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34th out of 360 books
—
489 voters
String Bridge
by
Jessica Bell (Goodreads Author)
Greek cuisine, smog and domestic drudgery was not the life Australian musician, Melody, was expecting when she married a Greek music promoter and settled in Athens, Greece. Keen to play in her new shoes, though, Melody trades her guitar for a 'proper' career and her music for motherhood. That is, until she can bear it no longer and plots a return to the stage--and the pers...more
Paperback, 288 pages
Published
November 1st 2011
by Lucky Press
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‘String Bridge’ is the debut novel from the very artistic writer Jessica Bell. If you enjoy stories that involve characters who experience adversity within their lives and that explores the frailty that can exist within some human relationships, then this is a book that should be added to your reading list!
This particular story tells the tale of Melody, an aggravated wife and mother who somehow finds herself separated from the person she felt she used to be and also the individual that she would...more
This particular story tells the tale of Melody, an aggravated wife and mother who somehow finds herself separated from the person she felt she used to be and also the individual that she would...more
Lucky press sent me the arc of this book last week, and the moment I took it from the mailbox, I was dying to start reading. Jessica is a poet, so it's not surprising that she employs good use of imagery, metaphor, and other poetic devices from the very beginning.
The preface is gorgeous and reads more like poetry than any other part of the book. It gets you into the mindset of 30-year-old Melody almost immediately, and paints her as a woman who loves music, but has chosen to give it up for the...more
The preface is gorgeous and reads more like poetry than any other part of the book. It gets you into the mindset of 30-year-old Melody almost immediately, and paints her as a woman who loves music, but has chosen to give it up for the...more
3 likes · like · see review
This is one of the best and most fastmoving books I have ever read. First of all, the language is simple and easy to read. The author did not use very complicated sentences, so it encouraged my desire to read more. As I am a musician, too, String Bridge fascinated me from the very beginning. The author achieves to mingle the reader with the story in a very successful way. For example, I was so pissed when I learned that Melody was cheated by her husband Alex that I was mad at him. Through the en...more
Jessica is a poet, so it's not surprising that she employs good use of imagery, metaphor, and other poetic devices from the very beginning of String Bridge.
The preface is gorgeous and reads more like poetry than any other part of the book. It gets you into the mindset of 30-year-old Melody almost immediately, and paints her as a woman who loves music, but has chosen to give it up for the sake of her family and a stable paycheck.
Though the protagonist refers to herself in the preface as "a mother...more
The preface is gorgeous and reads more like poetry than any other part of the book. It gets you into the mindset of 30-year-old Melody almost immediately, and paints her as a woman who loves music, but has chosen to give it up for the sake of her family and a stable paycheck.
Though the protagonist refers to herself in the preface as "a mother...more
Melody, an Australian living in Greece, decides she wants it all: to combine who she used to be with who she is now. She's ready to pick up her guitar again and play gigs as well as pursue a chance to further her editorial career while being a wife and mother. Yet nothing is life is ever so simple. Jessica says: I wrote String Bridge because I wanted to break into the women's fiction market and steer it away from the stereotypically glorified woman that is most commonly portrayed today. Not ever...more
This is an emotional story of a woman’s journey to find herself and what truly makes her happy.
The story will take you on a roller coaster ride of emotions as the protagonist, Melody, struggles with finding her center. She had been a musician, but gave it up to be a wife and mother. In time she realized she had not only given up her dream, but also a part of herself. She deals with depression and fights to be different than her bipolar mother.
In the end through a series of tragedies, there is...more
String Bridge explodes with emotional conflicts to the very end. Melody’s story is an exercise in decision making, guilt, and in yearning.
Melody’s bipolar mother and her own self worth all threaten to send Melody off the deep, deep end. She believes that she is living a socially acceptable existence. But the strong desire to play her guitar is overwhelming at times. From panic attacks to believing there is a family curse, Melody must come to terms with what she really wants out of life and with...more
Melody’s bipolar mother and her own self worth all threaten to send Melody off the deep, deep end. She believes that she is living a socially acceptable existence. But the strong desire to play her guitar is overwhelming at times. From panic attacks to believing there is a family curse, Melody must come to terms with what she really wants out of life and with...more
String Bridge is author Jessica Bell's debut offering. It is a terrific portrayal of Melody, a career oriented mom who longs for more. With semi-dashed dreams, an unappreciative spouse, and unbalanced parents, an uncertainty about a promotion at work and her husband's secretive behavior drive 'Mel' to an emotional boiling point.
