"It’s simple, really. It’s about a cello who fell in love with a violin.”

THIS BOOK. I didn’t think I’d love it more than Forget Me Not, but I do 🤭

the characters. the plot. the tension. This book was givingggg everything I needed it to give. I could not put it down. 👏🏼

I lovedddd our MCs, Gwen and Xander. Their characters were well developed, and even though they had flaws, the character progression throughout the book was 👩🏻‍🍳💋 They had some of the best tension I’ve ever read and the romance was EVERYTHING ‼️

I’m not familiar with technical musical terminology, but I was entranced with the beautiful way that the music and instrument playing was woven into this story 🥰

brb that cello scene had me in a chokehold 🫠🥵

I think if you are a musician or know a lot about classical instruments, this book is going to be one that you don’t want to miss out on! 🫶🏼

Read if you like:
🎶 musicians
🙋🏻‍♂️ he falls first
🤺 rivals to lovers
🥵 sexual tension
🌶️ spice
🫂 found family

Julie Sotos's first book was an unexpected delight for me, so i was eager to read this one.

until i read in the forward that this stemmed from fan fiction. Specifically Kylo Ren and Rey Fan fiction.

I could not unsee it for the rest of the book and i feel like that hurt my perception of it. I wanted more from the plot the characters, the love story, and just did't get it.

i will say the spicy scenes were SPICY.

But for me, it couldn't make up for the rest of the book.

Thanks to netgalley for the arc. all opinions are my own.

I had such a great time reading Not Another Love Song! I never knew the orchestra world was one I needed to be a part of, but I loved it! The chemistry 🔥

Review: 4 Star

This book was electrifying! From the get go, I was pulled into the story and invested in the characters from the start of their unforgettable meet cute.

The chemistry and attraction between Xander and Gwen is undeniable. I love their banter between each other and how Xander falls first and falls hard. The relationship between both of them is one of respect and love coupled by loads of spice and tense moments. The tension, though!! Both came from different backgrounds, yet their feelings for each other were undeniable. There were some moments where I wanted to scream at the toxic side characters for getting in their way, that’s how invested I was in their HEA.

I do enjoy how lyrical and musical this book is with tons of musical aspects thrown in with some background on how orchestras and music production and recordings work. There were moments where I swear “Wrecking Ball” Bridgerton style was playing in my head when Xander and Gwen got together. We also had some cameo characters from Forget Me Not, Julie’s first book.

This book was surprisingly an easy read and I read it in one sitting. Some downs: I did not like the fact that there is a third act - it felt unnecessary. The other small issue I have is whyyy there is always a gap in sexual and romance experience between the FL and ML - again, this feels unnecessary.

Thank you Hachette Canada, and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for this gifted eARC in exchange for my honest review.

"I never thought I would love a story about a violin and cello falling in love. This is a great enemies to lovers story. Gwen has met her idol Xander and taken the first chair for the Manhattan Pops. The only problem, Xander is the first Cello and wants the job too.

They discover they make beautiful music together but have to figure out how to navigate everything else in life. "

This was such a fun romance read. I really enjoyed the way Julie Soto weaved the classical music world into the plot. The spicy scenes were also really well done (especially the one depicted by the cover!). The third act conflict is always the make it or break it element for me and while it worked, there was a part of it that left me unsatisfied.

This was a great love story between a violinist, Gwen, and a famous cellist, Xander. They have been on the same side orchestra with Gwen who is hiding in plain site and Xander the opposite. I really enjoyed when the two got together playing music and wished there was actual some sample musical notes in the book. I did feel there moment was very abrupt and there was no build up to it. I guess they were so moved by playing music together. I enjoyed seeing both of their character growth and the dual POV. I really wanted more Xander's POV.


Thank you @readforeverpub @netgalley for a copy of this book.

This is my first Julie Soto book and I love it! I haven’t read Forget Me not, but I’ve heard great things about it, and this book did not disappoint. I love angst in my romance books and this was satisfying. Even the secondary characters were interesting and I was vested in the subplots around them. Now I’m definitely reading Forget Me Not.

