cats in an effort to make a statement.
The h gets her turn to rant about how she is doing all the compromising and how he is making no efforts to adapt to her habits at all and SHE did not let the birds out, she has more respect for private property.
Then the H's big client calls HER home phone looking for the H and the h tells the client to call the H in his car. She hands the H back his ring and kicks his Tacky Escalator Behind out permanently. Then she takes off for the beach at Cairns.
A few months go by and the h is really sad, sadder than when she lost her first love to death and she hopes the H can learn to compromise, but admits it isn't likely. The h also gets a Christmas letter from Punk girl, it turns out that wanna be OW let the birds out in an act of rebellion against the dead wife and then took a better job with travel in Melbourne and dumps the H cause she really did not want him anyways.
Back in Cairns, cyclone stroms are a brewin' and the h and her new flatmates are having a cyclone bathroom party when the H calls. The line is very bad but the H hints that he is sorta sorry and is coming to find her. The h tells him she will go to him and hops a coach to go back to Brisbane.
When she gets back, the h is told the H is out of town on business and the h realizes the H did not mean anything after all. Then the H's business partner runs into her at the mall where she and the old roommate are busking and he tells her the H is looking for her. The h is on the escalator, trying to find a free phone to call the H when she sees him going on the down side while she is going up. They have a shouted conversation about how much they love each other and then when they switch sides, the H asks her to go tramp around Greece with him for a honeymoon. The h says yes and the H jumps the escalator to the h's side and they wander off to HEA bliss to the tune of " The Lady is a Tramp" and we also find out that Punk girl leaves the bird aviary door open, and her mum's favorite bird comes back every night for dinner but still roams around free during the day.
This one was good, and had lots of interesting things happen. Tho the book lost points for major H tackiness by dissing his engagement party too close to the end of the story and the H never once really said he was sorry.
I liked this one, the h had a backbone and was not TSTL. AC did a good job of balancing two very different people, but she left a little smidgen of HEA doubt cause we have no idear if the H meant it when he said he would compromise with the h's way of life as opposed to his and the story ends before we can really see a difference in his behavior. That lack brings this down to a good but not great read, still it is worth the effort if you find it.
The 25 yr old h is a bohemian flute player who travels along from town to town in a very Gypsy-like fashion. She and one of her roommates go to a local mall on Friday evenings to busk music for extra income (the h is currently a music teacher at a private school,) and while she is there, she notices a very un-bohemian man all buttoned up in a three piece suit and a Superwatch. The h thinks the man is good looking in a Vogue/CG kinda way, but she is more concerned with how tense and focused he looks, for some reason her compassionate heart wants to make him smile.
The h and her roomie are playing music and the h is also on the look out for one of her teenage music students - the girl is currently learning the flute with the h and has the habit of stopping by of an eve to hang out.
The h is a bit concerned about her young student, the young teen is clearly unhappy with her home and her instrument, but the h isn't really sure how much is the usual teen angst and how much is a serious family issue.
The teen has confided that her father is always working and her mum died some years ago in a plane crash, but since she never really wanted kids anyways, the teen isn't sure she minds the loss that much. The h, for all her free spirit ways, is a concerned, involved teacher and hopes to make a better assessment of her student's situation when she meets the girl's father at a music recital she will be playing in and the father is hosting at his large house.
In the meantime, the h is playing crowd requests and then sees the man from the escalator walk by and basically dismiss her as itinerant trash, tho he does leave some cash in the collection bowler. When the h asks him if he has a request, he asks for "The Lady is a Tramp." - the insult being fairly obvious. The h isn't delighted by this put down, but she is happy person at her core and button down prigs never really appealed to her anyways.
The h has a tragic love in her past and the collection bowler is a sentimental reminder of the lover she had when she was 19 in Paris. She won a prestigious flute scholarship offered in France. While there she met her first love and they were very happy for year, then he was hit by a car and died. The h comes from a very bitter home where her parents were fighting so much, they neglected their kids and after seeing the mess her parents are and the seeing her brother go through two nasty divorces, the h isn't really thinking marriage is an option for her. She has no aversion to love, she just wants to be flexible and marriage seems too much of a cage for her.
