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Best Novels About Music & Musicians
By: Angela & Melissa
Updated:
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, we may earn a referral fee from qualifying purchases.Much like books, music can be healing for both listeners and those who write or perform. From historical mysteries and magical realism to contemporary fiction, authors have found creative ways to share their love of music through their characters. We hope you’ll consider playing your own favorite music in the background as you browse this list.
Best Novels for Music Lovers
Book Summary
Bern is an expert on the twentieth-century composer Frederick Delaney, and he’s just been asked to authenticate a newly discovered work. It may be the long-rumored lost opera, RED. But during Bern’s research, he learns that the truth about the composition is complicated.
In the 1920s, Josephine Reed frequented jazz clubs as a break from living on the streets. One night, she meets a struggling musician, Fred Delaney, and discovers that her musical talent complements Fred’s weaknesses. She becomes his silent partner as his career takes off. But will anyone ever know about her contributions to the music world?
Additional Music-Related Books by This Author
Brendan Slocumb holds a degree in music education (with concentrations in violin and viola) and is also the author of The Violin Conspiracy, which our readers voted as one of their favorite reads of 2022.
He also has a 2025 release, Dark Maestro, about a young Black musical virtuoso who has an unfortunate run-in with a drug kingpin and must give up his career to enter witness protection.
Songs of Summer
Book Summary
Life is good for 30-year-old Maggie. She’s planning to open a record store in her charming Midwestern hometown and is about to be engaged to her childhood best friend. But, after finding a letter she wrote to herself when she was 13, Maggie is inspired to be more than just content. She wants to know who she really is, and that means she needs to find her birth mother.
Her search leads her to a wedding on Fire Island. After watching her biological family at the wedding from a distance, she realizes that they are full of drama. Does she want to run away from the fray and go back to her peaceful life, or should she dig deeper into her past? Things get more complicated when a handsome local offers to be her fake boyfriend so she can get closer to the family.
About the Book
Don’t miss the chapter headings, which are each a song and a nod to Maggie’s love of music!
While this book is the third in the Fire Island Trilogy, readers report that it still works as a standalone.
Sisters Under the Rising Sun
Book Summary
During WW2, English musician Norah is in Singapore with her 8-year-old daughter, Sally. As the Japanese approach, she makes the desperate decision to send Sally on a ship out of the area to keep her safe. Norah stays behind to care for her husband and elderly parents.
When Singapore falls, Norah is crammed aboard the Vyner Brooke merchant ship, but two days later, the ship is bombarded and sinks. Norah, along with Welsh nurse Sister Nesta, survives, only to be captured and sent to a POW camp. Together, Nesta and Norah work to help other POWs, including using their musical talents to bring comfort.
Reader Thoughts on This Book
This novel was recommended to us by one of our long-time readers. If you enjoy audiobooks, it’s a great format for this title, as singing is incorporated when the women in the POW camp form a chorus.
Kissing the Sky
Book Summary
In the summer of 1969, Suzannah is home from college, struggling to readjust to her conservative Southern town and her father’s strict rules. Livy, her best friend, is her saving grace when she invites Suzannah, a talented singer, to join her for a three-day festival of peace and music in upstate New York.
They sneak off on the epic road trip, and Suzannah is soon miles outside of her comfort zone. Her journey to Woodstock distracts her from her worries about her brother, who is in Vietnam. But, her coming-of-age story isn’t all peace signs and daisies; first loves come with first heartbreaks, and Livy’s wild behavior becomes concerning.
Another Book You May Enjoy
For another 1960s-set book about traveling to music festivals, pick up Lost in the Summer of ’69, which features a 69-year-old woman with a new early Alzheimer’s diagnosis who sets out to fulfill her bucket-list item of touring summer festivals. But, she ‘forgets’ to tell her daughter where she is going.
With Love from Harlem
Book Summary
Jazz prodigy Hazel is only 23, but she’s already a film star and fierce advocate for civil rights. When she encounters Harlem’s electrifying preacher-turned-politician, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., he’s the perfect other half to create a Harlem power-couple…except for the fact that he’s already married.