Not Another Love Song-a standalone

Published 7/16/24, Read 7/17/24

Author: Julie Soto, read Forget Me Not gave it 5*

Format: E-book 380 pgs.

Genre: Contemporary Romance, New Adult Fic

Tropes: enemies to lovers, music, rivals, grumpy H, H/h in their 20's,family drama

Setting: Manhattan

🙏🏾Thanks to NetGalley and Forever(Grand Central Publishing) for this ARC 💜! I voluntarily give my honest review and all opinions expressed are my own.

🌟Brief Summary: Gwen and Xander are rival musicians at Manhattan Pops Orchestra. Gwen is self taught and Xander is a musical prodigy. When Gwen plays a wedding with Xander's cello, he critiques her but doesn't remember they went to school together. Their onstage chemistry transfers off stage as they play and compose music together. Will their own aspirations get in the way of a love story?

⭐Rating ⭐: 5/5

What I Liked/Loved: the sexual chemistry was so palpable and the music just added to it. Gwen and Xander grew up differently, but ended up in the same place-the largest popular music orchestra in the United States. Even with different upbrings and family drama music was their universal language. There was a nice cameo from Ama, the h from FMN.

Things I DIDNT Like n/a

🦹🏻‍♂️Hero: Xander Thorne/Alex Fitzgerald-musical cellist prodigy, has an electric strings band Thorne and Roses. He's a bad boy, rock star. Stepfather/manager causes drama to keep Gwen and Alex apart. His mother Ava Fitzgerald was a violinist, married to Nathan Andrews who pushed Alex as a child.

🦸‍♀️ Heroine: Gwen Jackson-self taught violinist, awarded First Chair of orchestra(Xander wanted it).
Her mentor Mabel owned a music shop, wrote music with Ava. Wants Gwen to go to Julliard.

💭 POV: mostly h w/ a few chapters from H

🔥 Burn Rate: 5/5

😡/😍 Angst level: 5/5

❤️‍🔥Sexy times & Descriptive sex: 5/5

🌓Push/Pull: 5/5

☠️ OW/OM Drama: n/a

🤬 Cheating: no

⛈️Separation/ 3rd Act Breakup: yes, Alex decides to leave the Pops and go on tour

🌈Epilogue: no

🥂HEA: HFN

This. Book. Was. EVERYTHING! You'll fall for the characters immediately! The world completely fell away as I read Gwen and Alex's story, it was perfect/just what I needed to read.

I love them. I love them, I love them, I love them.

Alex and Gwen ruined me.

I'm not sure what Julie Soto infused in the pages of this book, but it was magical.

First of all, I absolutely loved that we had cameos from Forget Me Not. I loved that book too and when an author incorporates their books within the same world with some of our favourite characters as side characters it makes my heart so happy!

Gwen's talent as a musician was wildly unrelatable for most of the population, BUT there was something so real and relatable about her character that I felt an immediate kinship and connection to her. I was immediately intrigued by Alex right from the get go. He had this very mysterious, moody and arrogant musician err about him, but it was fascinating in a way that had me desperate to get under his layers to understand who he was as a character better.

The connection between Alex and Gwen was tangible. You could feel it in every interaction. Every secret look, every touch they shared, and every note played. They were two musicians at the top of their craft, speaking a language of their own, that all the bystanders, including the reader, were just happy to be witness to.

Their connection moved beyond their instruments. The cello scene!?!?...😮‍💨🥵

These characters have found their way into my heart so deeply, I just know this will become a comfort reread for me.

Something I always appreciate in a book is strong character development. I felt as though Alex and Gwen used their own strengths to lift up the others' weakness. Where Alex had confidence in spades, he taught Gwen to not only play better, but to embrace her own dreams and pursue them for herself and no one else. Where Alex was lost, floating from gig to gig, Gwen grounded him and taught him to put his energy in what really matters.

Not Another Love Song just shot its way up to one of my top books of the year. Thank you SO much to NetGalley, Julie Soto and Forever - Grand Central Publishing for the advanced copy.

ARC provided by publisher via NetGalley

These two were so cute! Their musical foreplay made me squeal. When Alex falls he falls hard, and I ate it up.