I enjoyed every minute and appreciate the way Bell wrote about very relatable topics. I'm not much for Women's lit, but I will be checking out future books from this aut...more
I enjoyed every minute and appreciate the way Bell wrote about very relatable topics. I'm not much for Women's lit, but I will be checking out future books from this aut...more
I have to say when Jessica first asked me to read the book for a review, I was slightly hesitant because ... well, I'm not much of a women's fiction sort of gal. But upon reading the very first sentence, I was hooked. Which is yet another thing that doesn't usually happen to me.
By the end of the first chapter, I had bonded with Melody in a way I have rarely bonded with a character before. At least not one that wasn't of my own creation. Jessica packed a pretty solid punch. Melody, or Mel, is a w...more
By the end of the first chapter, I had bonded with Melody in a way I have rarely bonded with a character before. At least not one that wasn't of my own creation. Jessica packed a pretty solid punch. Melody, or Mel, is a w...more
As someone who is normally a reader of strictly horror, I found myself wanting to branch out a bit. I couldn't have picked a better novel to do that with. I've seen the term "chick-lit" thrown around a lot, but if String Bridge is indicative of what "chick-lit" is, I may just have to add it as one of my new favorite genres.
I do have to say that if you are a man who has a wife that has given up a lot for the sake of family and marriage, you may want to put on your tough skin for this read. I foun...more
I do have to say that if you are a man who has a wife that has given up a lot for the sake of family and marriage, you may want to put on your tough skin for this read. I foun...more
If this is Ms. Bell's debut novel, I can't wait to read the next one she writes. Mundane events like a job promotion are treated as high drama and are presented in a way that keeps the reader turning pages. The suspicious behavior of the husband, the nature of which is apparent to the reader but just beyond the protagonist's perception, is especially well done. Every great story is made of conflict. String Bridge, scenic and deftly written, is oozing with it.
What I enjoyed most, however, was the...more
What I enjoyed most, however, was the...more
Jessica Bell’s debut novel String Bridge is the story of Melody, an Australian musician, who put down her guitar to raise a family with her Greek husband. Four years later and living on his native soil, Melody realizes she’s become the empty, passionless shell of the person she once was. A return to music is the key to her salvation. But her struggle to decipher her dark feelings, to understand when they are surging from a place of honesty and when they are the result of her own fears or selfish...more
4 likes · like · see review
Taken from HERE
Dare you call this chicklit. And as much as I adore chicklit, this is not the tale of a single girl, lost in the city, romping about to find HER MAN. String Bridge goes beyond that. This is after the girl has found her man, her family and is pushed over as she is made to face the hard realities of life. You could call this the after-the-fairy-tale part of life.
Familial love, marital drudgery, long suppressed dreams - Jessica Bell brings it all in and questions it all. What really...more
Dare you call this chicklit. And as much as I adore chicklit, this is not the tale of a single girl, lost in the city, romping about to find HER MAN. String Bridge goes beyond that. This is after the girl has found her man, her family and is pushed over as she is made to face the hard realities of life. You could call this the after-the-fairy-tale part of life.
Familial love, marital drudgery, long suppressed dreams - Jessica Bell brings it all in and questions it all. What really...more
Jul 31, 2011
Magdalena
added it
Melody is at a crossroads. She's given up her music career for the corporate world of course writing, and motherhood, and her increasingly overbearing Greek husband is trying to keep her in the kitchen and away from both music and management. As Melody inches closer to reinvigorating her stalled dreams and pump up her life, she finds that the obsticles that begin appearing are far more significant and overarching than she could ever imagine. Poet and musician Jessica Bell's debut novel String Br...more
I got the ARC in the mail on Saturday, started the first chapter that night, and couldn't stop thinking about it. Sunday afternoon I decided would be reading day. It had been a hectic week, I deserved a reading day! I was eager to get completely immersed in the world that Jessica Bell so skillfully created in her debut novel STRING BRIDGE.
The print book is a reader's dream: just the right length, a cover you can keep turning back to, finding meaning in each detail. And nice paper! Not that rough...more
The print book is a reader's dream: just the right length, a cover you can keep turning back to, finding meaning in each detail. And nice paper! Not that rough...more
5 likes · like · see review
Warning: Do not read String Bridge—unless you have plenty of spare time. Jessica Bell hooks the reader with a storyline so powerful it consumes you. I read this book in one sitting. I could not put it down.
