I didn't know what to expect when I started reading Emily Albright's Perfect Harmony but I have to say I really enjoyed this book. I am a big fan of how Emily draws you into her story and this one was one of her best works yet. A MUST READ FOR ALL

The Quick Cut: A girl finds her musical world shaken when a new guy joins her high school - gunning for her first chair as the cellist in band.

A Real Review:
Thank you to Amberjack Publishing for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book absolutely surprised me with its ability to wrap me up in the plot and highly competitive musical world that this book takes place in. Even though it is primarily a romance, it very much served a strong plot that continued to provide complex characters with difficult emotional entanglements.

Pippa has spent her life dedicated to her cello, Francesca. It's what she loves to play and the thing that she has planned her entire future around. No one else in her school can come close to her ability or talent, so her dream of going to a college named Goddards is looking good. That is until a new transtar student named Declan shows up with a cocky attitude promising to take Pippa's first cellist chair from her. Even worse, she's forced to work with him as a duo on a piece together! How can she hold onto her rightful place without him getting too close?

These two really do have the greatest natural chemistry. What starts as hate turns to love in a truly natural way and it isn't rushed (which I find to be a common issue with these types of books). Pippa is so goals focused that she doesn't want anything to get in her way and Declan has a way of getting past that barrier in her mind. In the same manner, Declan can be a bit abrasive and Pippa softens him up.

Like anything, this book isn't entirely perfect. Some of the blockages between Pippa and Declan I found a bit unbelievable. This girl will continue to go over to her best friend's house to make it right over and over, but gives up at the first sign with Declan? How does that rationale work?

Other than a few glaring logic issues, this cute romance tale will keep you moving to the music.

After years of dedication to her craft, Pippa was at the top of her game. Selected for the youth orchestra, first chair in her school's orchestra, and right on track for admissions to the best music program in the country. Everything was going according to plan until HE showed up. For the first time in her life, there was another cellist, who played at her level, and she felt her dreams slipping through her fingers.

I enjoyed this book so much! My love of romance is well-known, and well, in simplest terms, this was a romance. You may hear people say something about a love triangle, but that was non-existent for me, because all I saw was Pippa and Declan. I shipped them from the get. They had a little bit of a friendly competition between them, and I think each was somewhat threatened by the other, but once they were assigned a their duet, their friendship started to flourish. I mean, they figuratively AND literally made music together. What more could you ask for?

I loved these two together, but I also loved them apart. Pippa was a force to be reckoned with. She was so focused and so driven. I really admire people, who dedicate themselves to something with their heart, body, and soul, and you could tell this was the case with Pippa. She was so lucky to have such an awesome, supportive family too, because that was not necessarily the case with Declan.

Declan had a strained relationship with his father after the divorce, and his mother was often absent due to her career. I know Declan was almost 18, but he still needed his parent love and support. My heart ached a little for him.

I have to believe that Albright is a music lover, because the passion and adoration Pippa had for music was very authentic. I also thought the scenes where she was playing were so well written. I found myself swept up in the melody of it all. And the quotes featured at the beginning of each chapter were such a lovely little extra. I looked forward to them with each chapter I began.

I had some small issues with this book. I struggled a little with Pippa's best friend. She was pretty selfish and self-centered, and seemed to have a history of not being a great best friend. However, I think Albright did a decent job addressing that later in the book, and I was able to move past it, because like I said, this was all about the Pippa and Declan for me.

I am well known for being an endings critic, and I am here to say: A+ ending. I smiled, experienced lots of feels, and was just so elated from the ending to this book. It was everything I could have wished for, and there's nothing like going out on a high note.

Make no mistake, the tears I cried were happy tears. This book wrapped its arms around this romance lovers heart, and held tight. It was such a joy to be a part of Pippa's journey, and found my only complaint was I wanted more.

Perfect Harmony is a very sweet, fast-paced book. Even if you don't like it, I doubt you won't get to the end, as it's very easy to read.

All the characters in this book are good, real people with flaws and personalities, but real, instead of just stereotyped personalities without any personal qualities.

Also, thank you Emily Albright for not falling to the easy "let's use misunderstandings as the only plot creation device". Because this book does contain scenes where misunderstandings leave to complicated situations, but every single time something can be solved talking it out or being clear somehow, the characters end up being reasonable enough to do so.

If I were to point out a negative it would be that some of her relationships, like the one with her brother, should have been more developed, so we know her better.

Also her feeling for Noah, so either her feelings for Declan don't feel so sudden or so we see how they fade and comprehend it better.

I loved this light hearted read a lot! I wasn’t sure if I would like it not being very musically inclined personally. However, this is the type of book I needed to read at this moment.

