The Perfect Love Song

The Perfect Love Song: A Holiday Story by Patti Callahan Henry

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I was very disappointed. I struggled through the first chapter, flipped through the rest of the book to see if the disjointed writing and over dramatic voice continues through the story - it does - so I dropped it. I don't even know how to clearly explain my aversion - maybe it was that the first two pages of the story throw twenty characters at you, and then you're supposed to keep who's who straight. Maybe it was the cheesy, melodramatic writing. Or maybe it was that the story wasn't making any sense at all, and the story had no ability to establish credibility for me. All I know is that I was very very disappointed.

Synopsis: Jimmy Sullivan has been living on the road with his brother, Jack, and his band The Unknown Souls. Without a place to call home, Jimmy and Jack lead a nomadic life filled with music and anonymous cities. When they return to a place Jimmy never wants to see again—their old hometown of Seaboro, South Carolina—he falls in love with Charlotte Carrington.

With his soul now filled with hope, Jimmy writes his first love song. When he performs it at a holiday concert to a standing ovation, the lyrics are dubbed the “Perfect Love Song,” so much so that Jimmy finds himself going on tour with famous country music stars, catapulted into a world where the trappings of fame and fortune reign supreme.

All too soon, the hope that had once inspired Jimmy to write such beautiful, genuine lyrics is overshadowed by what the song can do for him and his career. In his thirst for recognition, he agrees to miss Jack’s wedding in Ireland to sing at a Christmas Eve concert. And his ties to Charlotte seem to be ever so quickly slipping away.

Alone in New York City on Christmas Eve, Jimmy finally sees—with the help of a Christmas miracle or two—that his material gains are nothing compared to love, that he is losing all that really matters in his life. Is it too late to find his way to Ireland, to his brother, and to love?

Recommended Reading:
The Art of Keeping Secrets by Patti Callahan Henry
Losing the Moon by Patti Callahan Henry
Promise Me by Richard Paul Evans
The Storyteller of Marrakesh by Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya
Under Fishbone Clouds by Sam Meekings