Review: My Heart & Soul by Melody Sweet

My Heart & Soul (Lyrics of Love #11)
by Melody Sweet

My Rating: 3 stars

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Age Category: New Adult
Type of romance: MF

Blurb:
She left without a goodbye. He’s moved on with a new life. When they’re forced on a road trip together, can long-lost lovers rekindle what was broken years before?

Charlie:
I never thought I’d get to see Nixon again. But there he is. The love of my life.
I’ve never gotten over our magical summer together. The moment we took our relationship from friendship to romance.
But then I had to leave him.
I can never tell him why, and I wonder if he’ll ever forgive me.

That’s why we have to do this road trip together.
I have to make amends for disappearing on him.
I want to make him understand that I never meant to hurt him.
Being around him is the most natural thing in the world. My heart is blossoming again.
Could this be our second chance?

Nixon:
Charlie—the girl I fell in love with in high school. The one who broke my heart.
I should have said no to this road trip, but I couldn’t refuse her.
She’s color. She’s light. She’s happiness.

But I have a girlfriend. I’ve moved on with my life.
So why is my heart yearning for what I shouldn’t have?
She left me without a word! She’s a total flight risk.
But she’s awakening my heart again, and I can’t deny the fact I’m trapped in a safe, boring life I don’t really want.

Will letting go of what I have be worth the risk? Or will I get burned again by the girl who nearly ruined me?

My Heart & Soul is a standalone novel in the Lyrics of Love sweet contemporary romance series. If you like stories filled with flirty-fun, heart-stealing romance and best friends who were made for each other, then you’ll adore Melody Sweet’s moving novel.

PLEASE NOTE:
This book was previously published as Rather Be by Melissa Pearl. It has been rewritten and re-edited to this sweet romance edition. Enjoy!

My Review

I received a free copy of this book from the author and voluntarily reviewed it.

My Heart & Soul is the last full length book in this series and I was excited to start this one. Unfortunately this one didn’t quite work for me, but there were some great parts. I especially enjoyed all the cameo appearances and mentions of previous couples, I think everyone makes an appearance or gets mentioned in this book, which was fun. Although it did make me wonder why some couples where there at a certain moment, it was just a fun way to see everyone one more time. And we get to see how some of them are doing now or how their lives continues, which was great.

My Heart & Soul is Charlie and Dixon’s story. They used to be best friends in high school, then the summer after high school they become a couple, until Charlie left without a word. Now four years later they bump into one another in New York during a snowstorms. Instead of waiting for planes to start up again to fly them home, they decide on an impromptu road trip for old time’s sake, but neither of them has forgotten the other and their feelings that were never really gone surface again.

I liked the set-up and idea of this story. It’s a friend to lovers romance they had and now it’s more of a second chance feel mixed with opposites attracts. It’s obvious they were close, but I felt like I didn’t see as much of that closeness as their current situation and that Charlie left was between them. I wanted to see more of them falling in love or falling again and some of those happy romantic moments. There are some great moments where they let go and just be together and you see how close they are, but a lot of the book has a more angsty sad tone. I just didn’t fully feel the romance unfortunately.

The story also has a trope I don’t like, namely Dixon having a new girlfriend. I didn’t really feel his love for her and she felt like a plot device. I never fully felt why Dixon stayed with her or how convinced he was that he was doing the right thing. It was clear what his decision would be and to me it seemed like that got just dragged out till the end. Or maybe I am just impatient. The road to their happy ending just felt like a sad struggle. Both characters were hurting, both were unhappy and it just goes on until pretty late in the book. When things do get resolved it was great and I liked seeing Dixon finally stand up for what he wanted.

The epilogue was awesome and in that chapter I really felt their romance. Seeing how they were together with nothing in between them, making their dreams come through. It was beautiful and I liked the way it wrapped up the story.

I liked Charlie, she was such a bright and unique character. From her bright hair to how she was just so clearly herself and who she was meant to be. I liked her passion for photography and how she believed in chasing your dreams. I didn’t really like how she left Dixon, but it did make kinda sense why when we find out the whole story. I just wished they had fought for what they had, back then or somewhere in between. I had a harder time liking Dixon, I just didn’t get as good of a feel for his personality and most of the book he just went along with what other wanted and that made it hard to feel what he wanted and cared about except for making others happy. I do think his character felt realistic with the way he almost got stuck in a life he didn’t like, but I just would’ve liked to get a better feel for his struggle and what he went through.

To summarize: I am sad this series is almost over, but it was fun to get cameo appearances of almost everyone in this book. My Heart and & Soul didn’t fully work for me as I struggled feeling the romance until the epilogue. There is a lot of hurt and sadness and struggle before they make things work, but my biggest issue was that I couldn’t really feel the romance. And I didn’t really feel Dixons struggle and love for his current girlfriend. The road trip part had some great scenes where they re-connect intermingled with some more sad scenes where the past and their current situation comes between them. I liked how the story ended and the epilogue was beautiful, seeing these two find their way and chasing their dreams. I look forward to reading the last novella length story in this series!

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.