Coda by Anna Gram

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is one of those books that was sort of frustrating to get through. It was frustrating for a few reasons – I even took notes which normally means I was mad or needed to get the irritating thing out of my head before I could move forward.

Here’s the blurb from NetGalley:

Some loves never truly fade. They just wait for the right moment.

In college, Parker Thompson poured her heart into an anonymous love letter to Hannah Wells—only to be met with silence. Heartbroken, music became her emotional refuge and she buried herself in building a career as a respected music editor. Now in her forties, Parker is certain those old feelings are long gone. But when a union strike forces her into an unexpected sabbatical, she returns to her alma mater for homecoming… and comes face-to-face with Hannah.

Hannah Wells never expected to see Parker again, let alone feel drawn to her. A dedicated music teacher, Hannah has spent decades helping others find their voice while suppressing her own. Freshly divorced, the last thing she wants is another intense relationship. Parker might not be the lovesick kid she once knew, but Hannah has had more than her share of being overwhelmed by other people’s emotions.

Parker is intriguing, magnetic, impossible to ignore—and completely wrong for Hannah. But sometimes love’s melody refuses to end.

Okay, here we go! I’m just going to move through various things in a rambling string of consciousness, as I do.

First, there was so much gasping! I have never heard anyone gasp when there wasn’t some legit shocking thing happening. But these women may have had some respiratory issues because there were gasps galore. So, so many. The only thing there may have been more than gasps was mentions of their cores doing things or feeling things. No vaginas or mons or anything, just cores and clits. Hold on, let me drag out my notes… Oh yeah! There’s also some weird word choices (or just wrong) like “…toned muscle flexing under sinewy skin.” If someone’s got sinewy skin, they should probably see a doctor.

The story itself was problematic for me. We’ve got a non-relationship when Parker was a college freshman and Hannah was a senior. Parker had a massive crush on Hannah, left her an anonymous love letter, her “love” was unrequited and that was it. For about 20 years. Nothing. Then we get a sorority reunion and Parker is now suave and expecting nothing from Hannah. Hannah is newly out(ish) as a bisexual and starts putting the moves on Parker. And then backing away. Rinse and repeat. But Hannah’s daughter Morgan brings them together where they do the get close/back away thing some more. I never felt a depth of emotion from these two.

The final part was fine. Nothing earth shattering but fine. I didn’t care much about these folks and would have quit reading if this wasn’t an ARC.

Here’s something that did bother me though: Parker seems to be a stand-in for the author. Reading through the about the author felt like reading a character summary of Parker. Same jobs, same cat named Xena, same hobby (boxing), and it just felt weird. I’m not even sure why Here’s something that did bother me though: Parker seems to be a stand-in for the author. Reading through the about the author felt like reading a character summary of Parker. Same jobs, same cat named Xena, same hobby (boxing), same basic locations where they lived, and it just felt weird. I’m not even sure why this hit me as odd. I know authors put some of themselves in their characters but this seemed like too much. Probably just me but it still feels weird. But the author’s pen name also makes me cringe…

Okay, I’m done rambling about Coda.

Thanks to Bold Strokes and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this one.



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