Not Another Love Song by Julie Soto is an contemporary romance featuring two rival string players in an orchestra (3/5 stars)

Not Another Love Song by Julie Soto is an contemporary romance featuring two rival string players in an orchestra.

I myself am part of an orchestra, the link: Washington Metropolitan Gamer Symphony Orchestra. We exclusively perform music from video games! I sit on the Board of Directors, sing in the choir, arrange music, and occasionally play my clarinet. My partner is our music director and conductor, as well as a standout arranger. I knew I needed to pick up this book after I learned the two MCs were part of a pops orchestra together.

Overall, I had a fun time reading this; I ended up inhaling the whole thing in one day (via borrowing the audiobook from my local library). This book is set in NYC, and I generally enjoyed the author’s prose, though at times the plot felt a bit meandering.

If you like steam, this may be the book for you. Musicians are often passionate, and that passion really shines in this book. The “cello scene” is the one everyone is talking about, but there are a good number of steamy scenes in this book.

I think my main criticism is that I had to suspend my disbelief a lot. Gwen comes across as very naive, which doesn’t track to me if she’s also competent enough to be offered concertmaster. Both MCs are noted to be some form of musical prodigy, but cello and violin are very different (they even have different fingerings) so a scene where Gwen mentioned she tried cello once when she was younger and then has to play it for a wedding gig had me side-eyeing a bit. These weren’t dealbreakers for me, but I feel like if I was an actual string player it would have been really annoying.

I also think they jumped to the “l” word too quickly. Both note that they’ve never felt like this for another person before, but since they’re both in their mid- to late-20s, some of their actions and reasonings felt a little on the younger side. I also balked a bit at how Xander treated Gwen; some of the things he says to her in relation to her playing are really Not Great, though when we have his POV chapters it’s played off like he’s jealous of her and thus is biting back.

If you’re looking for a contemporary romance with high steam levels, a lot of music, and you can suspend your disbelief a little bit on a few things, this may be the book for you!

Tropes in this book include: rivals (kindof) to lovers, whirlwind romance

CW: death of parent (cancer, prior to book), sexual harassment, grief, emotional abuse, misogyny

I received a complimentary review copy from NetGalley and Forever. All opinions contained herein are my own.

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