I do love the enemies to love trope and when I read that on the description on Netgalley I was intrigued to say the least. I loved Pippa’s development of a character with her relationship with Declan, although knowing that going to college for cello was still her main goal above a boy.

I can't wait to get my hands on a hard copy of this book!

This book is a sweet romantic story involving one girl and her love interests as she navigates the way through achieving her dream of entering the college of her choice. Although the characters were not very versatile in terms of round/flat characters and the plot line's ending was predictable, the story was enjoyable from the beginning. I enjoyed the moments of tension created between certain characters, especially during kiss scenes. I also enjoyed the fact that this author chose to paint the main character as a cellist. The fact that Pippa is a cellist means that there is some terminology and there are some scenes in the book around the theme of music. I especially liked the touch of quotes in every chapter about music.

I loved this book! Music and angst and the push and pull of a YA romance woven together seamlessly through the author's lush writing style. Things get complicated and emotional and I enjoyed it very much. I love a good romance but more I love strong writing and storytelling and this author was quite the find. I look forward to reading more of her work.

I stumbled across this novel as an advanced readers copy so I would like to thank NetGalley for giving me a chance to put out an honest review.
I originally came across this novel and was drawn in by the cover and description. I played the violin for a number of years so this struck a bit of nostalgia from my good old elementary and middle school days in orchestra. This book revealed the perspective of a girl, Pippa Wyndham, who is a cellist and won’t strive for anything less than her first chairs. She has her life all planned out and is determined to get into “the nation’s most prestigious music college.” Sure enough a guy from New York, who is also a cellist, transfers into her school. Declan becomes Pippa’s biggest competitor and Pippa doesn’t like that everything she had worked for is in jeopardy.
The book was touching and flowed well. Emily Albright’s writing brought a sense of comfort to the stage and created an overall cute and fluffy read. Although it was a sweet and quick read, the plot was dragged especially in terms of the love triangle between Pippa, Noah and Declan. Their love triangle was stretched out to show the struggles within their relationships but some of the problems they faced caused unnecessary drama. This made the book a bit slow in the first half but after Pippa chose between Noah and Declan, the book picked up the pace and quickly resolved all of the unnecessary drama.
This novel, pieced together the story one day after another. In my opinion, the characters did seem undeveloped in some areas. They just weren’t realistic high schoolers as they seemed too childish and immature to be seniors. Since this was more on the childish side, I would recommend this novel to an audience in the middle school age.

I totally loved this :) Pippa was a super fun character and I found her very interesting to read about.
The start was super fun with Declan always getting on her nerves, you just know he's going to wear her down eventually ;)

Oh but she was a bit silly at times!

Spoiler

Yes Quinn did come good in the end and apologise and that was all happily ever after, but honestly? She was NASTY. Who's to say she's actually mended her ways and won't turn into a spiteful little snake again? And seriously, Declan, believing the email Lexi had sent him? He knows how awful Lexi is... dude, wtf. And then his parent shifting him at the start of his senior year, and then again three quarters of the way through it?! The latter I didn't understand... surely that close to the end of the year you'd find a family to board him with? I know it's just a fictional character but such an upheaval to his education surely can't be great.

Also I love that the show they saw was Wicked... such beautiful memories of the Gershwin came flooding back to me upon reading that!

Perfect Harmony is not only a very fitting title for the story, it's also a very accurate phrase to describe my experience reading this book.

The reading experience as just so perfectly harmonizing, because it's so comfortable. It was cute, enjoyable, and a very fun read when you're just...looking for a fun read. It's nice, welcoming, calm, and doesn't give you too much emotional stress. Declan and Pip are adorable, the story-line makes me want to go practice my piano and violin, and the kiss scenes were definitely not disappointing (thank god). Everything about this book is just ADORABLE (awwww).

It followed the pretty standard YA contemporary hate-love formula, which is something I'm not complaining about because this made the story really safe for my already-too-fragile heart. It was heartwarming, soft, entertaining, swoon-worthy, what more can I ask for?

The synopsis of Perfect Harmony stuck out to me from other books because I am a cellist myself. This novel is fun, romantic, and yes-- the dedication that the main character feels towards her cello-playing is completely accurate. To orchestra kids, their instrument is everything, and I loved the fact that Pippa would do anything for her goal of getting into the most prestigious arts school in the country.

On the other hand, Perfect Harmony struggles in its rising action. The beginning of the book left me underwhelmed and even annoyed at times. The reason for this is the love triangle; when done well, a love triangle can be interesting, but I felt that the fact that both Noah and Declan having feelings towards Pippa was only to stir up unnecessary drama that could have been easily solved. Of course, the book wouldn't be the same without these struggles, so you'll have to either love it or leave it at this point.

