ALC Review: The Sound of Us by Sarah Castille
Release date: 26 November 2024
Narrators: Lila Winters, Thomas Oakley
Synopsis: A Star is Born meets Good Girl Complex in this angsty, deeply emotional, heated romance perfect for fans of Colleen Hoover.
Broken hearts and hidden pasts collide in a symphony of passion and redemption.
Skye Jordan thought she had it all figured out. Eighteen months ago, she was in college and dreaming of a basketball career. But in a split second her world fell apart. Now she’s back at Havencrest U, broke and desperate. She has no use for sexy, bad boy musicians who kiss her senseless. . . until she lands an internship at the radio station where he works.
DJ Dante Romano has lost every person close to his heart. All he has is his music. Consumed by guilt and driven by vengeance, he has no time for love, and yet the fiery new intern who shares his passion and feels his pain tempts him like no other. For Dante, Skye is off limits. And yet from the moment he meets her, he can’t turn away.
Soon their scorching attraction develops into something deeper. Together they could make beautiful music, but will their untold secrets force them apart?
Review
Bramble’s upcoming release, The Sound of Us, may appeal to fans of contemporary romance with characters in their early 20's sporting some serious tragic backstories. Touting appeal for fans of Colleen Hoover, the harrowing content certainly lives up to the comparison, and I can't help but wonder if healthy relationships ever feature in mainstream romance novels.
In what I would classify as a New Adult romance, TSoU follows Skye and Dante, two upperclassmen at a university who will eventually work together at the campus radio station. Skye boasts a compelling backstory that necessitates a change of focus for her in life. After life events put her on a different path, she encounters Dante, a bass player for a featuring band, in a back alley of a local venue.
As far as initial meetings between love interests go, Skye’s and Dante’s was pretty believable—until it wasn't. In a romcom, one would normally call this a meet-cute, but I’m not sure what to name it in a darker romance. It’s certainly not cute in this story, and I'm not sure how romantic it is to meet someone in a back alley and almost immediately start sucking face. The first encounter lays the foundation for the romance of the whole book. I was not impressed here, and not because I feel the author can’t write well. When Skye and Dante met up, I knew things were going to be tumultuous.
Additionally, as the comp statement in the synopsis claims, the novel appropriately mimics a CoHo-style romantic atmosphere. The back stories on our love interests rank among some of the most traumatic ones I've ever read. At this point, I don't think I've read a romance from a B5 imprint without one, and though tragedy can make for compelling character arcs and healing redemption themes, many times the characters develop unhealthy bonds and relationship patterns. Skye and Dante may bond over shared tragic experiences, but they develop an unhealthy codependency on one another. Dante also shows a habit of violent outbursts when he sees Skye talking to other young men.
I really hate feeling like every time I read a contemporary (at least most of the time) romance that all I do is nitpick, but I can't help it. I want romance when I read romance, but many times the stories only offer catharsis through traumatic drama and explicit sexual encounters. I wonder if reading more contemporary romance in order to find an ideal story with a positive example of romance is worth wading through so many distressing samples to do so. I fear I can only read so much dysfunction before it completely overtakes my sensibilities.
Thomas Oakley and Lila Winters give exceptional performances. In fact, they both do so well that the emotions feel even more heightened than they might if I were physically reading the book with my own voice narrating in my head. I might look to see what other titles the two narrate an order to listen to another selection from each of them.
Overall, the content in this one really didn't appeal to me. I finished feeling worse than when I started and desperately needed a pick me up afterward.
My thanks to Macmillan Audio for the ALC, for which I willingly give my own, honest opinion.
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