So the h is bobbling along and getting her musical groove on, when the evening of the big reception at her student's house arrives. She dresses fairly conservatively for her style and when she gets there and is playing, she notices the man from the escalator and the Tramp song is also attending. He doesn't recognize her until she does a Lady is a Tramp riff. Then she finds out that Escalator Prig Boy is also her teen student's father.
He drags the h off for a private conversation and starts interrogating her about her lifestyle and the fact that she shares a flat with two guys (platonically, but the Escalator Boy doesn't seem interested in details.) The h isn't used to wearing high heels, so when her spiked heel gets caught in the flagstones of the garden, she and the H take a bit of a tumble. The passion flares and the h is sure Escalator Boy is going to kiss her, but then the Superwatch beeps and the moment is lost.
Things take a turn for the worse for the h when the H has his daughter removed as her student and also gets her fired. The h goes over to his law office (which is also at the mall where she busks music,) and gives the H a firm talking to - when he calls her itinerant trash, she punches him in the jaw and lets him know how sleazy getting her fired for connecting with his much neglected daughter really was.
Then she leaves the office and considers that good riddance to Escalator Boy, not that he probably registered very much of the h's speech because he was answering faxes, telexes and phones and issuing orders to his secretary the whole time she was there. The punch in the jaw did have a bit of an effect, but it did not keep the Superwatch from beeping or the H from answering the phone for too long.
The h is at home later that evening and we learn a bit about Boobook Owls, the h has a poster of one on the wall of her flat. There is mention that the Boobook's are endangered, but I think AC means the Norfolk Island Boobook not the Southern Boobook that would be common in the Queensland area - Norfolk Island is in the middle of the Pacific ocean between Australia and New Zealand.
(The Norfolk Island Boobook is officially extinct in 2016 - tho they were able to successfully pair the last pure NIB with a Boobook from New Zealand to establish a new sub-line prior to 1996 when the female NIB disappeared. The progeny of that pairing is happily making little houses in hollow trees on Norfolk Island to this very day - and isn't it AMAZING what we all learn in HPlandia!)
So while the discourse on Boobook's is taking place and the h's roommates have their shirts off while one paints and the other is having the h attend to his bleeding wound from where his blind student threw a guitar at him, the H shows up and knocks on the h's door. The h answers it and the H is overcome by the shirtless men and the enigmatic stare of the Boobook. He is also overcome once again by the wild boho look the h favors. The H winds up dragging the h to restaurant, where she makes him eat a meal to prevent ulcerative colitis and he tells her he got her job back for her.
He never meant for her to be fired, but the school's headmaster wanted to be helpful to the powerful persona of the Escalator Boy and decided to curry favor and future recitals by firing the h when the H removed his daughter as her student. The H got her job back, but it will be two weeks before she can start back as there is a locum in place who has a contract.
The H and h talk about the difficulties the H is having with his daughter and the h jokingly suggests that he let his teen shave and spike her hair into a punk style. The H is appalled but the h uses the hair issue as a way to help the H connect with his child. The teen wants to change her appearance cause she is a teen and that is what they do, but the H isn't listening to his kid and it is causing problems.
The H is also constantly with his dead wife's best friend (who wants to be Mrs. Escalator Boy the second,) and the woman is causing more problems with the daughter by treating her as if she was six and had no mind of her own. The H gives half an ear, but isn't really interested and when the arguments erupt again, the h storms off and the H and her wind up passionately kissing in the street. The H takes her home, but the potential for romance is wasted as the H is too busy doing business deals on his car phone.
Then the H's daughter shows up at the h's flat and she has totally punked her hair out, complete with shaved sides and spiked top. It actually looks fairly good on her, but the H is going to flip out, so the h offers Punk girl a ride home and tactfully prepares the H for teen mutiny. He almost tolerates it but when Punk girl gets kicked out of school for two weeks, he blackmails the h into moving in with them to look out for PG and maybe so he can throw a leg over the h a time or two as well.