But it gets better. The second half of the book was exciting and I enjoyed every second of it. Problems get resolved, goals are fulfilled, and most importantly, the love triangle gets dissolved as Pippa finally chooses who she wants to be with. I found that after the relationship drama was over, Perfect Harmony did a 180 flip and became the cute read it was supposed to be at the very beginning. It was worthwhile to read the entire book, simply because the writing style and plot improved greatly.

Overall, Perfect Harmony was what I expected out of it: a sweet contemporary with friendship, romance, and music appreciation. The book had a shaky start, but the rest made it worth reading. Perfect Harmony isn't anything super special, but it's worth picking up if you enjoy contemporaries, romance, or even if you're just a music lover in general.

Perfect Harmony is fine.

This is a light and easy read, with few surprises and an overwhelming amount of teenage angst.

The story revolves around Pippa, an accomplished cellist with big dreams for her future musical career that suddenly becomes threatened by the new kid in town, Declan. Naturally, the rivalry between the two evolves into love. There are "stumbling blocks" along the way to their happily ever after, but the obstacles the couple face aren't all that challenging and are blown into bigger things than they truly are because, hey, they are teenagers.

That was the biggest drawback for me, at no point did it ever feel like there was going to be anything other than a neat and tidy ending where everything works out for Pippa. Happy endings are fine, don't get me wrong, but it's hard to be excited about it when it was so plain that she was always going to achieve it.

I felt especially that her relationship with her 'best friend,' Quinn, was obnoxious. I don't know anyone in the real world who would categorize someone like Quinn as their best friend, the girl was pretty awful. Meanwhile, poor old basic, plain, regular friend Jenna was wonderful throughout but always was an afterthought. Again, teenagers.

The love triangle between Pippa and her childhood crush, Noah (her twin brothers BFF, obviously) and Declan was ridiculous. Pippa has spent her whole life in love with Noah who inexplicably suddenly wants to date her and she quickly realizes that she only has feelings for Declan. Instead of just accepting that and telling Noah, she spends 75% of the book agonizing over her choice when it's made pretty clear that she doesn't even like Noah anymore. TEENAGERS.

So again, this book was FINE, but I clearly wasn't the target audience.

I received this ARC as a courtesy from NetGalley & the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked that this story wasn't about the star quarterback for the head cheerleader, but the rivalry felt really inflated and juvenile.

I received an advanced reader copy in exchange for a fair review.

My summary of book: YA, love triangle, cutesy, romance, cringe, cheese, cliche, angst and drama.

This book was not bad, but definitely not what I expected. I'm torn between two and three stars for the rating... I think I'll up it to three because Declan is so sweet! But overall this is maybe closer to two?? I'm not good at making stressful life decisions!!!!!

This is not what I was expecting from this novel.

It's so cheesy and cringe.

I was hoping for a book that was more focussed on music. The title, cover & blurb all made it sound so musical! And whilst they do play music, it was a minor story element I felt.

Also, LOVE TRIANGLE instant turn off. And there were actually like two or three overlapping ones and it was just generally horrible. Now that I've mentioned this love triangle, I'm realising I'm going with two stars.

But aside from the love triangle element, characters were good.

The writing bugged me. Pippa (MC) gets goosebumps every second page. LEGIT!! This is a minor gripe, but when I was reading THIS WAS A MAJOR ISSUE!! It completely disrupted the flow of the writing because it annoyed me so much. Haha, me, a drama queen???? NEVER?!

I mean, I now realise that this was mentioned a little in the blurb, but I was not prepared and I hate love triangles. So ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I really wanted to love this, but it just wasn't for me.

This is a hard book to give a rating to, because while I loved the majority of this book, I didn't really enjoy it near the end. Unfortunately, the endings to books are a pretty important to me, so that give this rating a hit. I thought the story line to this one was fresh and witty. I liked all the characters, including Pippa, the main character. She was mature, intelligent and talented. She is an average teen, unsure of herself and what she feels at time. Not sure to listen to her heart or brain.

I also really enjoyed Declan's character. He is the kind of guy you want to meet during high school. The two of them have an obvious connection, and I adored the easy chemistry between the two of them.

There is some over the top characters and moments, but that is to be expected in some young adult, and was nothing that seriously hurt the way I thought of the book.

Like I said, a few things happened at the end that I felt was unneeded. It kind of interrupted the flow of the book, and changed how I felt about some characters and relationships. It made me care a little less about what happens to them.

Otherwise, this was a fast, fun read.

