This book scratched an itch I didn't know I had right now. It is an adorable contemporary romance about 2 musicians in New York, loosely a reylo fanfic (love that.) Xander is a brooding simp and Gwen is incredibly relatable in her awkwardness.
I don't love a miscommunication trope but the tension was sublime.
I might have gotten an ARC but I will 100% be buying a copy because the cover is beautiful. Also the scene from the cover is so good!
Also god bless kindle for having the ability to look up words because my musical knowledge is lacking.
I loved the concept of the book and had a grand time reading it

Julie Soto is an absolute mastermind! I was hooked on the premise of Not Another Love Song, but the chemistry and witty writing reeled me right in hook, line, and sinker. This is a phenomenal story with great pacing, well-developed characters, and utterly delicious rivals-to-lovers energy. Seriously, this book kept me up all night. And no, I have ZERO regrets. Not Another Love Song is just *that* good.

I loved the chemistry between Alex and Gwen. Two people who share the same passion. The characters were wonderfully written and well developed! Both of their growth and understanding of each other was chefs kiss. Just spicy enough as well! The story was delightful and I thoroughly enjoyed it, I read it in 2 days. Definitely a book I will be rereading.

Julie Soto…the woman that you are! Julie just cannot write a bad book. I would read her grocery lists if she’d let me.

Alex and Gwen are a cellist and violinist, respectively who are first chairs in an orchestra. Think of the tension between them staring at each other over their music stands during a rehearsal. Need I say more? This book is a love letter to the starving artist and the hustle of New Yorkers. The whirlwind rivals to lovers romance is done beautifully and Julie tastefully brings easter eggs from her past book into this story for her dedicated readers.

One thing about Julie Soto? She’ll give you a complex character and a feel good romance. I will read anything and everything she puts out.

Thank you NetGalley and Julie Soto for letting me read this book early!! I have recently read Forget Ne Not and couldn’t wait for Julie’s next book to be released.

Not Another Love Song stole my heart and made me feel ALL the feelings. How could you not when Julie creates a masterpiece where a cello/violinist are rivals to lovers and the tension was through the roof! I did find the start of the book hard to get into but once I hit the 25-30% mark I couldn’t get enough.

I Received an ARC courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review, thank you for the opportunity.
My first read by Julie Soto but certainly not my last. This is a rivals to lovers uniquely written storyline where music is the main topic. I dare you to look at playing or listening to these instruments the same after this book ;) It has ALL the things I love and loathe in a story line. Banter, betrayal, spice, great supporting characters but also despicable villains (why are people so mean?) the jump to conclusions can't solve a life problem as an adult... insert eye roll. But regardless, worth the read :)

📣 whew!!!! 🔥 This one is sooo good!

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.

📖 what’s your fave long song? One of mine is “Green Eyes” by Coldplay. It was mine & my husband’s wedding song! But these days, I’m really digging Hozier & his dramatic & swoony ballads.

Not Another Love Song by Julie Soto is where it’s at. I freaking adored this one! The chemistry between Gwen and Alex is unreal.

Despite the fact that I dropped out of elementary school band after a few months (RIP clarinet), my soul thinks I’m a musician. The way that Not Another Love Song approaches music & conveys the act of performing & making exquisite sound is so powerful.

You can feel the chemistry soo much when they play music together and when they’ve finished playing music. I mean, my Kindle was sweating.

But despite how blazing hot this book is, I could also feel the emotion underpinning it all, & I loved seeing initially jerk-ish Alex learn some things, & Gwen, too.

Some of the secondary characters (shout-out Mei!) add some much appreciated comic relief amid the other rich emotions in this romance.

Please check this one out—I think you will love it!

5 ⭐️. Out 07/16.

CWs: a manipulative stepdad & boss, previous loss of family members, parental estrangement.

[ID: Jess wears a purple & white striped dress with blue & green floral designs & holds the book while standing in the grass.]

