From the bestselling author of What the Wind Knows and From Sand and Ash comes a powerful love story about a musical duo who put everything on the line to be together.

New York, 1960: For Benny Lament, music is his entire life. With his father’s deep ties to the mob, the Bronx piano man has learned that love and family can get you in trouble. So he keeps to himself, writing songs for other musicians, avoiding the spotlight…until the night his father brings him to see Esther Mine sing.

Esther is a petite powerhouse with a gorgeous voice. And when Benny writes a hit song and performs it with her, their collaboration thrusts the duo onto the national stage…and stirs up old issues and new scrutiny that the mob—and Benny—would rather avoid.

It would be easier to walk away. But the music and the woman are too hard for the piano man to resist. Benny’s songs and Esther’s vocals are an explosive combination, a sound that fans can’t get enough of. But though America might love the music they make together, some people aren’t ready for Benny Lament and Esther Mine on—or off—the stage.

Amy Harmon is my go-to for historical romance. I love how she weaves fiction with fact and takes readers to a place that we’ve never been but can imagine in our minds so vividly.
I enjoyed The Songbook of Benny Lament. I loved the music, I loved the fight to be together as an interracial couple against all odds, I enjoyed getting to know the secondary characters, and most especially the authenticity of what it was like to live during the 60s.
This is not my favorite Harmon book as I struggled with really liking the character of Esther as she felt cold and indifferent to me compared to the feelings that Benny felt for her but maybe this was because the book was told in his POV and I wasn’t able to hear her voice.
Regardless, Harmon weaves another masterpiece that is a learning experience to the reader, a gift of going back into time and living a life that you can only imagine and coming out the other side with an understanding of how far we have come as people and as society and being thankful for all the struggles our ancestors have gone through to get us to where we are today.

“You wanna change the world, you gotta show ‘em what it looks like.”