Over the next 17 years, their affair turns into a marriage, but things don’t get any easier. Hazel’s star is rising in the jazz world, and Adam is elected to Congress. What is Hazel willing to sacrifice for her family, and what will she refuse to give up?
What to Expect in This Book
This is a romantic, history-rich drama that features many real people from 1940s Harlem beyond Hazel Scott and Adam Clayton Powell Jr, including Billie Holiday, Langston Hughes, and James Baldwin.
While much of the book takes place in the 1940s, Hazel and Adam’s story also includes the 1950s and the impacts of McCarthyism and segregation.
The Unsinkable Greta James
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Greta James had musical talent from childhood, but her parents had different visions of where that talent would lead. While her mother was her biggest fan, her dad could only see the likely pitfalls of a music career.
She has spent years trying to prove him wrong and reached the point of appearing on magazine covers and playing sold-out shows. However, with the pressure of a sophomore album and the shock of her mother’s recent death, Greta has an on-stage meltdown that goes viral.
She very reluctantly agrees to join her dad on an Alaskan cruise because she hopes it will give her an escape from media coverage and the pressure of her struggling career. Their relationship is as icy as the Alaskan waters. But together aboard the ship, they will finally come to terms with the baggage of their past so that they can face the future.
Our Thoughts on This Book
This book had much more depth and emotion than we expected going in. While there is an element of romance in the book, this is really the story of a father and daughter dealing with grief and being forced to confront the challenges that drove them apart.
Book Summary
In the seaside town of Boulogne-sur-Mer, the Cotillard sisters feel the walls closing in as German forces increase their presence. While they know they should stay under the radar, Martine has found a British messenger pigeon that sets the sisters on a dangerous path.
Gaby is a pianist and is being forced to teach the step-daughter of a German Commandant. Although the town uses this to accuse the sisters of collaborating with the enemy, they are secretly working to fight back.
Daisy Jones & The Six
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
94% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
This novel chronicles the meteoric rise of a fictional, iconic 1970s rock band, The Six, and their beautiful lead singer, Daisy Jones. The story is told through a series of “Behind the Music”-style interviews that will make you feel like you are right there with them in the hard-partying 70s music scene.
As you hear from each band member, the story of these complex characters unfolds, ultimately revealing the mystery behind the band’s infamous breakup.
Additional Books You May Enjoy
There are so many great books about rock bands that we didn’t have room for on this music-lovers list, but if that’s your preferred theme, we have lots of suggestions for you on our separate list of Books for Fans of Daisy Jones!
The Last Labyrinth
Book Summary
Magellan is a musical prodigy with an old soul, living in present-day New York as the world is on the brink of a catastrophic shift. But as she is playing an ancient organ, she vanishes. Magellan then wakes up in 1829.
In the middle of a house party designed to pick his wife, Rhys, the Earl of Liron, comes across a strange woman in his estate’s labyrinth. The two are drawn to each other and discover that Magellan’s incredible musical gifts are connected to a lost diary. Together, they must uncover the connection, which is the key to saving the world.
Reader Thoughts on This Book
Reviewers say that while the plot is very different, fans of Outlander may enjoy this musical time-travel story.
While many rate it very highly, some readers warn that the ending lacks closure and leaves some questions unanswered.
Stars Over Clear Lake
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
A real-life ballroom inspired this split-timeline historical romance. Lorraine spent her youth in the 1940s, swept away by big bands in the Surf Ballroom. Now, it’s 2007, and she is returning to the ballroom for the first time in decades after the death of her husband.
As she steps back into the building, she’s transported back to the biggest decision of her youth. Torn between two men, did she make the right decision when choosing between personal conviction (a German from a local POW camp) and social expectations (her perfect high school boyfriend)? As she makes peace with her youth, ghosts from the past make it hard for her to know what is real.
What to Expect in This Book
While the star-crossed romance is a major theme, the book is a lot deeper than a simple love story. You’ll get a look into one of the POW camps set up in Iowa during the war, and see how the prisoners interacted with local society. Additionally, there are strong themes of the rights and expectations of young women in the 1940s.
