In the summer of 1978, fifteen-year-old Kristina Kelly roams the quiet wheat fields of rural Kansas, burdened by the silence inside her family's crumbling farmhouse. With a distant mother and a father locked in hopeless retreat, Kristina is growing up in the shadows of family trauma-longing to breathe, to dream, to feel anything other than numb. When her older brother Stephen offers her an escape to Southern California, Kristina believes she's found her second chance. Surrounded by sunshine, movement, and music, she begins to see the world-and herself-anew. This shift marks the beginning of a deeply personal coming of age story, where the beauty of possibility collides with the gravity of a past not yet faced. In California, she meets Damon Thorpe-a gifted, driven musician whose songs are stitched together with grief and memory. Though poised on the edge of success, Damon remains haunted by his own past, a shadowed presence that colors every stage he steps on. Their connection is immediate and electric, but fragile. Both are seeking more than just love. They're seeking healing. Together, Kristina and Damon journey to Australia, hoping that distance will finally quiet what lingers inside them. But the farther they run, the more they realize that healing doesn't come through escape-it comes through truth. And the truth is that the past must be confronted before the future can be claimed. For readers drawn to books about family trauma, books about self-discovery, and fiction books about musicians, Chasing Life's Song offers a tender exploration of how we grow through pain, love, and the power of confronting what we fear. This is not another one of those books about hope or books about forgiveness but deals with the struggle to escape the past. Melissa Neal Eckert delivers an emotionally resonant novel about finding your voice-even when it trembles. Chasing Life's Song is a luminous, character-driven debut for anyone who has ever searched for meaning in the aftermath of loss or wondered if the pieces of a broken past could still lead to something beautiful.
