Review: Musical Chairs by Amy Poeppel

Musical Chairs

by Amy Poeppel

Publisher: Atria

Pages: 416

Format: ARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Bridget and Will have the kind of relationship that people envy: they’re loving, compatible, and completely devoted to each other. The fact that they’re strictly friends seems to get lost on nearly everyone; after all, they’re as good as married in (almost) every way. For three decades, they’ve nurtured their baby, the Forsyth Trio—a chamber group they created as students with their Juilliard classmate Gavin Glantz. In the intervening years, Gavin has gone on to become one of the classical music world’s reigning stars, while Bridget and Will have learned to embrace the warm reviews and smaller venues that accompany modest success.

Bridget has been dreaming of spending the summer at her well-worn Connecticut country home with her boyfriend Sterling. But her plans are upended when Sterling, dutifully following his ex-wife’s advice, breaks up with her over email and her twin twenty-somethings arrive unannounced, filling her empty nest with their big dogs, dirty laundry, and respective crises.

Bridget has problems of her own: her elderly father announces he’s getting married, and the Forsyth Trio is once again missing its violinist. She concocts a plan to host her dad’s wedding on her ramshackle property, while putting the Forsyth Trio back into the spotlight. But to catch the attention of the music world, she and Will place their bets on luring back Gavin, whom they’ve both avoided ever since their stormy parting.

Kritters Thoughts:  Bridget and Will have been friends since college, seriously friends and no funny business!  They have always been two parts of a trio.  Their third has recently left and they are ready to replace them with a well known or up and coming that can elevate them and get them some new gigs, but before this starts they have a summer to decide their true feelings about their futures.  Bridget goes to a country home in Connecticut and eventually her twins and even Will end up in this small town and together they spend the summer and all are making large life decisions.

With everyone in this book having major life upheavals, this book could have felt like a weighted story with too much drama, but it didn't.  I loved that each character had something going on, but it all fit together and not all were conveniently solved in the summer.  

Bridget and Will were great main characters.  I easily connected with each of them and loved that there was a true friendship between a man and a woman with no hint at a relationship that is more than friendship.  I loved that at their ages they were questioning their futures because these questions can happen at any moment in someone's life and it was a gentle reminder to be kind to those who may be making life changes at any moment.  

I am excited to pass this book along to a lot of my friends and family.  This book can get you to make some deep thoughts but also make you laugh!  I love these kinds of books.

Rating: absolutely loved it and want a sequel

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from Atria.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.