Peps' Reading List: Melody's Key by Dallas Coryell

When I worked on meeting my reading goals for the year, I promised myself that I would also ensure that every title I check off my reading list would get a corresponding blog post. So far, I've been able to do okay on both counts, even updating my social media about my posts. I suppose that's how I ended up with an offer from author Dallas Coryell to review his book Melody's Key.

Teegan Lockwood is missing out on an opportunity to go to college in the US, with her family unable to afford the costs of sending her abroad for school even with a scholarship. Instead, she is helping out their family's summer home business in England, where her breaks involve reading old letters written to her ancestor and writing music that she wouldn't let anybody listen to. Summer is going to be busy as it is, when her parents accept to let pop star Mason Keane stay with them for the season after a public meltdown. While her family is eager to welcome their new guest, Teegan is less than enthusiastic and can't help but be antagonistic towards Mason.

I have to admit to hesitating when I received the offer to review Melody's Key, because, as I've mentioned in previous posts, romance isn't really a genre I immediately favor when reading. I had only recently read and reviewed Eleanor and Park when the offer was made and I wasn't expecting to read another straight up romance novel until next year. But my curiosity got the better of me and I decided to say yes, making space for it in my reading list in between the first two volumes of The Queen of the Tearling trilogy.

Melody's Key is a mixed bag of familiar themes, what with its introspective artistic heroine, her misunderstood and very handsome love interest, and the challenges that beset and experiences that enrich their relationship at every turn, plus the dire financial straits of her family's summer home business in England on top of everything. But even if you think that these might be characters you've already encountered or situations that you might have read of before, Melody's Key still ended up an entertaining read.

Firstly, Teegan is a good lead character. She's beautiful and talented, but not without the insecurities that definitely lead to some less than ideal initial encounters with Mason. And while you may predict and anticipate the buildup to their closer relationship, she's engaging enough that you can't help but invest in how her story plays out and hope for a happy ever after. Mason is likewise an interesting character to read, though a far more predictable creature than Teegan. He's designed to be the boy who makes you swoon and he does so with aplomb, what with his charm, talent, protective nature and, according to Teegan, rather impressive abs. While there are a host of supporting characters, such as Teegan's fun sister Raleigh and their family, the story of Melody's Key is purely Teegan and Mason's own.

Author Dallas Coryell takes time with Teegan and Mason's story, though you know that their getting together is an inevitability. Instead of instant gratification or banking on their obvious chemistry to immediately start a romantic relationship. he works on building trust between the two characters, however unsure it might seem on Teegan's part because of her understandably traumatizing history. Given that they're in the same building for an entire summer, it's gratifying to read that they just didn't immediately give in to their chemistry and instead made the characters work to finding out what they could have together. And in giving them antagonists to help the story along, such as Mason's record label hell-bent on maintaining his cookie cutter pop star image and his ex-girlfriend Madison, as well as Teegan's insecurities rearing its head on occasion, work is definitely needed.

Melody's Key and its core story is solid and entertaining, though it does have a few bumps along the way. There are elements that seemed important when they were introduced, but somehow didn't pan out into anything that would have affected Teegan and Mason's story. The letters that Teegan pored over in their manor's attic weren't as instrumental in the story as they seemed in the beginning, and the final letter's contents weren't quite as believable in execution (I don't think somebody bleeding to death on a battlefield would actually write in such a way or even write at all... but I might just be a skeptic). And, as much as I loved Teegan, I think her best friend Simon got shortchanged in the friendship department, although it didn't help that his particular relationship problems never got a resolution so Teegan never did get a chance to help him out (unless he's getting his own story in a spin-off, then I'd forgive this lapse). Dallas Coryell's storytelling style is one that you can easily flow along with, although there are chapters that tend to go overboard with the descriptions, even if you do take into account that the narrative is in the point of view of an artist. But once he gets into the groove of moving things along, it's easy to breeze through the pages of Melody's Keys.

Melody's Key is a story I would have devoured and re-read in my younger years, but it was nonetheless entertaining for a more fantasy / sci-fi oriented reader like myself. It featured a story that could have been all too familiar with romance readers, but was given characters and romantic chemistry that made it hard to not to like. Given time to polish his writing style, and probably the benefit of a good editor (to help tighten the narrative and cover a few of the spelling mistakes), author Dallas Coryell is on track to make memorable stories.

Happy reading!!

P.S. The songs featured in the book are available on the author's Youtube page and they were fun to listen to as the songs came up in the story.

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