Michael J. Vaughn

I thought this was a kind of fun book, although I doubt it would be most folks' cup of tea. The problem would be that there are oodles of allusions to opera, and if one is not an opera buff, it mostly goes over one's head. I'm not really an opera buff, but I did study singing for a while, so that part caught my fancy, I suppose.

Anyway, we have a guy, Bill Harness, idly crossing the U.S., stopping off for a bit here and there. He eventually finds himself in the Seattle area. It seems that there's an island in the Puget Sound that houses a minor-league opera company. Bill, being an opera buff, decided to check the company out.

What he finds is that they have the most enchanting soprano, someone whose voice belongs in major league houses. The singer's name is Gabriella Compton. Later, he discovers Gavriella serving as a barista at a local coffee shop. Yeah, minor-league opera doesn't pay the bills, so one needs a side gig. I expect my cousin, Laurel, would know all about that.

Anyway, Bill manages to strike up a friendship with Gabriella. His intent isn't what we would normally view as creepy, he's not hitting on her for her body, he wants to be around her luscious voice.

So, we watch their friendship develop, we watch Gabriella's voice develop, and so forth. Pretty fun.

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