Perfect Harmony by Emily Albright sounded great, in theory. It had a lot of potential, a story line that was immediately interesting which I found myself eager to delve into. I’ve always been a fan of the enemies to lovers trope, despite how cliche it has become, and so naturally this was a book I was looking forward to reading. And for the most part, Perfect Harmony started out okay. But very quickly everything good about the book went downhill.

I’m kind of blown away that this book has more good ratings than bad ones. Featuring terrible characters and even worse advice giving with an emphasis on unrealistic butting in, this book just hit all the wrong points. And good lord, the so-lovey it’s disgusting insta-love was the hardest thing in the world to stomach. I think my eyeballs might be permanently rolling now that I’ve finished.

Perfect Harmony begins with a new kid in school, a boy who, in a horrifying twist of fate, plays the same instrument as the main character and immediately makes it clear that he plans to take first chair from her. It’s a decent enough plot that had me rather excited to read. We all know how the book will end, it’s massively predictable in a great number of ways, but the build up is what we come to these stories for. Well, the build up in this one was so minimal and pedestrian that it made the entire novel not even worth reading.

And this was greatly disappointing because the book truly had such great potential.

But instead of actually showing readers how these two characters pushed past their differences and the competition that they are both clearly pressured by in order to really respect and care for each other, it jumps over all the important parts. There’s no slow burn. We don’t see the characters grow with each other. We never see how they learn to like one another, much less how they eventually fall in love. It’s all passed over for the most immature of personal questioning from the main character where her inner thoughts regularly interject with phrases from, “Why did my stomach just flip?” to “Did I just check out his tush?”

Speaking of tush, the constant references to the characters “checking out” each other’s “backsides” was nauseating. I could understand once or twice, but the level that this book referenced butts was so annoying. Not to mention that Declan’s immediate nickname for Pippa is Princess and he literally never shuts up about it. By the fifth Princess at the beginning of the novel, I was already sick of it. And this kept up throughout the whole novel.

And then there are the supporting characters, every single one having next to no personality whatsoever—a characteristic almost portrayed in the main characters as well, but just barely misses the mark—from best friend Quinn who literally exists to create a plot point of unnecessary drama that I found crazy ironic considering the fact that she was initially placed in as a conversation booster to push Pippa toward liking Declan, or at least recognizing that he likes her. This role, for some godawful reason, was pushed onto Pippa’s mother shortly after it becomes unrealistic for Quinn to continue.

Pippa’s brother Phillip, while cool and interesting, plays almost no role in the story other than to give another character someone to like and adds to the giant love mess. This was frustrating on a number of levels, largely because he was Pippa’s twin and it felt like she barely knew him at all but also because he was a genuinely interesting character we barely got to see. Then comes Noah, the only character I actually liked, a long time friend of Phillip’s who Pippa has been crushing on forever. He’s the only character who ever actually felt real enough to appreciate and even he was ruined by some ridiculous love pentagon that resulted in the most disastrous and disturbing one liner I’ve ever heard, regarding the determination to continue fighting for someone who clearly doesn’t seem to be reciprocating the feelings.

Why is there a theme in this story with nearly everyone—barring Pippa’s mother and brother, I guess??—starting out okay and then becoming a massive brat?

Perfect Harmony is a hot mess and it’s disappointing because I had been genuinely quite excited to read it. There was so much potential here, but somewhere in the 25% mark, everything fell apart. I knew going in how the story would end, just as all other stories like this end, but I was okay with it at first because I was hoping for the slow burn fun of watching people hate each other and then fall in love—something beautifully executed by that new Netflix movie, Candy Jar—but instead I got a lot of time jumps, characters that mainly existed for plot purposes, and the most annoying main characters I’ve read in a while.

I guess this one just wasn’t for me. The idea was great. The execution, not so much.

2.5 stars

It's not that bad (2 stars is "it was ok" so 2.5 stars is it was ok and I kinda liked it), but I also found it to be lacking in certain areas: a (more eventful) plot, actual pressing problems, secondary characters that made sense, and seamless transitions in the writing.

Writing could use more polishing—it had the propensity to tell rather than show, making it difficult to visualize what was happening; it's important to note, though, that there are precious moments written beautifully by showing rather than telling, which solidifies my belief that the author is capable of it but that the writing needed more polishing to reach its full potential.

The transitions are not as seamless as could be—there were a lot of times where I was confused because the scenes seemed to jump instead of transition to the next.

