The Final Note: A Novel - Softcover

Milne, Kevin Alan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1599952955 ISBN 13: 9781599952956

Publisher: Center Street, 2011

Synopsis

In this brand-new novel from bestselling author Kevin Milne, readers will be inspired yet again by the themes of love, loss, and renewal. Ethan met and fell in love with Anna while studying music abroad in college. He married her, and fully expected to grow old with her. After all, they were young, life was good, and faith in each other came easily, as evidenced by the Love Notes Anna periodically left between the strings of his guitar.

On their wedding day, Ethan promised to love, honor, and cherish his wife...and to write a song for her. Fast forward to the present day. Despite his grand promises, reality has proven to be much harder than he anticipated. Instead of composing hit songs, he's working long hours to provide for his family, and still promising to finish Anna's song. His formerly hopeful spirit is almost too heavy to carry, weighed down as it is by regret.

His grandfather, a veteran of World War II, knows a thing or two about regret and bitterness, and has his own stories to tell. One in particular, has the potential to change Ethan's attitude and help him put the past to rest, if he can open his heart to the truth of it.

Can an old soldier's tales of war help Ethan relinquish his anger? Is it too late to finish the song he began for Anna on their wedding day? Will he be able to remember why he fell in love so many years ago? In this tale of loss and heartbreak, love and forgiveness, Ethan is about to discover that the final note has yet to be written.

About this title

About the Author

Kevin Alan Milne is the author of The Paper Bag Christmas, The Nine Lessons, and Sweet Misfortune. He earned an MBA at Pennsylvania State University. Born in Portland, Oregon, Milne grew up in the nearby quiet country town of Sherwood, Oregon, where he currently resides with his wife and five children.

Review

"Fans of Nicholas Sparks will enjoy this uplifting novel about second chances, circumstance, coincidence, and, of course, happiness."―Booklist, on Sweet Misfortune

"With all the awkward intensity of first love, Milne's latest (after Sweet Misfortune, 2010) ushers along its characters with flourishes worthy of a sweet yet haunting song. Ethan and Anna meet in romantic Vienna while young and idealistic. Committed to the idea of being together forever, they plunge into matrimony and real life with a starry-eyed love. Yet as Ethan's songwriting career steadily rises, they find their marriage suffering from internal pressures that begin to appear insurmountable. Life deals them some hard blows, as well, which fosters even more doubt that the potential of forever in a marriage actually exists. Just as Ethan seriously questions his continuing connection with his wife, a horrific accident thrusts everything into a closely examined background as Anna lingers in a coma. A wise, life-scarred grandfather, relatives who serve to highlight Ethan's own feelings of inadequacy, and a precocious child round out the cast. Stirring and dramatic, Milne's work echoes that of Nicholas Sparks in its focus on love, commitment, faith, and the ultimate heartbreak of being human." ―Julie Trevelyan, Booklist

Kevin Alan Milne's THE FINAL NOTE is a beautiful soliloquy on the power of love. The opening Prelude forcefully grabs you--you find yourself immersed in Ethan's rage against the perpetrator of his wife's catastrophic outcome.
Milne separates his book into segments entitled; First Verse: Solo, Allegretto Scherzando; Second Verse: Duet, Adagio Dolcissimo; Third Verse: Trio, Accelerando Staccato; Interlude; Fourth Verse: Solo, Lente Grave; and Postlude. Ethan's life breathes music, his passion is conveyed with every note he composes in his younger days and as he grows older, music has slowly diminished into the background. I listen to the entitled pieces that evoked the emotional turmoil suffered by Ethan, and I felt wrapped up in his anguish. THE FINAL NOTE moved me continually for the wealth of hardship suffered and for the infinity of faith. There were times where I did rage against the injustice of Ethan's life only to be reminded that there are greater things beyond our understanding. That life is about forgiveness where the power of faith and friends will only strengthen us in our most dire moments of life.
―Aisle B, Review

About this edition

• Publisher: Center Street
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1599952955
• ISBN 13: 9781599952956
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 353