If you enjoy the music of the 1940s, you may love the references to specific singers throughout the novel.
The Cellist of Sarajevo
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
94% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
This novel transports you to the 1992 Siege of Sarajevo as three people try to survive in a city rife with desperation. One sorrowing cellist continues to play, undaunted by all around him.
His mission started when a shell landed on a bread line, killing twenty-two as a cellist watched from his window. He vowed to play Albinoni’s Adagio once a day for twenty-two days, for each of the twenty-two victims.
The book is told through the stories of three characters trying to survive a normal day during the Siege. Kenan and Dragan are strangers, but each faces paralyzing fear as they try to access food or water. “Arrow” is a female sniper, tasked with protecting the cellist as he plays his memorials. Throughout their day, each character must make hard choices about prioritizing themselves or helping others.
Background of This Novel
While author Steven Galloway is Canadian without prior ties to Sarajevo, he has put together a well-written, well-researched tale about cellist Vedran Smailovic, who did play for 22 days in 1992 to honor victims, even as snipers fired at each other around him. There is a 5-minute audio report about Vedran Smailovic available from the BBC, which includes some of his playing. The Siege of Sarajevo lasted 1,425 days, the longest siege of a capital city in modern history.
The People We Keep
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
98% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Sixteen-year-old April has a rough life, fending for herself in a motorless motorhome that her father won while playing poker. She works at a diner but dreams of being a songwriter. After flunking out of school and another fight with her dad, April sets off with her guitar to find a better life for herself.
Along the way, she meets others with complex stories, which are the perfect inspiration for her songs. But even more important than that, she finds that family doesn’t have to mean the community you were born into. Instead, people you meet can become family.
What to Expect in This Book
This is a beautifully written, character-driven, coming-of-age novel, but keep in mind that it is an adult novel with adult themes.
April isn’t always likable, and she makes many bad decisions along the way. But she’s a raw and real character you’ll come to love despite her flaws.
This book is packed with so much genuine emotion, honesty, and heart that you’ll want a copy on your shelf so that you can read it again!
Duet
Book Summary
Mirabelle is an innocent young goldfinch who lives to sing, which means her home in the backyard of a piano teacher is perfect. One day, Mr. Stark gets a new student, Michael, who is sensational, but now refuses to play.
Michael is supposed to be performing in an upcoming Chopin festival, but how can he do that if he can’t even practice? Mirabelle has an idea but can’t predict how her unexpected friendship with the boy would turn into a grand adventure that links the great composer Frédéric Chopin, the trailblazing author George Sand, and the French Romantic painter Eugène Delacroix.
Why This Book Made the List
Don’t pass over this gem of a novel because it’s noted as a middle-grade read. Melissa read it at the suggestion of her nephew and mom and loved that it was an adorable story that also taught her some things about Chopin, Sand, and Delacroix! If you enjoy music, art, and songbirds, it’s a perfect read.
The Thread Collectors
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
During the Civil War, a young Black woman named Stella began embroidering maps onto cloth in her small Creole cottage in New Orleans. The maps helped enslaved men flee to the North and join the Union Army. Her activities were risky because she was bound to a white Confederate man who would kill her if he discovered her maps. To complicate matters further, her true love is William, a brilliant musician who recently ran from enslavement to volunteer as a Union soldier.
In New York City, a Jewish woman named Lily attends abolitionist meetings, rolls bandages, and exchanges frequent letters with her husband, Jacob, who is a musician stationed in Louisiana with the Union Army. When months go by without hearing from him, she decides to make the perilous journey South to find him.
One day, Jacob overhears William playing concert-worthy music and recruits him to play for the white soldiers. Their shared love of music is the start of an unlikely friendship that will be put to an impossible test.
Inspiration For the Book
Shaunna J. Edwards and Alyson Richman are longtime friends whose collaboration as co-authors grew out of a shared conversation about their own family backgrounds. The Thread Collectors is their first novel together, which draws on their unique perspectives and family history. Don’t skip the author’s note that explains which characters are based on real people.
