Everybody talks about the healing power of love, but only the ones who experience it know its importance. Author Susan Sisko Carter’s second-chance romance title, The Lyric Hotel sensitively captures the universal emotions of love, loss, despair, and the desire to be with someone loving and caring. The story revolves around Jeanette Coles, a commercial director from San Francisco. It’s been eight months since her husband Michael died in a car accident, but Jeanette is still a nervous wreck. She is unable to compre-hend and handle the tragedy that has dawned upon her.
On a fine day, she decides to move into The Lyric Hotel for a change without any fixed plans. The Lyric Hotel was the last place she felt truly alive. It was in 2019 that Jeanette had spent a passionate night with Evan Jameson, a talented cello player. She bumped into him while she was walking her dog.
He performed regularly with world-famous singers like Sting and Diana Krall to name a few. Evan and Jeanette knew there was instant chemistry and spark between the two of them. They were madly in love but they were both married and had commitments towards their respective partners. It was a night that changed their lives forever. Evan’s life revolves around his gig and pregnant wife.
Trying to cope with her loneliness and husband’s death, Jeanette stays at the hotel. She mingles with some of the guests and even ends up having sexual encounters with a few of them. But at the end of the day, she still feels lost and lonely. There is a void in her life that she is unable to fill.
She gets an invitation from her mother in Paris to come and spend the Christmas holidays with her, but Jeanette has other things on her mind. She hopes to meet the man of her dreams, her true love. Inspired by Carter’s real-life adventures, The Lyric Hotel is a wonderfully written story that has the lyrical grace and sounds of a seasoned musician. But does Jeannette find love again? Now that is something that only time will reveal, till then you can only visualise the ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign outside her hotel room door.
