What a fantastic book! Joanna, you wrote a beautiful story. I love the main character and their honest heart. It was wonderful.

Give me a good book about families and I'll stay up late reading. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of Crescendo by Joanna Howat. I did just that because this story has dysfunctional parents and siblings and drama! The pace of the story impressed me, and I found the writing to be excellent. It moved along well.

The easiest 5 star read. ⭐️ Crescendo DELIVERED. I am such a huge ‘word’ person, and this was beautifully written.
There was so much realism in here, and it was amazing to follow as I felt like I was there. This book carried so much weight and emotion and I’m so glad I experienced this read. If I could read this again for the first time, I would.

Huge thank you to @netgalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for an honest review. But also thank you to Joanna Howat for writing this.

#egalley #arc #crescendo #joannahowat #bookstagram #booksbooksbooks

There's not much better than taking a chance on a debut novel and it turning out better than you'd hoped.

Crescendo tells the story of Jamie and Caz Fenton who find themselves in the middle of a family tragedy. Jamie is the archetypal youngest child - still at home and reliant on his parents, in a job that he's hopeless at and dreaming of being a concert pianist. Older sister Caz was the wild child. She's married to a man who adores her with 2 little girls who are the apple of their mother's eye.

But after the tragedy the two siblings find themselves thrown into lives that they struggle with. Will they rise to the occasion or will their losses be too much to bear?

I often begin reading several books at a time but Crescendo took over my attention. I raced through it, desperate to know what happened next. Of itself, the story has elements that we've probably all come across either in other books or our own lives but it is the sensitivity of the writing and the immensely believable characters who really drove this story.

Joanna Howat has written a wonderful debut novel and I shall look out for her name on novels in the future.

Thoroughly enjoyed it. Highly recommended.

Thankyou to Netgalley for the advance review copy. Most appreciated.

*4.5 stars* An incredible debut novel with themes of grief, love, and identity which I absolutely could not put down.

It’s New Year’s Eve in 1991 when Jamie and Caz, two adult siblings, suffer a sudden tragic loss that changes the trajectories of their lives as they know it. Jamie is a magnificent piano player but works a meager job his father got him, and Caz is a seemingly happy mother and wife who loves being in these traditional roles. However, the cracks begin to show as they both cope (or struggle to) with their grief and the way life goes on.

The story flowed so easily with its prose and the relationships between all the characters felt so vividly realistic and honest. The character development was strong and each one showed their own kind of vulnerability. I do wish we saw more from Caz but I also understand this realistic portrayal of her grief and how she manages to cope. As a lifelong piano player who no longer has immediate access to a piano, I just adored the way Jamie longed to play the piano and how that was his coping mechanism. Caz, on the other hand, finds more self-destructive means as she tries to move forward in life. What can I say - I love books that explore grief.

Normally I read several books at one time, but I found myself only gravitating towards Crescendo and felt fully immersed in the characters’ lives. I hope this book gets the attention and recognition it deserves, and I definitely plan to get my hands on a physical copy.

tw: grief, alcoholism, self-harm

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital advance copy of this book! All opinions are my own.

Crescendo was an absolute home run of a debut. I finished this book in a day and was fully captivated. The characters and their dynamics between each other were raw and honest and they felt like people I could know intimately. Joanna has a striking voice and I will be recommending this to everyone this year.

Crescendo follows Jamie and Caz as they are thrown into a tailspin of grief after losing both their parents due to unforeseen and heart-breaking circumstances following an argument at dinner. As their relationships crumble, Jamie and Caz realise adulthood doesn't come with a manual - and they're far less prepared for life than they first thought.

Urgh, I loved Crescendo so much. I must have, I dedicated an entire December day to reading it, just so I could finish the story - I had to know that Caz would be okay. The characters were so well-written and felt incredibly real and fully-formed, I cared about them so much and was willing them to talk to one another as they were processing, or in the case of Jamie, not processing, their grief.

I confess to knowing very little about pianos, but there was something enchanting about Jamie's need to play music as an emotional outlet. I got a bit teary when he was finally reunited with his family's piano and able to play the songs that he'd been absentmindedly tapping out on his legs for months. The fact that the piano was the only connection that remained to his mother, his former home and the life he once had, made those pages even more poignant.

Likewise, I felt that Caz's storyline and her self-sabotage was handled with compassion and care. Her complicated relationship with alcohol and cutting (bit of a trigger warning for that) as an outlet for her pain felt genuine as did her husband’s initial refusal to see her as anything but perfect when she was clearly unravelling and needed his support. That specifically, at points, was hard to read, but again, completely understandable given the circumstances. As the story progressed and Caz’s sabotage began to splinter out and effect her relationship with her brother, children and marriage more and more, it became unavoidable for her husband to ignore, but his desperation at not knowing how to help, felt almost child-like. Bringing a puppy into an already fractured home was a perfect example of that innocence and again, felt very true to life.

Despite the heavy topics dealt with in this book, there was surprisingly room for laughter. The comedy was dark, of course, but I really enjoy when a writer is able to weave those touches of light into difficult topics and conversations – it really is a fine art. It also helped as a reader to be able to regroup in the light for the next setback or stage of grief as the story continued through the year.

Something that I would have liked to have seen was just a little bit more about Jamie and Caz's parents. I appreciated the authors choice to focus on the children and the aftermath rather than the parents, but for me, I would have liked a little more backstory. From the snippets that were given, Jamie's attempts to bury his feelings and Caz's full-on dive into her grief were explained, but I was longing for a flashback or a little bit more background on their father, in particular, as he was the root of so much of the families pain. I was also desperate for a few more pages at the end as it suddenly wound up much faster than I was expecting (although that’s the danger of reading on an e-reader versus a physical book – the ending creeps up on you).

Overall, Crescendo will certainly stay with me and I feel like that’s the result of beautiful writing, memorable characters and a story that contains multitudes. I would happily read more work from Joanna Howat. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC – what a start to 2025 and my ARC reads.