The Second Ending by Michelle Hoffman

 genre: contemporary fiction

Prudence feels broken.  Her children are off to college, she has no direction and her past won't seem to stay where it belongs.  As a child prodigy pianist who toured the world, she said goodbye to that sphere to save her sanity and hasn't played serious music in decades.  But when old decisions threaten to destroy the life she's made for herself, Prudence agrees to go on a dueling pianos tv show against Alexei Petrov, a young and handsome Russian pianist who has the world at his feet.  And they both want to win.

It sounds like a campy plot, but I'n telling you, this book surprised me with its depth and emotion.  One part made me actually teary, I felt so touched just not by the prose but by the underlying idea of music being so powerful it can actually change lives.  Maybe it helps that I already believe this, but I love how this theme is all over this book.  You know what it sorta reminded me of?  Where'd You Go Bernadette.  Prudence reminds me a lot of Bernadette and the humor here didn't make me laugh out loud necessarily, but was it pretty enjoyable.  It's about toxic relationships and how to make your way out, it's about how you can choose to do things differently.  It's mostly, though, about how there is power in believing that if you aren't happy with where your life is going that you can start - NOW - to change your ending.