Sheet Music by M.J. Rose

After a scandal stemming from a story she wrote threatened her reputation as a journalist, the chance to interview Sophie DeLyon, a famous composer who founded a prestigious school of music, is a chance for professional salvation for Justine. Justine is unprepared, however, for how returning to New York for the interview meant she had to confront her relationship with her family, her unreconciled grief over her mother's death, and her fear of being hurt by love as her mother had been. Then DeLyon disappears, upsetting the world of the school and creating a crisis for Justine herself, not just at the professional level but a personal one as well.

M. J. Rose's writing is beautiful, compelling, and profoundly sensual-not simply in the sexual sense, but in the sense that all of the senses are savored. Taste and hearing are particularly central to the narrative, as food and music are important elements in Justine's relationship with others. Justine's experiences of the senses-feeling the vibrations of the cello, the taste of a slice of orange, the sound of a flute playing-are all deeply embedded in memories, emotions, and her personal demons.

The descriptions of the food and music in this book are almost sexier than the descriptions of the sex...and that's saying something.

A beautifully told, multilayered story of family, food and music. 

10/10