Sounds Like Love

The protagonist and first-person narrator of Sounds Like Love is Joni Lark. Her parents are Hank and Wynona Lark, and her brother is Mitch Lark. In the narrative present, Joni is in her early thirties. Nine years ago, she broke up with Van Erickson—her long-term boyfriend—and moved from her hometown of Vienna Shores, North Carolina, to Los Angeles, California. A music lover and passionate lyricist, Joni relocated to pursue her dreams. She hoped the move would help her start her life over to become the person she’d always dreamed of being. Additionally, she believed that she might realize the musical dreams that her mother never got to realize when she was young. However, at the novel’s start, Joni has profound writer’s block and feels unfulfilled despite her vocational success. Her chance encounter with Sebastian (Sasha) Fell and subsequent trip home to Vienna Shores launches her complex self-examination, developing The Journey Toward Healing and Self-Reclamation as a theme.

Joni is a sympathetic, if insecure, character. She particularly doubts herself because of her artistic frustrations. If she can’t write new songs, she fears that she’ll lose her entire sense of self.