The h needs a job for a few weeks anyhow, so she moves in and proceeds to introduce the H and Punk Girl to a slower, more involved with people and nature way of life. She takes them to look at the stars and we all go to the rainforest mntn area where there is abseiling and antarctic beeches. (There is mention that the antarctic beeches can't reproduce in the warmer atmosphere of today, since some of the beeches are 12,000 years old, it seems adaptation to warmer climes comes very slowly. Not to worry tho - the trees actually do still reproduce, it just takes a loong time and they only do it in cooler areas - I guess if you live for 12,000 years you can take your time about reproduction.)
The h and H realize that they are falling for each other and after a few passionate kisses, the H decides that they are going to date. He takes the h to a professional dinner (but neglects to tell the h that it is for business and not just a social occasion) and the h dresses very, very bohemian. The H isn't perturbed tho, he just takes the h skinny dipping in his home pool later and then the boudoir bouncing begins. The H and h are happy and the h wryly acknowledges the joke when the H turns up for HER party in full formal tuxedo and cummerbund.
The love affair is on and they both avow true love, but the h begins to realize that she is the one doing all the changing by becoming more restrained and conservative. She does manage to get PG convinced that her mum and dad really wanted her tho and the H seems to be happy about that.
The H's house has a bird aviary where his dead wife raised exotic birds in a cage, the h and the dead wife's parents get into an argument about the merits of caging birds who should be flying free and the h makes her point that why would anybody want to raise these wild birds in captivity to begin with.
This doesn't exactly endear her further to the H and it seems to provoke the wanna be Mrs. E Boy the second into a nasty little verbal spat as well. The h isn't actually bothered by the wanna be OW. She feels sorry for her cause the wanna be OW is so well bred and polite, she just internalizes all her envy and rage against the H's dead wife who was supposed to be her best friend but was really more an frenemie instead. The h thinks it would do the OW good to bust a rage out.
The H convinces the h to marry him and after they argue over the chandelier the H wants the h to have vs the simple sapphire the h wants, (the h wins that round, but the H never heard of padparadscha sapphires or the h would be flaunting that around,) and the h's friend's all chip in to throw an engagement party.
Which the H blows off to go flatter a big client. When the h takes him to task for missing the activities that are important to her, the H tells her that his client is IMPORTANT, which implies that the h's life and friend's are not. Then Tacky Escalator Boy shows up at the h's flat the next morning (and never showed at the party,) and accuses the h of letting all the birds out of their cage at his house.
The dead wife's favorite bird is missing and Punk girl is distraught. The h denies the accusation but the H isn't listening, he is just ranting a lot about how important his stuff is and her stuff is trivial and she is also petty to boot, cause she let innocent birds out to get eaten by cats in an effort to make a statement.
The h gets her turn to rant about how she is doing all the compromising and how he is making no efforts to adapt to her habits at all and SHE did not let the birds out, she has more respect for private property.
Then the H's big client calls HER home phone looking for the H and the h tells the client to call the H in his car. She hands the H back his ring and kicks his Tacky Escalator Behind out permanently. Then she takes off for the beach at Cairns.
A few months go by and the h is really sad, sadder than when she lost her first love to death and she hopes the H can learn to compromise, but admits it isn't likely. The h also gets a Christmas letter from Punk girl, it turns out that wanna be OW let the birds out in an act of rebellion against the dead wife and then took a better job with travel in Melbourne and dumps the H cause she really did not want him anyways.
Back in Cairns, cyclone stroms are a brewin' and the h and her new flatmates are having a cyclone bathroom party when the H calls. The line is very bad but the H hints that he is sorta sorry and is coming to find her. The h tells him she will go to him and hops a coach to go back to Brisbane.
When she gets back, the h is told the H is out of town on business and the h realizes the H did not mean anything after all. Then the H's business partner runs into her at the mall where she and the old roommate are busking and he tells her the H is looking for her. The h is on the escalator, trying to find a free phone to call the H when she sees him going on the down side while she is going up. They have a shouted conversation about how much they love each other and then when they switch sides, the H asks her to go tramp around Greece with him for a honeymoon. The h says yes and the H jumps the escalator to the h's side and they wander off to HEA bliss to the tune of " The Lady is a Tramp" and we also find out that Punk girl leaves the bird aviary door open, and her mum's favorite bird comes back every night for dinner but still roams around free during the day.
