It was ok. It didn't keep my interest so I stopped reading about 3/4 of the way thru.

Rhapsody by Lauren E Rico.
Top cellist Julia James has begun a whole new life- happily married and expecting her first child. She is finally poised to have the life she's always dreamed of and she is finally able to put the past behind her. 


Unfortunately, the past isn't quite done with Julia yet.

Riding high on his gold medal win at the Kreisler International Music Competition, Jeremy Corrigan is stunned to find his reputation in tatters, along with his plans for fame and fortune. But Jeremy isn't one to tolerate failure.
Once he has determined that Julia and her husband are to blame for his troubles, there's nothing he won't do to regain control over his fate... and theirs.
Absolutely fantastic read with brilliant characters. This series just gets better and better. Love characters except Jeremy. Don't trust him. Very gripping read. 5*. Netgalley and Weaponry co-op.

Hi, sweeeties! I’m back again to review the sequel of the turn-paging beautiful novel written by Lauren R. Rico: Rhapsody. This book is truly a gem in the sea of the newly-written novels and it sets thrilling events that will lead to know and even darker side of the charming Jeremy Corrigan.
PREMISE
I had just finished reading “Reverie” by Lauren E. Rico and I wanted to stick to my plan to alternate English ebooks to Italian books, but it didn’t work very well. I decided to continue reading the story of Matthew Ayers, Julia James and Jeremy Corrigan and God only knows how good my decision was. I love all of these characters, each of them has given me something and each of them has taught me life lessons that I won’t forget. So, here we are, I hope you all enjoy my review! Happy reading!
SYNOPSIS (FROM GOODREADS)
Top cellist Julia James has begun a whole new life- happily married and expecting her first child. She is finally poised to have the life she's always dreamed of and she is finally able to put the past behind her. 



Unfortunately, the past isn't quite done with Julia yet.


Riding high on his gold medal win at the Kreisler International Music Competition, Jeremy Corrigan is stunned to find his reputation in tatters, along with his plans for fame and fortune. But Jeremy isn't one to tolerate failure.

Once he has determined that Julia and her husband are to blame for his troubles, there's nothing he won't do to regain control over his fate... and theirs.

Love, redemption and betrayal collide in the dark romance, RHAPSODY.

REVIEW
I love Lauren Rico’s books. They are dark, dark romance, yet there is still space for real love, redemption and happiness. They are not the classical dark romance books one would expect, I say that because I am used to read Italian dark romance and they are quite different. This book is the sequel of “Reverie”, and it stars where the other book ended. We find Matthew and Julia Ayers happily married, expecting their first child and trying to live the normal life of a common happy couple. Then we are introduced to the new characters of the novel: the social worker Maggie Collins and her sister Miranda. Maggie is a very badass woman who does what is right and not what is easy, she faces her problems with a strong attitude and a fragile yet tough demeanor. Her relationship with Brett Corrigan don’t start suddenly, it takes time for them to accept that Brett acts the way he acts because he’s badly influenced by his brother, the charismatic and bad Jeremy Corrigan. When “Reverie” ended, we saw Jeremy finally happy to have won the gold medal in the Kreisler International Competition, but after that, his career has sunk due to the rumors surrounding him. Jeremy, in Europe, is seen as the only who could have benefit of Cal Burridge’s death and those rumors are ill-fating for his career, because he won’t receive neither a contract nor an offer to play in one Philharmonic. These things make Jeremy unstable and fuel his determination to take his revenge on Matthew and Julia Ayers, the first to spread the rumors about Cal Burridge’s poisoning and the ones who can only the responsible for his absence of job offers. Jeremy comes back to New York and threatens Julia, what frightened me the most was that he would be able to kill a baby, a baby, in order to reach his aim! I was truly shocked, but Jeremy is a dark character, a sociopath who thinks that everyone must be at his commands and that everything must go the way the planned. Brett starts to truly live again without the conditioning enacted upon him by Jeremy. Brett has always acted like he didn’t care about anything, but when we read, we peel off layers and layers of abuse enacted by an evil little brother that wanted to control his life, his interests and even the people who he could or couldn’t see. I loved Brett’s transformation into a lovely human being, and what I love the most is that this transformation wouldn’t have happened without the presence of Maggie. The main point, or the fil rouge, in this novel is the suffocating presence of Jeremy, who will everything he can to control people. One last thing before I stop myself, because I am at risk of spoiling you the novel. I hated a little bit Jeremy’s and Brett’s parents, for only one reasons that I can’t take off my mind: they always knew that Jeremy was a sociopath, that he hurt people and things for his pleasure, and they DIDN’T DO ANYTHING TO STOP HIM. I can’t accept that. Why? I keep asking myself why, because I really don’t understand that. They could have laid him into a psychiatric hospital or a psychiatric ward of an hospital. I seriously can’t accept that. That goes beyond everything for me.
As in “Reverie”, the novel is divided into six chapters, each of one written by the POV of the character used, so we have Maggie, Brett, Jeremy, Matthew and Julia. The way the novel is structured reminded me of a choral novel, where the main characters speak to the reader, but this novel it isn’t totally like a choral one. I think that the genre of the novel is dark romance, or at least, dark new adult. What I am trying to say is that there are traits of different literary genres that can be found here, but they are so well mixed that you don’t see all of the in a blink of an eye. We see the characters grow, become adults and build their own families. The developing of the characters is what I loved the most, in particular Brett’s change of attitude. I smiled when I saw Brett’s redemption and his attempts to do the right way, this time. Jeremy, instead, is even darker than I remember, always pushing people to the edge (like the poor Laurie Daughtry) and working in the shadow to get where he wants to get.
I found some mistakes, for example, inverted commas at the beginning of a sentence and then no commas to close the discourse or a little repetition of the same terms. I gave 4 stars on Goodreads, but the reality is that I gave him 4 stars and a half. This book is so beautiful, so thrilling, so shocking that you can only love it, there’s no in between.
I farewell you all with this quote from a beautiful and good book that I advise to all:
“You’re not a bad person, Brett. You just forgot that you’re a good person.”
(Maggie Collins to Brett Corrigan)

NOTE: This review can be read both in Italian and English.

Enjoyed this series. Captivating and kept my attention

I started reading this because I love music and there was a French Horn involved (I used to play the instrument) but I dont think I will look at an orchestra again without thinking of this book. I couldn't put it down I had to see what happened next. My only problem was her (Julia's) naivety, especially due to her past. The twists and turns will keep you glued.

Lauren RIco is my new favorite author! If you have not started this trilogy do yourself a favor and start it now. This book is full of love, music and suspense. READ IT!! It is so very good I read one right after the other and couldn't stop telling people about them!