Not Another Love Song by Julie Soto is a delightful exploration of love, music, and self-discovery. The story follows a talented young woman grappling with her feelings for a fellow musician while navigating the complexities of her dreams and insecurities. Soto’s writing is vibrant and engaging, capturing the passion and struggles of her characters. With its witty dialogue and heartfelt moments, this novel resonates with anyone who has ever faced the ups and downs of young love. A must-read for contemporary romance fans!

Not Another Love Song by Julie Soto is a great romance novels for music lovers or people generally interested in music. Julie is phenomenal when it comes to her descriptive writing and this story was just as much a love letter to music as it was a romance between the two main characters. For me personally, I wasn't the biggest fan of the romance between Gwen and Xander but I would still recommend this story to others due to the plot and how well written it was.

Phenomenal romance- loved seeing two main characters working in music! The spice is wonderfully written, the tension is perfect, the side characters are loveable, this is all around one of the best books I’ve read all year.

Coming into this book as a BIG fan of Forget Me Not and this book did not disappoint! The camp from Ama and Elliot was so great. Julie Soto writes amazing layered characters and she really nails the connection between them, building it up until it’s palpable to the reader. The way they challenge each other, the way music is built into their relationship, highly recommend listening to a Spotify playlist made for this book while reading. Highly recommend this one and Forget me Not as well this is an auto buy author for me!

5 stars. I LOVED Forget Me Not, and somehow I loved this one even more. The chemistry between Gwen and Alex is so good! I loved how this book tackled more deep connection and communication, I feel as though this one had more of that than Forget Me Not. Alex is DOWN BAD for Gwen and I always love a mmc who is just a total simp. I can never look at a cello the same way again!

This book is a beautiful slow burn. Musically talented, chemistry is there! The main characters compliment each other in this rivals romance story!

I had never read anything from Julie Soto before and let me just say it did not disappoint. The writing just sweeps you completely into the story and characters until you're lost in it. The chemistry between the FMC and MMC is so complex and intriguing, I genuinely couldn't put this book down! I understand why Booktok never stops talking about this book

I absolutely loved this book!
First of all music rivals may be a hotter trope than sports just saying! Gwen was a perfect imperfect, main character, her growth throughout the book was just incredible and also very human and realistic. Alexander had a very different journey of finding himself but is also l very real and human and the two of them together created such a perfect couple that challenged each other with while meaning, love and support. A

I love Julie Soto - I devoured her debut and this one was no different! The tension was amazing and I loved how refreshing it was to have musical rivals instead of coworkers. I already want to reread this, listen to the audio, and buy the physical copy.

I ate this one up! Gwen and Xander had so much angst that I really enjoyed.
Xander was down bad for our girl, but she was down bad for him too, so reciprocity.
I loved all the orchestral shenanigans, the found family backstory and watching Gwen and Xander get closer and confess their feelings for each other.
The family dynamics regarding Xander and his mother was so sad to see, but happy that they worked it out.
Definitely recommended this one if you're looking for something not too heavy, but with some substance regarding the backstory of our MCs.

Absolutely loved this book. The banter between the two main characters was fantastic. I have a huge love for the strings so I may have been a bit bias going into this book but it lived up to expectations for sure!! The playlist for this book is also now my favorite playlist to read to. LISTEN TO THE PLAYLIST WHILE READING. It just makes it that much more fun!

Plot: Gwen is a big fan of Xander's band, but doesn't necessarily have the same respect for him in "real" life, where he is the chronically late cellist who doesn't seem to know that she exists. But once they manage to connect and unravel some of their misconceptions of one another and make music together, she starts to see another side to Xander. Meanwhile, there are also career happenings in the orchestra and the plot weaves a tight web around Gwen and Xander, creating an emotional and vibrant environment for these two to come together.

What I Loved: Julie Soto's sophomore novel was so well-crafted and as a lover of books about music, I really enjoyed all of those parts. This book keeps the focus narrow, but in a way that still feels large, which I think can largely be attributed to the overlap of secondary characters shared by both love interests. I think technically Not Another Love Story is really well done.

What I Struggled With: The plot provided the tension, but I didn't always get the emotional beats the way I prefer. There were things we learn about each character's backstory where I can guess what an underlying fear or motivation of a later action might be, but I never quite felt it because it was more stated than shown.

Who I Would Recommend Not Another Love Song to: People who like books about music and are in the mood for a melancholic book.

this book got me into music the way the love hypothesis got me into science -- just enough to now find those jobs sexy af

Okay wow, I am blown away by this book. It's so touching and the music. I have never read a story this impactful before. As a music journalist, it is rare to read about this trope with classical music. I want a sequel now.

Another stunner from Julie Soto! While I didn't love this book quite as much as her first, I did still really enjoy it.

I really loved the relationship between Alex and Gwen and felt like the character development was really spot on. That is the thing I think Julie does really well. She builds really strong internal conflicts in both of her main characters and is able to really build on those throughout the book. Both main characters end up overcoming something major that is really holding their life back, and those changes are brought about by the strong feelings they have for each other and wanting to be with each other. Love really does conquer all in Julie's books, and I absolutely love that.

Again, I really fell for all the side characters and relationships in this book, and the easter eggs throwing back to Forget Me Not were phenomenal. I love when books are in the same canonical universe. I really hope we get a book about Mar in the future! She's one of my favorite side characters. Mabel was another of my favorites in this book though - the fact that she had a relationship with both Alex and Gwen, before they even knew each other, was a really fun plot point.

I feel like there could have been a bit more plot in this book. What was there was fantastic, and the tension did really shine through. But there were a lot more spicy scenes in this book than in Forget Me Not, and I'm not sure they had as much of an impact. They felt almost a bit too frequent for what was going on. Some scenes were definitely needed to establish the relationship and even some of the conflict (hello, cello scene!). But some just felt a bit unnecessary and didn't really serve to advance the story at all. I think a lot more plot could have been developed if they had been cut back a bit. Some more scenes from Alex's POV would have been nice, maybe some more flashbacks to his childhood and schooling and transition from Alex to Xander. I can appreciate that maybe Julie didn't want to do a lot of flashbacks to differentiate a bit from her first book, but I think they could have served a purpose here. Or perhaps more conflict with Alex's agent and Nathan working together. Something needed to be added to elevate the story beyond the spice.

I definitely don't think this was as strong of a story as Forget Me Not, and that makes sense given it sounds like this story was written and submitted to agents first. I will definitely say Julie's traditionally published romances are better qualified by Forget Me Not than this story, but I love her writing and it still did this book justice. It was an addictive and fun read, and I will definitely be looking out for more from Julie in the future.

*I received this eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

I ended up not finishing this book after reading 50%. I liked the first half but didn’t find myself interested enough to finish it. Thank you so much to Forever for the ARC.

Love! Love! Love!
Am I tired of the Adam Driver mmcs? OF course
Does my ass still eat them up? Of course!
I love this book. It was sweet, steamy, unique. I am such a huge fan of Soto's writing!
It keeps me so engaged!

This was such a great book! I love anything Julie Soto writes so I wasn't surprised this one was a homerun also!

While I may have finished Not Another Love Song a lot later than expected, I was always fascinated with it. It wasn’t the story that made me not want to read, it just wasn’t the perfect time. The characters were lovely, and the chemistry was there… but I did wish it was more. Alex and Gwen are said to have such sizzling chemistry but I kind of needed more to believe it. However, their relationship was not lacking!

The story was great and Julie Soto is an author id definitely keep reading

I enjoyed this and the writing style, and the story was compelling. I am very interested in reading this author’s future work and this was a very solid romance. Would definitely recommend to others.