This one was good, and had lots of interesting things happen. Tho the book lost points for major H tackiness by dissing his engagement party too close to the end of the story and the H never once really said he was sorry.
I liked this one, the h had a backbone and was not TSTL. AC did a good job of balancing two very different people, but she left a little smidgen of HEA doubt cause we have no idear if the H meant it when he said he would compromise with the h's way of life as opposed to his and the story ends before we can really see a difference in his behavior. That lack brings this down to a good but not great read, still it is worth the effort if you find it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 8, 2022
The cover is by Tony Meers and I especially like the small figures in the foreground. All vintage romance covers are interesting in and of themselves but this isn't my favorite era of HP covers. There seems to have been a concerted attempt on the part of the art directors to corral every artist into the same style. Definitely not the individual artist's fault...
A re-read. It still suited my preferences and is still worth 4 stars.
Street Song is a classic opposites attract tale where the fundamental incompatibility of lifestyles and personalities seems irreconcilable. Mitch is a corporate lawyer, father to a 13 yr old daughter, apparently enjoying that stick stuck somewhere about his person. Cara at twenty-five is an accomplished flautist and music teacher, she moonlights as a busker for the fun of it, has had a past lover(s) and is a world traveler.
The relatability of the MCs is carefully calibrated here. The fluidity of Cara's boho living and working arrangements would, IRL, be undesirably stressful to many readers, it definitely is to hero Mitch. Usually Harleyland encourages aspirations closer to his more conventionally successful lifestyle yet here the story seems to take Cara's side without judgement and indicates it's Mitch who needs to change. His workaholism has damaged his relationship with his daughter and is bad for his health.
Great I think, now tell me what's wrong with her, because it's got to be something. And author please please don't imply it's that she's had a prior lover—you know—a flaw oh so easily fixed by prissy recriminations and some restorative slut-shaming. Whew! after a few snidely ambiguous remarks, requesting she play "The Lady is a Tramp", he doesn't actually care about that. No, apparently the problem is her nomadic travels which may make her an interesting companion but according to Mitch also just prove she's a coward and a quitter. Cowardice can be cured by marriage and babies says Mitch; "A Trap" claims Cara.
Mitch has both the weight of history and over 1000 Harlequin Presents on his side so Cara eventually makes most of the obvious changes and she's soon pretty irritated. She isn't wrong when she says her compromises seem inversely proportional to Mitch's and oddly one of my favorite things about Street Song is that this tension is never fully resolved. It's telling that the trip Mitch dangles at Cara to show he's totally willing to loosen up and engage with some of her activities is offered as a honeymoon, practically a metonym for a time separate from real life. And what sort of compromise is that? Even a churl, or an HP hero is willing to set aside some Big Shot time for some uninterrupted banging.
The symmetry of action and reaction, wrong conclusions and ill-judged party outfits isn't subtle and neither is the caged bird symbolism—it's like an O. Henry story given the Harley treatment. But AC is very good with both funny bantering scenes and showing the moment where withering rejoinders begin to develop a mean edge. And thinking about the HEA, it's not their love I doubt, but this will be a marriage where they coast along on great sex and daily life till the H gets too busy and full of his own importance again and there'll be a blowup and the relationship will need to be taken into the shop for a re-alignment. Probably often, but I welcome the complexity, real life with some HP glitter thrown at it is angsty enough for me.
A re-read. It still suited my preferences and is still worth 4 stars.
Street Song is a classic opposites attract tale where the fundamental incompatibility of lifestyles and personalities seems irreconcilable. Mitch is a corporate lawyer, father to a 13 yr old daughter, apparently enjoying that stick stuck somewhere about his person. Cara at twenty-five is an accomplished flautist and music teacher, she moonlights as a busker for the fun of it, has had a past lover(s) and is a world traveler.
The relatability of the MCs is carefully calibrated here. The fluidity of Cara's boho living and working arrangements would, IRL, be undesirably stressful to many readers, it definitely is to hero Mitch. Usually Harleyland encourages aspirations closer to his more conventionally successful lifestyle yet here the story seems to take Cara's side without judgement and indicates it's Mitch who needs to change. His workaholism has damaged his relationship with his daughter and is bad for his health.
