“Because it… isn’t real. I want real. I want sickness and health. I want good and bad. I want…real.”
“You want…ugly beautiful.”
New York. 1960. Music. Deep family ties to the mob. Segregation. That’s all I knew going in and I think readers should do the same. Pick this book up! A compelling story of two people unifying what was divided. The sixties brought war and revolution. The death of almost 50 thousand young men in Vietnam. The loss of a president. And a decade of civil rights. Benny (Big Ben) and Esther (Baby Ruth) have an EPIC love story. Powerful. Beautiful. A love story that showed the world what change looked like. An interracial couple who find love and fight for it against all odds. The romance will have you swooning. I mean, he puts socks on her feet and ties her shoes. I’m GOO. The revelation of Esther’s back story will leave readers looking like the gasp emoji. I loved the interview format in the present and the flashback to the event. The Songbook of Benny Lament is emotional, sensitive, heavy, admirable, poignant. “You wanna change the world, you gotta show ’em what it looks like.” Readers will be moved by Big Ben and Baby Ruth’s mission, devotion to each other, and their music.
🎹 READ IF YOU LIKE 🎹:
-music/Motown
-history
-organized crime & politics
-friends to lovers
-flirty banter
-THE sweetest gangster
-stories of hope
“May we seek to learn each other’s stories so that we might love each other a little better.”
🎶 Song: Someone To Watch Over Me by Ella Fitzgerald 🎶