What You Do to Me by Rochelle Weinstein
What's It About?
A moving novel of two unfinished love stories and the music and lyrics that bring them together. Journalist Cecilia James is a sucker for a love song. So when she stumbles across a clue to the identity of the muse for one of rock’s greatest, she devotes herself to uncovering the truth, even as her own relationship is falling apart.“Music’s all the words we’re afraid to say out loud. So we create lyrics. And the tune carries it where it needs to go.”
The muse behind the greatest love song of all time is a mystery. But Cecilia James, a determined young assistant at Rolling Stone is determined to uncover the truth behind it — and finally launch her career with a story to top the charts.
Rochelle Weinstein’s What You Do to Me (Lake Union Publishing) weaves the story of two women — a music journalist and the mystery woman behind a song — and the great loves and losses that have shaped their lives.
The Muse Behind a Hit Love Song
Cecilia has always been a fan of the hit single “What You Do To Me” by the band High Tide — a single so powerful and successful it “knocked Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Time After Time’ out of the Billboard number-one slot” within its first week. Named after the Simon & Garfunkel song, Cecilia grew up on Joplin, Dylan, James Taylor, Carole King, and Fleetwood Mac, but it was a High Tide song that was playing when she and her long-term boyfriend Pete professed their love for each other.
What starts as a fascination with a love song becomes a hunt for the truth about the woman behind it — and a quest to find the missing songwriter who disappeared after a tragedy struck his final concert. Five years after a crowd rushed the stage and left several dead and injured hundreds, a woman visits the memorial on the anniversary, sitting beside Cecilia who is grieving her own relationship troubles.
When the pair exchange brief words about love and loss, Cecilia is caught by the woman’s departing comment, “He wrote those words for me”. It isn’t until Cecilia discovers a crumpled envelope on the ground, labeled “For Sarita”, that she realizes she has met the woman behind the song.
A lead sheet with the melody, chords and lyrics to “What You Do To Me” confirms her suspicion, and it takes a cipher to break a code embedded in the music. Soon after, Cecilia is led on a wild chase to find Eddie Vee, the missing singer who disappeared after the tragedy, and to once again track down the mysterious Sarita.
Navigating Faith, Family and Fears
Weaving two separate timelines — one in Miami in 1978, with one in LA in 1996 — Rochelle Weinstein tells the story of Sara Friedman and Eddie Vee’s young love, and Cecilia’s mission to uncover it.
Sara and Eddie’s star-crossed love story begins with summers spent in Miami Beach. But Sara and Eddie come from different worlds, and being together means taking advantage of secret, stolen moments on the beach and away from family. Eddie is orphaned and living with his abuelo, and Sara visits every Jewish holiday with her extended family and strict parents.
With a mother who values Jewish tradition — expecting Sara to eventually marry her nice Jewish neighbor, Abel — and a father who values their community, breaking free is impossible. Sara is faced with the conflict of faith and familial duty versus love, which to Sara is hardly a conflict at all — she vows that her love for Eddie would never compromise her faith, but the repercussions of defying family and tradition would be a heavy weight to bear.
Reluctantly parting ways is the only choice for the teenagers, until one determined journalist gets curious, threatening to resurface the unresolved feelings of the estranged former lovers. What You Do to Me is a bittersweet love story that has readers hoping for a resolution, pining for that “running through the airport to profess your love” kind of reconciliation. When Cecilia finally tracks down the shell of a man who was once Eddie Vee, turned bitter by the tragedy, the years, and the loss of the only woman he ever loved — is the promise of a reunion with Sarita enough to drag him out of his own despair?
Beautiful Story with Compelling Lead Characters
What You Do To Me balances the stories of two women, determined to find their paths in life and make sense of the immense grief and loss that surrounds them. Weinstein has crafted two compelling lead women in Sara and Cecilia, allowing their paths to converge as they embark on their own personal journeys.
The story itself was inspired by “Hey There Delilah” by the Plain White T’s, another song about a far-away love, retelling the story with a fairytale ending. Each chapter in the book is marked by another song named after someone special, because don’t all great love songs have a story behind them? Weinstein’s story is a touching exploration of music’s power to change the world — and if not the whole world, then at least it will inspire a few love stories.
About Rochelle Weinstein:
Rochelle B. Weinstein is the USA Today and Amazon bestselling author of seven women’s fiction novels, including When We Let Go, This Is Not How It Ends, and Somebody’s Daughter. A former entertainment industry executive, she splits her time between sunny South Florida and the mountains of North Carolina. As Miami’s NBC 6 in the Mix monthly book contributor, Rochelle is on the hunt for the next great read while she teaches publishing workshops at Nova Southeastern University. She loves hiking, beach walks, her two dogs, and finding the world’s best nachos. She is currently working on her eighth novel.