Great I think, now tell me what's wrong with her, because it's got to be something. And author please please don't imply it's that she's had a prior lover—you know—a flaw oh so easily fixed by prissy recriminations and some restorative slut-shaming. Whew! after a few snidely ambiguous remarks, requesting she play "The Lady is a Tramp", he doesn't actually care about that. No, apparently the problem is her nomadic travels which may make her an interesting companion but according to Mitch also just prove she's a coward and a quitter. Cowardice can be cured by marriage and babies says Mitch; "A Trap" claims Cara.
Mitch has both the weight of history and over 1000 Harlequin Presents on his side so Cara eventually makes most of the obvious changes and she's soon pretty irritated. She isn't wrong when she says her compromises seem inversely proportional to Mitch's and oddly one of my favorite things about Street Song is that this tension is never fully resolved. It's telling that the trip Mitch dangles at Cara to show he's totally willing to loosen up and engage with some of her activities is offered as a honeymoon, practically a metonym for a time separate from real life. And what sort of compromise is that? Even a churl, or an HP hero is willing to set aside some Big Shot time for some uninterrupted banging.
The symmetry of action and reaction, wrong conclusions and ill-judged party outfits isn't subtle and neither is the caged bird symbolism—it's like an O. Henry story given the Harley treatment. But AC is very good with both funny bantering scenes and showing the moment where withering rejoinders begin to develop a mean edge. And thinking about the HEA, it's not their love I doubt, but this will be a marriage where they coast along on great sex and daily life till the H gets too busy and full of his own importance again and there'll be a blowup and the relationship will need to be taken into the shop for a re-alignment. Probably often, but I welcome the complexity, real life with some HP glitter thrown at it is angsty enough for me.
January 16, 2018
Not my usual kind of favorite angst-fest, but has strong writing and characterizations instead. My long review here: https://wp.me/p44h5c-UO
June 18, 2023
This h, Cara, was so wonderfully likeable. I found myself smiling and laughing at her zest for life and humour. Her Superwatch commentary was on point (as anyone whose significant other is a workaholic with a smartphone will attest). The dialogue with the H, snowed-under, conservatively-inclined, work-focussed lawyer Mitch, was often refreshingly sharp. I liked the relationship with his 13 year old daughter, Holly, and also the colourful menagerie of free spirits she had in her very wide, much-travelled circle. Contrast with the colourful but not free aviary of gorgeous birds the H had in his luscious sounding home and garden. Cara herself does not seem to make much of the luxury of Mitchell's life, but it all has to be paid for by hard work and some limits on personal freedom, as does raising a child. And so we have the eternal boho vs metro-boulot-dodo clash. One that bedevils many of us as we grapple with how to live this one, short, precious life. Love, especially the addictive sort that has high octane sex content, is generally thought to be worth the sacrifices. I hope it works out for these two and that they keep communicating. There are worse sacrifices and worse places to end up than married to a wealthy, smitten sex God workaholic but I'm guessing she'll be making most of the lifestyle changes. If they have kids, she is really going to feel it. There'll be trouble ahead, but then there'd be different trouble if they went their separate ways. That's life. Entertaining and perspicacious read.
March 12, 2019
Kind of an unusual story- a free-spirited musical woman and a straight-laced serious lawyer try to form a relationship, but the compromises are all on one side. The ending was predictable, but the story flowed in & out and the interactions between the two kept me involved in the story.
November 2, 2011
I was pleasantly surprised to read, not a formula M&B , but a real book with a good plot and a convincing characters.A good comfy read.
January 3, 2025
I really enjoyed this story. This relationship will not be easy but it will be satisfying! These characters are the epitome of 'opposites attract' but being together will ensure that they both live their best life! More security and responsibilities for the heroine (not too much) and living life to the fullest for the Hero. They are perfect together!
4.5
4.5
December 19, 2025
Really enjoyed this one. A very realistic love story about two people falling in love and learning to compromise and adjust to make it work.
June 14, 2010
A beautiful story.
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