Personal preference I wish this was 1st POV instead of 3rd and that we has more chapters from Alex's POV but still loved their connection.

I have had some amazing romance reads this summer. As John Oliver would say, “Banger after banger after banger!” But I was not prepared for how much I would love Julie Soto’s Not Another Love Song! This novel surpasses them all. I was literally giddy while reading it in one sitting. I simply could not stop!

First, the writing is beautiful. I love most anything that merges storytelling and music. The way Soto crafts the tension and flow of melodies and tempos into the way she tells this story is masterful. My musical knowledge added to this effect for me (I love hearing music in my head) but I think she hits just that right balance so a lack of musical knowledge would not hinder your appreciation of it. I was also looking up some of the classical pieces mentioned on Spotify (Soto has a playlist) to listen to as I read. It was a great time ! 🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶

The characters do fit the Reylo vibe of their origins in fanfic, but Soto brings such vulnerability to them that without the cover I would not have necessarily made the association. Gwen and Alex are fully formed and endearing characters. He so clearly falls first and yet there is so much they each have to deal with to be together. I was rooting for them through everything.

Finally, if you enjoy a slow burn, this book is a master class in how to keep the 🔥going from beginning to end.
💯No notes

In an author’s note included in the eARC I received on netgalley Soto shares how the idea for the book began as she attended a concert one night at Carnegie Hall. She was “watching the first chair violinist and the first chair cellist make eye-contact over a Christmas song, and really just thought to myself . . . Wow, that enemies to lovers would slap. . . “

Well Julie, I’m here to say, “Hell Yes it Slaps” and I am so happy you wrote it!

Many thanks to @readforeverpub for access to an eARC on @NetGalley for review purposes.

This book was so good to me. I gave it 4.5⭐️! Only because of long chapters🥴 I really enjoyed the musical aspect of this book, which was new to me. I enjoyed the banter between the main characters. Alex & Gwen were such a cute MMC & FMC! I recommend 100%!

Julie Soto is a master! I loved this book. There was love, romance, spice and a great storyline. It was engaging and the characters were memorable. I love how Soto incorporated music, orchestra and love. I highly recommend!!!

“Maybe she liked love songs after all. As long as she was playing them with Alex.”

This is THE BOOK. The tension, the chemistry, the rivals to lovers esq premise. Gorgeous writing & story telling. My mans Alex was DOWN BAD for Gwen. I was so worried that when the enemies/rivals became lovers that the story would slow down, but NOPE!! The plot did what the plot needed to do

The ending of this book absolutely delivers. As a third act breakup hater, I loved this one. I thought it added to the overall story & was done in a way that never made me dislike one of the characters.

Gwen Jackson has known what she's supposed to do with her life since she was eleven years old and first picked up the violin. After all, when you have the talent that Gwen has you need to do something with it. Except now, at almost twenty-three years old, Gwen doesn't know what exactly she wants to do with her music. Does she go to a prestigious school and join an even more prestigious symphony after she graduates? Or does she stick with her position with the Manhattan Pops orchestra?

Then, while playing a wedding, Gwen meets Xander Thorne, her erstwhile musical crush/idol. Xander is making waves with his band Thorne and Roses and their classical takes on rock music. Also, Xander just so happens to play first chair cello in the Manhattan Pops.

From nearly the beginning, Gwen and Xander click. Which, at first, perplexes and frustrates both of them, but this eventually gives way to some beautiful music. When Gwen is offered first chair violin of the Manhattan Pops, she'll finally have to decide what it is she wants on her own terms.

I didn't really think that Julie Soto could top the delicious Forget Me Not, but I am more than happy to have been wrong about that. I feel like Not Another Love Song takes everything that was so wonderful about that first book and elevates it to another level.

From the start, the book reminded me, in the best way possible, of movies like Center Stage or Flashdance where an impoverished heroine must overcome the odds in order to do what she loves. I personally danced for twenty plus years and so I felt a real connection with artistic expression in the form of something that connects with music and inhabits the entire body. Those movies show characters at a precipice. They have a dream and they're told by a lot of people what that dream is supposed to look like only for their perspective to shift.

