Not Another Love Song by Julie Soto: My Review
Check out my book review of Not Another Love Song by Julie Soto to learn more about this romance featuring two musicians that drew inspiration from fanfiction.
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Not Another Love Song Summary:
When professionalโand self-taughtโviolinist Gwen Jackson plays, she disappears into the peaks and valleys of each song, a quiet passion that never quite explodes into pure emotion. Xander Thorne is the exact opposite.
A cellist and a rock star, heโs all about big emotion, but not even his six-foot-four frame can contain his skill, his genius . . . and an attitude that borders on jerkitude.
Not only did it take Xander a year to notice that he and Gwen both play in the Manhattan Pops, but he also always seems to have the perfect cutting criticism about her technique.
When Gwen is offered the role of first chair of the orchestra, something Xander has secretly coveted for years, their existing hostility goes up a notch. Yet, despite her best efforts, Gwen canโt ignore the sizzling chemistry between them.
Forced to work more closely with each other, they canโt help exploring their attraction. As they begin to compose and play songs together, itโs clear that their powerful connection could make for a performance that would blow everyoneโs minds. Suddenly, theyโre box office dynamite, and the fragile romance growing between them is in danger of being crushed beneath a publicity stunt.
Not Another Love Song: My Review
I was beyond excited for Julie Sotoโs second novel since I fell hard for her writing and love story in her debut, Forget Me Not last year. Overall I think this book shows that Julie has some significant writing chops and she will continue to be an automatic read for me into the future.
It was a very well written book about some amazing musicians that deserved one another but there were definitely some mixed feelings along the way while reading it.
With a rivals to lovers set-up, I thought this book had a great opening with Gwen finally becoming someone on Xanderโs radar after playing at a wedding. I found things slowed a bit for the next several chapters and focused a lot on Xanderโs reactions to Gwen.
Iโm not sure if his social awkwardness and poor communication were just arrogance or a fact that he was a musical genius and wasnโt adept at social interactions given his history and upbringing but it made it hard to connect with him at first and to believe that Gwen would fall for him so quickly.
But I also had to remember how young they were (Gwen was only 22) and that they really didnโt have any solid parental or adult guidance from people who truly had their back. That really broke my heart for both of them. Iโll give some credit to Mabel but I had to remember their backgrounds to better understand her naivety and his crassness.
When I finally got to the point where they get together โ the novel really changed for me and it was INCREDIBLE. That initial scene will be burned into my brain forever. And Xanderโs about-face with his actions and words toward Gwen made me finally fall for the man.
Overall, I was fascinated that this book centered around an orchestra, the music and some incredible musicians as well as they crazy politics, and selfish behavior that probably goes along with it. I only wish I could follow along with some music while I read so that I could understand what a vibrato or rallentandos or the other musical terms were.
I am looking forward to Sotoโs romantasy to drop next!
Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced reader copy. All opinions are my own.