Magic Flute: A Novel

by Patricia Minger

Liz Morgan is a talented, ambitious flutist headed for a brilliant career. But before she can achieve the world-class recognition she craves, an accident puts an end to her dreams. Desperate to fulfill her mother’s musical legacy, she fights to reinvent her path, and settles on a new passion: singing. She even leaves San Francisco and returns to the town in Wales where she spent her early childhood to do it. But as Liz works to perfect her voice and launch a new career, she is confronted with her mother’s other legacy: the choice between the seduction of fame and the constancy of an ordinary life.


Magic Flute is an intimate exploration of the world of grand opera. Amid the backstage detail is a story of passions and choices that explores the humanity behind the most dramatic of art forms.

370 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 30, 2025

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This falls somewhere around 3 1/2 stars for me, but I’m rounding up because I enjoyed traipsing through operettas and operas throughout the protagonist’s journey from instrumentalist to vocalist. As an instrumentalist,I feel a little defensive of vocal work being portrayed as superior emotional expression, but to each their own. (It may be worth mentioning that I met this author while singing in a casual choir together in a literary convention setting, lol!)

I found Liz to be - at times - a frustrating protagonist because she was incredibly bullheaded. Granted, this was her strength that allowed her to achieve her revised dream. But when it came to personal relationships (with her lover, her cousin, her friend) I found myself irritated that she seemed to hunker down in her opinions rather than listen to their sides of the conversation. But you know, people aren’t perfect, and that’s kind of the point.

[Miriam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised; Magic Flute is superb and quite addictive. A wonderful romantic story with lots of musical detail and well-developed characters. A lovely and fitting ending.

[Bonnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magic Flute is a marvelous story of a young woman's journey to find her voice - her singing voice, after a life changing accident. Her journey takes you through the worlds of Gilbert and Sullivan and high opera in the vivid backdrop of Wales. I couldn't put the book down. I am hoping for a prequel and a sequel as I am already missing the main characters! You will not be sorry you've read this book and I know you will be telling your friends about this debut novel!

[Judith Shadford · Rating 4 out of 5]

This truly is first-rate and I'm saddened that among the few reviews, only Kirkus carries independent (of sales) significance. Fascinating to read a book where there is a single point of view: the damaged, difficult Liz Morgan is a straight-on chronological narration. I'm so used to holding a half dozen POVs in my head that this was sort of a novelty.

Superb flautist in music school in San Francisco, Liz has her left hand crushed in an auto collision. Despite multiple surgeries and time, she will never play her flute again. Thus begins the braided conflict of tragedy, pain, loss of identity and a massive ego that sends her into singing, in Wales, first for an amateur Gilbert & Sullivan production, and finally...well, it's not really a spoiler to say her singing becomes a mighty force. Throughout, however, Minger manages to describe in minute detail the process of a singer learning to breathe, move, control nerves, heartbreak, all the elements of everyone's psyche, in a highly readable, emotional story. Liz, consistently blurting out thoughtless, hurtful reactions, is her own worst enemy and yet, the reader--this one anyhow--cares! Wants her to reel it in.

Maybe that's the story--taking an extraordinary gift and bringing it into balance and maturity.

[Bev · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a first book for Minger, who is a wonderful writer. Her descriptive passages make me long to write like that, she gives a master class in how to develop an operatic career, she teaches what goes on behind the scenes of a production, she dissects one of my favorite operettas, Yeomen of the Guard, and her description of travels around Scotland are gorgeous.

BUT, she has created the most annoying heroine since the girl in "Fifty Shades of Gray."

Liz is on her way to becoming a great flautist when an auto accident destroys her hand, and her dreams. After a lengthy, determined period of physical therapy when she finally has to accept that she will never play the flute again. She sinks into depression and decides to take a trip to visit relatives in Wales. She begins to find a life there, gets the chance to sing in a local production of a Gilbert & Sullivan operetta and discovers that she has the voice her professional singer mother had. She learns to love her voice as a replacement for the flute and begins to study to become a world class operatic singer. However, along the way her decisions made on lack of self esteem began to get very frustrating. She will settle for nothing less than being the best, and so makes and destroys friendships, makes and destroys relationships, and often seems to be her own worst enemy.

I enjoyed this book very much but there were times when I wanted to leap into its pages and shake some sense into the girl. The ending, however, was logical and beautiful

[Kathleen Herb · Rating 4 out of 5]

This appealed to me both because I play flute, and because I’m working on a flute performance degree in my retirement). It’s about a young woman who is working on her degree in flute until she is in a car accident which severs nerves and muscles in her hand, making it impossible to play. She first despairs, then decides to study voice. She goes to Cornwall (where her parents are originally from), in order to study, and of course she falls in love. While she has a rather too-quick rise in her career, it really does show the all encompassing world of music, where daily practice supersedes most other activities, and sacrifices have to be made. I also love the setting of Cornwall (never miss Doc Martin or Poldark!) and love the sprinkling of Welsh Gaelic throughout the book.

[Zanna Knight · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. Author really gets inside the heads of her characters. She has walked the walk and talked the talk in the music world, and her writing is compelling. It's a great read! I highly recommend it.

[Sarah Vardigans · Rating 4 out of 5]

A most enjoyable vacation read - the story is somewhat predictable, but the book is hard to put down. An excellent foray into the behind-the-scenes world of a young classical musician, and a great love story.

[Marcia Mabee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Any reader is easily drawn into this well-written novel about the career and life challenges of an appealing, but flawed, young woman. But for me, a classical music lover who studied flute playing early in life and whose husband pursued a performance career in flute, this book was an unremitting joy. I read it while vacationing in Costa Rica, but even after dazzling, strenuous days immersed in jungle and cloud forests, I couldn’t wait to pick up the book again to see what the central character would do next. The descriptions of physical labor and sensation to produce beautiful, swelling vocal sound were palpable – every time. Not a small feat of writing. The detailed descriptions of stage production, back stage preparations, and the experience of actual performance before an audience were fascinating. Only a true singer and performer could have written this book and I am grateful to her for doing it.

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this book from NetGalley and SparkPress (a BookSparks imprint) in exchange for a review.

The principal character Liz, refuses to accept ordinary. She must excel, she must have the center and the limelight and herein lies the book's largest failure. Her character lacks depth and humanity. The plot circles around and around and runs into itself. I kept wondering what point was being made and if it was worth all the words and pages. The language and use of Welsh phrases added nothing and was unnatural and cloying. The author uses the word "fatuous" on more than one occasion and unfortunately it seeped into my consciousness as an apt description of much of the book.

I love music and I believe the book had promise but this is a perfect example of an editor who should have been more critical and perhaps it would have rendered a more coherent book.

[Megan Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fabulous! It sucks you in, makes you think, makes you wonder and helps you make decisions.

[Jaime Robles · Rating 2 out of 5]

Your typical workshop crafted novel. About a young flautist who loses neuromotor control of one of her hands in an accident. Her ambition, which is formidable, leads her to take up singing. There are some interesting portrayals of rehearsal that give insight into the world of performance. Otherwise rather bland and predictable.