Xander is that shift for Gwen. He kind of makes his own rules and Gwen is more used to following the rules. She finds a freedom in letting him show her his side of things, and this honestly leads to some of the steamiest scenes I've read in a romance in quite some time. The chemistry between them is palpable and thrums beneath the surface of the book until they, and readers, cannot stand it anymore. Julie Soto plays with their connection so well because it isn't simply a base level attraction, it runs deeper than that because their art is tied up in it as well.

Speaking more on that, I loved the way Julie Soto wrote about the often complicated way artists are able to share and express their work. It becomes a commodity and sometimes overshadows the person behind the art, but they also have to be able to earn a living. It's an aspect that I don't think really has a tidy solution, but offers some depth and thoughtfulness.

Truly, I liked Gwen a lot. She seems a little meek to start out, but as the story goes you begin to understand that she lacks some confidence in how she's perceived in her playing. Feeling like she's always trying to play what is "right" for other people instead of what moves her. In her personal life, I loved the confidence she exuded which sometimes contrasted with Xander's seeming vulnerability. Like with the music, they tend to play off of each other very well. Like Gwen, Xander too has moments of vulnerability where his music is concerned, yet also has this unabashed confidence about his talents. They really make a wonderful pairing.

Also, I appreciated the way that Julie Soto wove the characters from the first book into this one. Just enough to link the stories, but not too much that it overwhelms the Gwen and Xander of it all.

Overall, this has to be hands down one of my favorite reads of the year so far. I cannot wait to see what Julie Soto has for us next!

Thank you to Forever, Grand Central Publishing, and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy! All thoughts are my own.

This book. THIS BOOK. 🔥🥵

I was so hesitant going into this book because I was not super pleased with Julie Soto's debut, but I can definitively say that this is going to be in the top books of the year for me. It was THAT good!

Gwen is a violinist in the NYC Pops orchaestra and has always admired Xander, the first chair for cello, from afar. When the two run into each other at a wedding that Gwen is playing for, a mixup causes her to have to play Xander's cello in front of him. This makes Xander finally notice Gwen and he can no longer look away.

I don't know a dang thing about orchaestra, instruments, strings, music notes, whatever. But what I do know is that this book was so full of sexual tension and passion that it made my heart hurt. The plot that drives this book is engaging as you don't know who to trust and who will stab you in the back in the cutthroat world that is orchaestra. Though most of the book is from Gwen's POV, we do have a handful of chapters from Xander's and I think it added a lot to the overall arc of the story.

I could not put this book down. What an absolute banger from Julie and I know I will pick this book up again soon. I read this about two weeks ago and I haven't stopped thinking about it since. Highly recommend picking this up, you will not regret it.

[3.5 Stars😊] Although Not Another Love Song turned the romantic tension up to a 10, ultimately, I had a lot of mixed feelings regarding Julie Soto's latest (first?) work that's basically a fan-fic mash-up of the musical duo 2Cellos and Reylo. But what upsets me the most about Not Another Love Song is that it was a strong enough story on its own without Reylo, and that's a damn shame.

First of all, this book had one of the best build-ups I've read all year--it's the kind of tension that alters your brain chemistry and will live rent-free in my mind for a long time!

However.

Xander's character had some of the most cringy dialogue and other attributes (soooooo much hair flipping while playing the cello) that I couldn't take his character seriously, while Gwen's character lacked dimension and personality. I loved the scenes where he pushed her out of her comfort zone by having her sight-read, but their romance was off-balance because of his treatment of her, and the fact that he NEVER explained himself or apologized for his behavior irritated me to no end.

I also hated knowing this was a work of fan fiction going into my read of Not Another Love Song because it forced my perspective, which upsets me as a reader. And, no, I didn't know it was fan fiction when I signed up for the ARC, but my stomach fell when I read the author's note at the beginning of the book. If she disclosed the Reylo angle at the end of the book, I wouldn't have cared, but I didn't like knowing beforehand. But in a way, I also understand why Julie Soto had to lean heavily into the fan-fic angle because there are a lot of classical music terms, composers, and orchestral dynamics included that only band people, musicians, and general music nerds like me will get without having to use Google for context.