Contrary to the enemies-to-lovers vibe the blurb exuded, the actual story was different—Declan basically crushed on her from the very beginning, and Pippa didn't take long before she reciprocated the crush. The progression of their relationship wasn't that organic, either; they went from being disdainful towards each other to them suddenly . . . having romantic feelings for each other. We don't know how that happened; we weren't shown it—instead, we moved from Point A (them mocking each other) to Point B (them having romantic feelings for each other) without much clarity on the how and the why. That's why I found it difficult to believe when Pippa suddenly had all these butterflies and moments of jealousy when we barely saw her getting to know Declan on that level.

And the plot . . . well, to be perfectly frank, I struggled to finish this. There were times when I wondered if I was too old for this kind of story, but I quickly disputed that when I looked at the stories I've read and saw that there were many books in the same category that I truly loved and were such a delight to read. That left me with this: there really wasn't anything going on in this story. Or, if it was, it wasn't executed in a way that reads like a cohesive narrative. There were no real stakes in the story, and the decisions of some of the characters, especially this one particular side character, require a serious suspension of disbelief. There are, however, moments that were real and relatable and made you nod in assent, but these moments were few and far in between.

I need stakes in a story, and they don't have to be between life and death—I'd argue that some contemporaries pose even higher stakes than fantasies and dystopias—but these stakes have to be real and bring about actual conflict, not 'stakes' that you have to force yourself to believe in. I need a good and credible progression of relationships, not one that feels abrupt or confusing (of the how-did-this-happen kind). Sadly, I did not find those here. There are silver linings, real moments administered by decent writing; I'm just not sure if they're enough to make it a worthwhile read . . . when you've got other stories that accomplish the same things (and more) with better execution.

All in all: Perfect Harmony is an okay story, but I feel that "okay" is the best it could be.

This book was everything I needed! This is a sweet, romantic YA contemporary that has a great hate to love type relationship. Both characters were well developed for me, great pacing and such great messages about love, finding out who you are, accepting love and chasing your dreams. Libraries need to purchase this great contemporary for their collection due to its great messages, genuine teen POV in the writing style and memorable characters. This book kinda reminded me of Sarah Dessen's books with how genuine it is, great family dynamics and female character. Highly recommended :)

Fans of Rainbow Rowell will love this book which is a perfect blend of music, friendships, and love.

Pippa Wyndham is a top cellist, first chair at her school. She has her life planned out – get into Goddards – the top music school in the country, graduate and find her way to the New York Philharmonic. She has had a crush on Noah, her twin brother’s best friend, since forever. When he starts noticing her, she thinks her life is perfect.
Declan is a cellist, just like Pippa. He moved from New York in his final year and has got on Pippa’s nerves ever since she found out he might be her competition. When their music teacher pairs them together to practice for a duet, falling for Declan is the last thing on her mind. But soon, she is unable to deny her growing feelings towards Declan, her sworn enemy. And there’s a possibility that Declan likes her back.. But she can’t fall for him or her dreams would all come crashing down.

Each chapter begins with a quote on music which was absolutely amazing and I loved such warm-up reminders of how awesome music is.

Albright’s writing is amazing. I don’t know what I expected, but this was perfect. Her tone is smooth and straight forward and touching at the right places. And frankly, even if the plot felt dragged out a bit at places, it was what kept me reading. I’d certainly check out more of her books.

The focus on music was an enchanting experience. But I wish it focused more on describing the feel of the music rather than just about how Pippa felt. I know it wasn’t songs and there weren’t lyrics, but I wanted more.
I love Pippa and Declan, though not necessarily together. Pippa’s voice was immature at times, but her character growth is undeniable. It had a certain nostalgic feeling in it, which made me reminisce my school days. Few high school books have achieved that level of impact, and this one is certainly one among them. And the way this book tackled the stereotypes of girls always vying for attention from boys is worth a mention.

The romance was one of the best I’ve encountered in YA, but only in the beginning. It wasn’t insta-love by any means, but rather r the enemies-to-lovers kinda romance. There is a big love pentagon which was actually executed well. The only thing I felt lacking was, the communication between Pippa and Declan. Every single time they are together, they’re either kissing or she’s thinking of kissing him. It didn’t feel right. You can only read so much about fireworks exploding in your stomach each time the love interests look at you.

Overall, this was a great read. If you’re looking for some nostalgic, light read with mild friendship and family dynamics, then this book is for you.

***ARC received in exchange of an honest opinion***

This was a cute read. A bit too YA for me, but cute. I don’t mind stories set in high school, I often enjoy them, but this one was a hard one for me to relate too because it was VERY immature.

The characters were okay, but they were almost too childish. The main characters weren’t that bad, but the secondary ones were almost unbearable.

In the end, Perfect Harmony is a nice read, it just wasn’t the perfect book for me. I liked it, but it didn't impress me.