The Musician's Daughter by Susanne Dunlap

[meganbmoore]

Theresa’s father is a musician in the court of Prince Nicholas Esterhazy’s court in 18th century Vienna. She wants to be a musician herself, and plays the viola, but her mother intends for her to marry soon. When her father is killed, her pregnant mother is bedridden with shock, and Theresa has to find a way to provide for the family, even as she learns that her father was murdered, and may have been involved in a larger scheme against corruption in the court that may have also involved a group of (thankfully non-fetishized) gypsies that are camped nearby.

The book is stronger than the title premise, and feels more true to the period than some other YA historical fiction, despite a somewhat modern feeling heroine. The description builds up the romance, but that’s very much a background feature, and is mostly Theresa’s pre-existing crush on a young musician who worked with her father, and whose main purpose in the plot is to help connect Theresa to the bigger players, and his sister, a lady in waiting who becomes a friend of Theresa’s, actually plays a more important role. The main focus is the mystery of her father’s death and the events behind it, and Theresa looking for her place in the world. Plotwise, my only real complaint is the early establishment that Theresa’s father supports her dreams, while her mother opposes them and want her to be proper and get married and start having babies soon. Thankfully, it isn’t a case of “evil mother who doesn’t understand,” but of her mother trying to provide for all members of her family the ways society tells her is the only way she can. Still, that parental dichotomy can die a rapid death already.

Also, I have a strong hatred for the title (yay for the pretty cover?). Not only is it of the “female’s identity determined by relationship with more important man” but it also ignores that fact that Theresa is a musician herself, but I guess that’s not considered as important. Headbash here. The Musician would have been a much better title.