Julie Soto se ha convertido en una de mis autoras favoritas, sabe como escribir un romance y establecer relaciones haciendo que uno como lector sienta todos esas emociones, me la pasé todo el libro con mariposas en el estómago. ❤️
Este romance tiene todo lo que me gusta, estoy obsesionada!
-Música
-Rivales a amantes
-Slow burn
-Diferentes POV

La química y tensión que tienen Gwen y Xander es increíble. Gwen es una violinista y Xander en un violonchelista que tiene su banda de rock. La historia de amor combinada con la música, la música combinada con lo spicy 1000/10
Los personajes secundarios son muy buenos y los pequeños fragmentos que tiene los protagonistas con personajes del primer libro me encantaron.
Es un libro que muero por tener en físico. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Gwen is a young violinist living in NYC playing at weddings to make ends meet while also playing as 4th Chair in the Manhattan Pops Orchestra. When she shows up at a wedding and learns they expect her to play the cello, she must borrow a cello from Xander, who is in the wedding party. Xander Thorne from Thorne and Roses. Xander also happens to be First Chair in the cello section of the Pops, but doesn’t even recognize her. He tells her afterwards she shouldn’t be playing weddings.

Wow. Julie Soto does it again. Not Another Love Song flows perfectly after Forget Me Not. The build-up with Xander and Gwen was perfect. The found family. The absolute poetry describing the composing. The hustle and question of how to maintain stability early on in your career felt so genuine. Now I’ll just be wishing Thorne and Roses was real so I could listen.

“THIS IS SOME GOURMET LOVE STORY SHIT.”
Mei might be one of my favourite side characters for sure. I love Julie’s writing and the detail she puts into each character. I love Jacob and Gwen’s inside joke role playing. How relate-able Gwen is by liking a video of Alex (Xander) from 2021. The little details. He put “squeaky” on her sheet music. The call back at the end to why he was walking and getting tacos. Absolutely love that characters from her first book spill over into this one. And love the added detail of Gwen observing a certain florist’s ass get squeezed.
I am also thankful that we get some chapters with Alex’s perspective as well. Obsessed that “that scene” is the chosen cover for this book. “Didn’t Mabel ever tell you never let a girl get in between you and your instrument “. I also appreciate the subtlety of the villain introduction. You know something’s UP with them but you don’t know the full extent.

I really dislike third act breakups. BUT I think what makes me dislike them is the miscommunication that is usually involved and there was none of that here. So I found I wasn’t frustrated at all, and I was really just rooting for them to figure things out on their own and come back to each other.

I was laughing, crying and really regretting never learning an instrument before the age of 12.
Alex is the enemies to lovers grump we all love.
✨“You’ve been watching me?”✨
✨“I want to be clear. I want you in every way”✨

Julie Soto was an auto-read for me after I borrowed Forget Me Not from the library. I was devastated when I found out I would have to wait until JULY for the next. Thank you NetGalley and Julie for putting out an ARC so I could consume it in less than 48 hours.

Yet another solid romance book from Julie Soto! Much like her first book the strength is the chemistry between the characters. Somehow unintentionally all of the romance books I’ve enjoyed recently have been Reylo inspired and we can add this one to the list. I will say though in the beginning I did not like the male main character he was too dark and grumpy without having a clear reason. Once you get to know his backstory better it makes a little more sense but still in the beginning I really did not like him. I enjoyed the way all of the music was described since it was so important to the characters. Overall a really solid romance novel. If you enjoyed her first book, Forget Me Not, you’ll probably enjoy this one just as much.

I absolutely LOVED this book. After devouring Julie Soto’s first book and now this, Soto is a must read for me. I could hardly put this book down and needed to know everything that would happen to Gwen and Alex/Xander. I loved everything about this book.

Not Another Love Song is a beautiful romance story written by the amazing Julie Soto. It was an absolute pleasure to read this book.

This book FLOORED ME. I was hooked from the very first page and was in it for the entire kit and caboodle. I love Julie Soto’s writing and the way she creates these characters that you want to see through it all.

The tension in this book had me squealing and when she does wet blanket moments it’s seriously like someone dumped ice cold water over you. I love it.

I had never read a book where the two mc’s are string players and the way Julie worked that into her writing was magnificent!! The choice of language just added to everything and I felt like I was being swept away in a song the entire book. I did take a little pause to look up a cover of ‘smells like teen spirit’ on stings so I could really picture the scene. 10/10 would recommend.

Okay specifically speaking on the characters I love the way Alex loves Gwen. It’s all encompassing and watching these two go back and forth in a ‘are we real enemies or do we want to play music and rip each other’s clothes off?’ was a truly magical experience.

I was giggling and kicking my feet, suspicious of certain characters, and positively crying tears of bliss and joy at the end. I’m a sap for a romance with heart and lots of emotion and this will go to the top of my favorites list.

This book is incredible. Five stars! Julie Soto creates an immersive world with fully developed characters for the reader to fall into and enjoy. Best read so far of 2024!

