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A review by cas_reads_anything
Not Another Love Song by Julie Soto
4.0
I recieved an advanced copy of this book at no charge.
This was an extremely enjoyable read. I liked Julie Soto’s debut quite a bit, but I think this was better.
We follow two rivals, a violinist who has lost her family and was struggling financially before she found a stable position with a pop orchestra playing 7th chair with a few weddings on the side. Gwen isn’t taking risks and sure, maybe she’s not growing much as a violinist, but she’s finally found a place where she has some stability and belonging.
Enter Xander Thorne, bad boy cello rock star (don’t laugh, I know. there’s some suspension of disbelief with that one). He doesn’t show up on time, is rude to his fellow orchestra members, and seems to be focusing on his own side gig as a rock star more than anything else. Until Gwen is promoted to the position of first chair—the position Xander was promised and wanted his entire life.
There is competition, miscommunication, rivalry, and a number of scenes where I need a diagram to understand how his hands are holding what while she’s apparently playing a cello?! I loved the tension between the two and the depth of the characters with their non-romantic struggles woven in as well. The first part of their relationship is lowkey unhealthy, as are the relationship dynamics of a lot of the side characters, as Xander seems to feel like he knows better than Gwen about what she needs, is feeling, or should do. But the book definitely calls out the unhealthiness. I wish it had done a little more to work through and reconcile that, as well as explaining Xander’s sudden change of heart in the third act a little more. It’s not that they don’t make sense, because they do, but it felt a little glossed over so that we could just get to more spice scenes. Which, valid. But I would have taken another 30-50 pages of this book to fill things in a bit more for sure.
Either way, I will be picking up whatever Julie Soto writes next for sure.
This was an extremely enjoyable read. I liked Julie Soto’s debut quite a bit, but I think this was better.
We follow two rivals, a violinist who has lost her family and was struggling financially before she found a stable position with a pop orchestra playing 7th chair with a few weddings on the side. Gwen isn’t taking risks and sure, maybe she’s not growing much as a violinist, but she’s finally found a place where she has some stability and belonging.
Enter Xander Thorne, bad boy cello rock star (don’t laugh, I know. there’s some suspension of disbelief with that one). He doesn’t show up on time, is rude to his fellow orchestra members, and seems to be focusing on his own side gig as a rock star more than anything else. Until Gwen is promoted to the position of first chair—the position Xander was promised and wanted his entire life.
There is competition, miscommunication, rivalry, and a number of scenes where I need a diagram to understand how his hands are holding what while she’s apparently playing a cello?! I loved the tension between the two and the depth of the characters with their non-romantic struggles woven in as well. The first part of their relationship is lowkey unhealthy, as are the relationship dynamics of a lot of the side characters, as Xander seems to feel like he knows better than Gwen about what she needs, is feeling, or should do. But the book definitely calls out the unhealthiness. I wish it had done a little more to work through and reconcile that, as well as explaining Xander’s sudden change of heart in the third act a little more. It’s not that they don’t make sense, because they do, but it felt a little glossed over so that we could just get to more spice scenes. Which, valid. But I would have taken another 30-50 pages of this book to fill things in a bit more for sure.
Either way, I will be picking up whatever Julie Soto writes next for sure.