Take Nothing With You
Book Summary
In the 1970s, Eustace was a quirky only child living in a residential home for the elderly that his parents ran. His life changes when his mother signs him up for cello lessons, and he discovers the power of music. From that time, he dedicates his life to the cello, and it’s his escape and saving grace as he comes of age, deals with his difficult parents, and begins to understand his sexuality.
In the present day, Eustace is in his 50s and undergoing cancer treatment. The next step is being isolated in a radioactive room for 48 hours. His dear friend, Naomi, gives him an MP3 player full of cello music to keep him company. This time alone and the beautiful music provide an opportunity to reflect on both his childhood and his burgeoning new relationship with Theo, whom he hasn’t told about his illness.
Book Summary
Meta Taverner is a young musicologist whose concert piano career was cut short by an injury. Irena, a Czech immigrant, has given her what seems to be an authentic 18th-century original sonata manuscript of a hauntingly beautiful composition. However, there is no indication of the composer.
Irena asked Meta to locate the manuscript’s owner, Otylie, whom Irena hasn’t heard from since WW2. Meta travels to Prague to uncover the sonata’s history, but once she arrives, it’s clear she’s not the only one trying to unearth the music’s secrets.
What to Expect in This Book
This mystery unfolds in multiple timelines as you’ll see the original hand-off of the sonata at the end of WW1, the attempt to keep it safe from the Germans in WW2, and the present day.
Readers enjoy the history and culture of Prague included throughout the story, but keep in mind that this novel clocks in at just over 500 pages, and some would have preferred it to be a bit shorter with a more brisk pace rather than its literary style.
The Violin Maker’s Secret
Book Summary
This novel follows a violin as it passes through different owners, and the unlikely group that bonds as a found family as they try to trace its provenance.
Devlin, an airport baggage handler, finds an antique violin in the lost and found. He turns to his retired teacher, Mr. Walter, for help finding the owner. To solve the historical mystery, they enlist an appraiser named Gabrielle. The trio has no idea how their lives are about to change as they get to know each other.
What to Expect in This Book
This story is told across multiple timelines, from the 18th century to the present day, and includes the violin’s perspective as it passes through different owners over time.
Book Summary
Violet Mathers is a young woman who was abandoned by her mother, mistreated by her father, and teased by her classmates. After a rough childhood and a string of disappointments, she decides she’s had enough and heads west to end things for good. But fate, and a broken-down bus, land her in a tiny North Dakota town during the Great Depression.
There, she crosses paths with a ragtag band of musicians, and something unexpected happens: Violet finds her voice, both literally and figuratively. As she joins their traveling band, her world begins to open up in ways she never imagined.
North Dakota’s stark, open landscape becomes the backdrop for a story about second chances, unexpected friendships, and the healing power of music. This bittersweet novel will make you laugh, cry, and root for a girl who thought she’d lost it all, but ends up finding more than she ever dreamed.
Reader Thoughts on This Book
Readers say this book has much more depth than they initially expected, including the Great Depression, race relations, and the early days of rock and roll music.
Book Summary
Talent scout Eleanor Thompson arrives in Las Vegas determined to sign Dempsey, the breakout alt-rock band that could save her job. The last person she wants to see is Adam Shaw, her charming but infuriating former colleague, who now works for a rival label and is chasing the same deal.
After a competitive dinner spirals into a wild night on the Strip, Eleanor and Adam wake up with matching wedding rings, missing memories, and a deadline that keeps pushing them together.
More About This Book
This story takes place over a 24-hour period in Vegas, and readers describe it as a nod to The Hangover that is perfect for fans of The Hating Game. Unlike many Vegas-set rom-coms, this one isn’t overly spicy, but there is one open-door scene.
Wait for Me
Book Summary
In 1973, rising folk singer Elle Harlow reached the height of her career, making her debut at the Grand Ole Opry before suddenly disappearing, leaving behind unanswered questions and a complicated past.