OMG this book… So good!!! I absolutely ate this book up. Once I started, I could not put it down and once I got towards the end I was so scared to pick it up again because I didn’t want it to end! It was fantastic.

I really loved Forget Me Not and so I was very excited for this one and it surpassed my expectations. I don’t really know anything about orchestra music or particularly care about it, but I totally adored this book. While there were some references to music and talk of musical things that I did not know about, I don’t particularly feel like it took away from the story at all and I was still able to understand what was going on. I think if anything, if you are a music person, that would just add to the story and the experience, but I didn’t feel like I was missing out. I feel like I was still able to really feel all of the music and the emotions associated with it. Who knew playing the violin and cello could be so sexy and emotional? I feel like I need to go watch an orchestra now.

The pacing in this book was so good and did a great job bringing me in to the story and feeling immersed in it to the point where I could not put the book down. The writing style was also so addictive. This book was written in third person, which I am not typically a fan of, but it was written in a way that I literally didn’t even realize it was third person because I could feel everything the characters were feeling and felt so immersed in the story, as if it was in first person. I also love that while most of the story was Gwen’s perspective that we also still got a few chapters from Alex’s perspective as well. I feel like it really added to the story. The writing in general was also just fantastic.

There was such great chemistry and banter and tension between these characters! I also loved all of the side characters and was so excited that we got to see some of the characters from Forget Me Not as well!

I also loved the subtle nod to Taylor Swift at the end (to Taylors Version and Scooter) iykyk. So glad to see all of the toxic people out of their lives and to see them thriving together.

You should definitely add this book to your TBR and pick it up when it comes out!

Tropes:
- rivals to lovers
- musicians
- third person
- dual pov (mainly Gwen)
- banter and tension

Julie Soto has a real knack for infusing her characters with three dimensions of personality, yearning, and contemporary humor, as well as finding novel situations for them to experience our time and treasured romantic tropes. I really enjoyed this book, and have a newfound appreciation for the symphony! And I absolutely love that cover artist's work, Nikita Jobson.

This was a fun read. It is a book featuring Gwen and Alex as rival musicians and had a lot of elements that I enjoyed and some that I didn't.

What I liked: the tension between Alex and Gwen through the beginning of the book was very well written. The pacing kept me from putting the book down. The orchestra setting was fun to read about and the side characters added to the plot and setting.

What I didn't like: the ending of the book seemed very rushed. The resolution all seemed to occur at once and there was a little too much wrapping up of loose plot points within a short number of pages. Everything was a little too easily resolved.

Overall an enjoyable read until the end.

‘Alex Fitzgerald had asked her to dance. His eyes were on her fingers. Her lips parted. And a flush stained his skin, spreading.’

This could be a dancing scene, right? Two people in each other’s arms, attracted to one another, falling head over heels. But it’s not. Yeah, they’re falling for each other, but this scene is about playing the violin and the cello in an orchestra in front of all those people in Carnegie Hall.

Sensual. That’s the first word that comes to mind when I think about Not Another Love Song. A sensual composition about two people dancing around each other, pulling closer and closer and then pushing away, but never getting out of the other’s grasp, until drawing back even closer, over the strings of love to a crescendo ending in a passionate climax. In sync as if they are one. In their music. With each other.

I liked Julie Soto’s debut, Forget Me Not, but I didn’t love it. But Not Another Love Song is addictive, a masterpiece, a beautiful arrangement of highs and lows that made me read breathlessly. And, of course, I loved Alex (I refuse to call him Xander) since I have a soft spot for flawed, brooding men who love wholeheartedly and want to do good, even if it’s not in their best interest.

Like always, I could have done without the third-act breakup (which came quite late in the story), but it didn’t even matter because I loved Gwen and Alex’s love song so much! Their beautiful song about a cello who fell in love with a violin.

First, I want to thank NetGalley, the publishers, and Julie Soto for allowing me to read this in advance! I truly am so appreciative.

Julie Soto has done it again! Not Another Love Song follows Gwen Jackson and Alexander Fitzgerald, talented string musicians who both happen to play in the Manhattan Pops. They don't tend to see eye to eye at first, but as the story progresses they realize (in a STEAMY way) that they can compose beautiful music. If you like brooding male characters that fall first, you will adore Alex! Julie Soto has quickly become one of my must-read authors, and I truly cannot wait for everyone to have the opportunity to read this book!