While I wasn't a fan of Reylo, I did enjoy Julie Soto's writing and storytelling, and I hope she continues to publish books that showcase musicians and artists. Except maybe don't tell me it's fan-fic until the end next time, ok?

+As an aside, I wanted to say I'm not a hater of anyone who writes or reads fan fiction. But as a reader, I prefer to go into a book with an open mind and to color in the details with my imagination and not be told how I'm supposed to perceive the story and the characters. Next time I will do my research before signing up for a Julie Soto ARC!

+A huge thank you to Netgalley and Julie Soto for the ARC of Not Another Love Song. All thoughts in this review are my own.

____________________________________
Details:
💘Contemporary romance
👔Workplace romance
👀Dual, third-person POV
⛈️Darker themes and elements
🎹Music
🥀Third act breakup

Characters and Tropes:
🌪Broody MMC
🎤Celebrity/rockstar
📍Forced proximity
💙He falls first
🏆Rivals-to-lovers

Spice:
🧨Slow burn
🔥Explicit content (hot)
____________________________________
Emoji Ranking System:
🤩Excellent to Fantastic (4.75-5.00)
😍Very Good to Great (4.25-4.50)
😊Good to Really Good (3.50-4.00)
🙂Just OK to Decent (2.75-3.25)
😒It's A No (1.00-2.50)
🚫DNF

I rate this 3.5 out of 5.

I want to thank NetGalley and Forever Publishing for a copy of this book.

Brief Summary: Gwen Jackson is a violinist who dreams of being the best since she first picked up the violin at 11. Xander Thorne is a brilliant cellist with his own rock band. That is why Gwen finds it hard to understand why Xander is working for the Pops Orchestra. However, as Gwen begins to unfold the mystery of Xander, she gets much more than she bargained for.

Thoughts: Soto is a great writer. I felt every emotion that she put on the page and I was invested in the characters. Also, the sex scenes were very hot and female gaze-driven which I enjoyed. If I was rating on writing alone 5 out of 5.

While I enjoyed this book, I did feel that I was a little more invested in the background characters of the story. For example, I wanted way more information on Gwen's roommate/best friend, Jacob, and his boyfriend, Declan.; Mei and the guy she started hate dating; and definitely more Mable and Ava. It just sort of felt like these characters were so central to the story but they were not entirely fleshed-out characters and I would have loved to read more about them.

I was also a little confused at the start of the book. Soto indicates that this is a book that she started writing as fan fiction. However, the finished product doesn't feel anything like the story she was referencing, at least while I was reading. If I step back I can see some similarities, but overall if I had been focused on comparisons while reading it would have felt forced.

Overall, I felt the warm fuzzy feelings that I want to feel when I read a romance novel, especially from enemies to lovers. I also really enjoyed the fact he falls first. However, I found Gwen a little annoying as a character. I'm not entirely sure that I am supposed to feel that way (probably not) and it is likely because I could see parts of my younger self in her (see Soto's great writing), but I just kept thinking "Please stop and think for a minute!". Especially after she and Mable talk. I was just like what evidence do you have for your side of the argument Gwen that indicates actual personal growth in the people you are discussing? That being said when Gwen finally got it together I was pumped.

I enjoyed Xander a little more as a character, but I wanted therapy to be something he started on at the end of the book because he has a lot he needs to unpack. I did really appreciate his character arc and his "bad boy" rockstar attitude. It made the way things between him and Gwen unfolded that much sweeter.

This is a solid romance book. If you enjoy romance this book is not going to disappoint. It's heartfelt and emotional and ticks all the boxes for a good romance. Particularly if you like enemies-to-lovers, he falls first, steamy romances. I would recommend giving this book a read.

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gaslighting, Grief, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Sexual Content, and Death of a parent
Moderate: Cancer and Infidelity

I am not sure how exactly to describe this but workplace abuse (via manipulation/gaslighting) from a superior is also pretty central to this book