Nearly twenty years later, eighteen-year-old Marijohn Shaw lives in a small Appalachian town in Pennsylvania, where she spends her days working at her father’s gas station and writing songs while longing for the mother she never knew. When a meteor strikes the nearby woods, it reveals a startling link to Elle’s story, setting Marijohn on a path to uncover the truth about her own identity.
Thoughts on This Book
This coming-of-age novel is set amidst the country music industry and contrasts the lush Pennsylvania mountain landscape with the bright lights of Nashville.
Audiobook fans will enjoy that the audio version includes some original music.
The Instrumentalist
Book Summary
As a baby in 1695, Anna Maria was abandoned outside the Ospedale della Pietà, an orphanage for daughters of prostitutes. These girls are among the lucky ones who did not drown in the city’s canals. By age eight, Anna Maria is obsessed with music and determined to become Venice’s greatest violinist and composer. She has synesthesia (seeing vibrant colors when she hears sounds), making music a visceral experience.
When Antonio Vivaldi selects her as his star pupil, Anna Maria knows this harsh, brilliant teacher is her path to greatness. Vivaldi purchases a violin for her and composes pieces specifically for her talent. As her genius threatens to eclipse even his, the power dynamics shift.
But for the right price, Vivaldi will teach Anna everything. Anna Maria must choose between her orphan sisters, her only family, and her ruthless ambition in a brutal, competitive world where being a woman means her contributions may be forgotten.
Related Reading
If you enjoy learning about Anna Maria’s synesthesia and would like to read about more characters with this gift, don’t miss our list of Books that Explore the Senses.
Bellweather Rhapsody
Book Summary
Room 712 at the historic Bellweather Hotel has quite a history. Fifteen years earlier, in 1982, a murder-suicide in the room shocked the community and the young bridesmaid who witnessed it, Minnie. Now, in 1997, an elite high school music festival is taking place on the aging property, and Minnie must return to the hotel and face her past.
As a blizzard traps the musicians inside, room 712 is yet again the focus after a young prodigy disappears from the room. The page-turning search for the missing teen involves an eccentric cast of characters, each revealing a bit more of the truth. This novel will be especially enjoyed by those who love high school band.
The Secret History of Audrey James
Book Summary
In 2010, Kate left London after a tragic life event. She ended up living in a guest house near the Scottish border, hoping she’d be able to heal in the peaceful surroundings. But the mysterious elderly proprietor seems to have secrets.
In 1938, in Berlin, Audrey was weeks away from graduating from a prestigious music school. During her time at the school, she lived with her best friend Ilse Kaplan’s family and dreaded returning home to her own father.
Before Audrey has to face her father, Ilse’s parents and brothers disappear. High-ranking Nazi officials confiscate their upscale home, and Audrey must quickly hide Ilse in the attic. Audrey then pretends to be a housekeeper so she can remain in the house.
While Ilse remains a prisoner in her own attic, Audrey becomes part of the anti-Hitler movement. Her group is part of the resisters working to bring down the Nazis from within Germany itself.
Historical Context
This novel, from the author of Looking for Jane, was inspired by true stories about the Red Orchestra resistance movement.
The Horse
Book Summary
Sixty-something Al lives 50 miles from the nearest town on a mining claim in the high desert of central Nevada. While he once worked as a touring musician, he’s now isolated and challenged by insomnia, anxiety, and chronic lethargy. He’s running out of reasons to stay alive when a blind and utterly helpless horse appears on his doorstep.
Despite Al’s hopes that the horse would disappear as fast as it arrived, it remains. As he considers whether the horse is even real or a hallucination, he also reflects on his life as a musician, which included minor success, love, alcoholism, and tragedy.
About the Author
This short (194-page) novel is the newest release from Nevada author Willy Vlautin. He has other works set in the state, including Northline, about a woman fleeing an abusive boyfriend and heading to Reno.
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Love this list! I have read several and am excited to read more of them. I just got my audio book hold from Libby of With Love From Harlem so I will be starting it next.