Joey has always wanted to be a classical musician, despite the wishes of his alcoholic father. His life is a journey towards achieving his goal, and possibly finding love on the way. Much of Joey's story will ring true with the reader, reflective of the fact that Woody's story is based on a true story. Though the book could have veered toward a much more dark or depressing story, readers will find it more lighthearted, making the story all that more enjoyable. ( )

Full disclosure: the author of this novel is my mother-in-law. In the early stages of this book, I was asked to read, review, and make any suggestions to the book. Finally, after a few years of her perseverance, it is in print!

Nanci Lee Woody bases the main character, Joey, on her husband and put in many stories based on incidents that her husband experienced throughout life, especially his childhood. Thus, it is a novel based on a true story, but with fictional characters.

Joey grows up during the Great Depression and finishes high school in the early 1950s. He gets a trombone in a school band and music becomes his life. Unfortunately, he has a tyrannical father (thus there are many scenes that prove this) and a loving mother that is often unable to stand up directly to her husband. Still, Joey does not give up. This novel covers how he falls in love, how he ends up marrying someone that isn't his true love, and how he pursues his musical career as a trombonist. There's a lot of dialogue that expose what kind of characters these people are. This novel moves along quickly.

I do wish the author success with this novel :-) . It can be found at amazon.com as either a kindle book or in paperback. ( )