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.