The POV Melody bares her soul, the descriptive writing is intense and one forgets it is a work of fiction. I was drawn into a storyline so swollen with discontentment that I had to read more. Each page turned I wondered if the ugly side of Melody’s life would emerge and when it did it was thro...more
The POV Melody bares her soul, the descriptive writing is intense and one forgets it is a work of fiction. I was drawn into a storyline so swollen with discontentment that I had to read more. Each page turned I wondered if the ugly side of Melody’s life would emerge and when it did it was thro...more
For us who had been married for a long time;we know how hard it can get once the years start to pile up, kids are present and routine kills the romance. Eventually the relationship changes, and if we are not careful, one day we wake up feeling like we are living with a stranger instead of the person who is suppose to be the love our lives. This is what happen to Melody and Alex in String Bridge. They are drifting apart,and both struggling with who they are now and what they used together. Melody...more
1 like · like · see review
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Jessica has created very real, tangible characters with the kinds of flaws most of us pretend not to have, but deep inside, we know we do. Her exploration of the disillusionment of marriage felt almost like she was in my head at a certain stage in my own—a stage you can work past if you are determined, but nevertheless leaves us somewhat more scarred and fragile. I think she did a brilliant job with tugging emotion and heartstrings... providing a portrait of temptation and regret.
The language of...more
The language of...more
I won this book through Goodreads First Reads. I'm so excited to read it as my boyfriend plays guitar and wants the whole rock star life. Review to follow.
Wow, this book has left me speechless. I went on a complete roller coaster of a ride with Melody in this book. Everything she felt I felt too. I laughed, I cried, I got angry. I don't think I have ever felt so attached to characters in any book before. Every character felt totally real. I loved Melody, on a few occasions she did anger me sligh...more
Wow, this book has left me speechless. I went on a complete roller coaster of a ride with Melody in this book. Everything she felt I felt too. I laughed, I cried, I got angry. I don't think I have ever felt so attached to characters in any book before. Every character felt totally real. I loved Melody, on a few occasions she did anger me sligh...more
String Bridge is the story of Melody, a musician turned mother who finds herself growing more and more discontent with her little life. An Australian-born woman living in Athens, everything about Melody's life has ceased to inspire her. Her husband's anger fills their tiny apartment, her job is thankless, and she has a hard time hiding her growing misery from Tessa, the daughter that is bright spot in her dead-end life. As the dust grows thicker on her guitar case, Melody feels more and more tra...more
Main character Melody is dealing with a promotion in her job as an editor, a husband who loves her, and an adorable, precocious four year-old daughter, who is just too cute.
Life is good, right? Wrong. She's miserable.
Melody decided after daughter Tessa's birth to stop playing the occasional musical gig and focus on being a good wife and Mommy. The only problem is music is her passion. It feeds her soul, and without it, the monotony of daily life is killing her.
She's spiraling into depression, ev...more
Life is good, right? Wrong. She's miserable.
Melody decided after daughter Tessa's birth to stop playing the occasional musical gig and focus on being a good wife and Mommy. The only problem is music is her passion. It feeds her soul, and without it, the monotony of daily life is killing her.
She's spiraling into depression, ev...more
From the outside it would appear Melody Hill, the main character and narrator of Jessica Bell’s debut novel, String Bridge, has a perfect life. She lives in Athens with her charming Greek music promoter husband, she has an adorably precocious daughter, and she has a dream job as an editor for a publishing company with a promotion and raise in the offing.
But getting deeper into her story, the reader finds what’s hidden behind this façade and her wanting-to-please-everyone persona. She is frighten...more
But getting deeper into her story, the reader finds what’s hidden behind this façade and her wanting-to-please-everyone persona. She is frighten...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Rating: 7/10
String Bridge tells the story of Melody, an Australian musician, who came to Greece to sing and ended up getting married to a Greek music promoter, Alex. But life in Athens is not what she expected it to be. She is not doing any gigs, but instead has sort-of settled into the roles of businesswoman, mother and wife. Over the years, she has come to miss that feeling she got when she was creating and performing and it has instead been substituted by the dreary monotone of doing the same...more
String Bridge tells the story of Melody, an Australian musician, who came to Greece to sing and ended up getting married to a Greek music promoter, Alex. But life in Athens is not what she expected it to be. She is not doing any gigs, but instead has sort-of settled into the roles of businesswoman, mother and wife. Over the years, she has come to miss that feeling she got when she was creating and performing and it has instead been substituted by the dreary monotone of doing the same...more
Jessica Bell tore out my heartstrings.
