movie music magic

Celia and Oliver were at Julliard together, studying music composition and competing with each other for the limited opportunities, the internships, the jobs. Now it’s ten years later, and the jobs are still hard to come by.

Celia Garcia grew up in New York City, the oldest daughter in a Cuban-Puerto Rican family. Her father owns a restaurant that had live music, and that’s where she learned to play drums as a child. Out at a movie with her family one day, she was captivated by the score and decided that’s what she wanted to do with her life. She and her family made sacrifices so she could go to Julliard, and while those were the most challenging years of her life, she graduated, ready to start her new life. She has managed to get by doing corporate work, but now her rent is going up and the jobs she used to get calls for are being outsourced to AI. She’s not sure what to do until she gets the call from her Julliard friend Rebecca.

Oliver Barlowe also went to Julliard, but he didn’t have much trouble getting in. His father was a respected composer for Hollywood, and when Oliver showed an interest in music composition, he got all the lessons and equipment he needed to succeed. He and Celia weren’t exactly friends back in school. Oliver was incredibly gifted but stand-offish, coming across as rude and selfish. He tended to get the opportunities that Celia missed out on, and she resented him for that. But she also recognized his talent.

So when Rebecca called them both, offering them a job together, Celia was both excited and reluctant. A well-known director was getting ready to start filming a television series, and the composer had to pull out at the last minute. The schedule is extremely tight, so it will take both Celia and Oliver working full-time to have a score in time. But it will be the chance of a lifetime, and the money will keep Celia afloat for a while.

Oliver offers up his family cabin in Maine, where they have a full studio that they can use to create the score. But it means Celia will have to move away from her family for months while they work. She’d never been away from them or from New York City for so long before. But she can’t turn this down. So she packs up almost everything she owns and climbs into Oliver’s SUV to head north.

As the weeks go by in Maine, and they learn to navigate working schedules, grocery shopping, and an occasional hike. And Celia gets inspired by a drumbeat, which leads to a breakthrough for the score. They build on that for weeks, until the chemistry they find in making music together bleeds over into a very flirty Scrabble game.

Their relationship develops as they’re alone together in Maine, but eventually they have to head back to the city and record the score with an orchestra. But what will happen with their bubble pops? Will they be able to face the professional ramifications of being in a relationship? Will they be able to face all the pressure of the real world, or will they finish this job and go their separate ways?

Second Chance Duet is a sweet love story about two people who make beautiful music together. These characters have a long history, and it was lovely to see how they could set aside their bad moments and differences to work together and then to become real partners. And I loved the fact that they were scoring a television series together because that is something I know very little about. It was a fascinating journey, seeing them work together to create something that didn’t exist before.

I listened to the audio book of Second Chance Duet, narrated by Jacqueline Sol. I thought she did an amazing job with this story, but especially excelled when adding a touch of Latina to Celia’s part. It gave the character a distinctive voice, and when she was talking to her sisters or parents especially, hearing that accented speech made those moments distinctive. I thought Sol did a beautiful job, and I had so much fun listening to this story.

Egalleys for Second Chance Duet were provided by Forever and an early copy of the audio book was provided by Hachette Audio, both from NetGalley, with many thanks, but the opinions are mine.