String Bridge is one of those books. It’s a story that I had to read in one sitting because I felt an immediate connection to the characters. I read Melody’s story and kept thinking, “This could have been written about me.” Minus the adorable daughter, Tessa, and the fact that I’m not married, but all the thoughts, the insecurities, the internalizing, the fights, the emotions—all me. I think that’s what separates the good books from the great books for most...more
String Bridge is one of those books. It’s a story that I had to read in one sitting because I felt an immediate connection to the characters. I read Melody’s story and kept thinking, “This could have been written about me.” Minus the adorable daughter, Tessa, and the fact that I’m not married, but all the thoughts, the insecurities, the internalizing, the fights, the emotions—all me. I think that’s what separates the good books from the great books for most...more
Nov 18, 2011
Sheri
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
adults, women,
Recommended to Sheri by:
The publisher supplied me with my copy to review. Thank you.
A poignantly written tale of family, marriage, love, betrayal, and the inner strength of one woman's human spirit to find her true place in her world.
I primarily read young adult and middle grade fiction, because of my love for the raw innocence within that age group. Saying that, I found String Bridge to have a similar pureness I look for when reading children's literature. The characters are well developed with meaningful and realistic inner struggles that a reader can easily relate to.
Melody...more
I primarily read young adult and middle grade fiction, because of my love for the raw innocence within that age group. Saying that, I found String Bridge to have a similar pureness I look for when reading children's literature. The characters are well developed with meaningful and realistic inner struggles that a reader can easily relate to.
Melody...more
Definitely gripping. It might be a cliche to say it's 'unputdownable' but there isn't any other way to describe it. Just amazing.
With a storyline so consuming, it felt like being in some sort of a trance reading this book. I couldn't stop. It felt like being on a rollercoaster of emotions. Just when you think Melody is going to make a long-time dream come true, just when everything is all coming together - piece by piece...BANG! Everything shatters. How does Melody put all the pieces back togeth...more
With a storyline so consuming, it felt like being in some sort of a trance reading this book. I couldn't stop. It felt like being on a rollercoaster of emotions. Just when you think Melody is going to make a long-time dream come true, just when everything is all coming together - piece by piece...BANG! Everything shatters. How does Melody put all the pieces back togeth...more
Jessica Bell’s STRING BRIDGE is a beautifully tragic tale of desire, music, and love.
Melody, an Australian living in Greece, decides she wants it all: to combine who she used to be with who she is now. She’s ready to pick up her guitar again and play gigs as well as pursue a chance to further her editorial career while being a wife and mother. Yet nothing is life is ever so simple. As she searches for the bridge to secure her two halves, she will have to lose it all to find herself.
STRING BRIDGE...more
Melody, an Australian living in Greece, decides she wants it all: to combine who she used to be with who she is now. She’s ready to pick up her guitar again and play gigs as well as pursue a chance to further her editorial career while being a wife and mother. Yet nothing is life is ever so simple. As she searches for the bridge to secure her two halves, she will have to lose it all to find herself.
STRING BRIDGE...more
String Bridge is one of the few contemporary/music-related story I’ve ever find fascinating. It is a story about Melody—a wife, mother, musician, editor—who married a Greek music promoter and soon have a child. Everything seems perfect but she wanted to have her ‘music’ back in her life again, but how can she do it if it means a lot of sacrifices, that even her life and family could be at risk?
As I read the first part of the book, I was somehow lost on the story of Melody, given that I’m not yet...more
As I read the first part of the book, I was somehow lost on the story of Melody, given that I’m not yet...more
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*Goodreads Choice Awards 2012 Semi-finalist: Best Poetry: FABRIC: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13...
If Jessica Bell could choose only one creative mentor, she’d give the role to Euterpe, the Greek muse of music and lyrics. This is not only because she currently resides in Athens, Greece, but because of her life as a thirty-something Australian-native contemporary fiction author, poet and sin...more
More about Jessica Bell...
If Jessica Bell could choose only one creative mentor, she’d give the role to Euterpe, the Greek muse of music and lyrics. This is not only because she currently resides in Athens, Greece, but because of her life as a thirty-something Australian-native contemporary fiction author, poet and sin...more
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“If music were wind, I would live in a hurricane.”
—
6 people liked it
“Imagine you are the Earth and he is the Sun, that silence is tangible, and the stars are the souls of your previous lives.”
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2 people liked it
More quotes…
Dec 14, 2011 11:05am
• Guitar strings, obviously, as this is the instrument Melody plays.
•...more
Dec 14, 2011 09:55pm