Although the tale was intriguing, I struggled with the writing style, especially because it hopped about from one scene to another without much cohesion. Additionally, I had a hard time getting into the teacher-student dynamic, especially given how sweet it was. Despite the fact that there were just a few years separating Nicolai and Alina in age, it was still difficult to comprehend Alina's youth.

was quite interested in the premise of this book 'The Synesthete' which i discovered, refers to a neurological condition whereby information mean to stimulate one sense, ends up stimulating several senses. Alina LaRosa is a seventeen-year-old Italian American musical prodigy who associates colours with sounds and is accepted into a prestigious academy in England. Yet on her arrival, she discovers that she has not place to stay and finds herself staying with Nicolai Thorburn, her new music teacher. In Nicolai, Alina finds not only a great mentor but someone who shares similar talents and interests. Yet given that Nicolai is her teacher, any feelings that they might share, cannot be acted on nor revealed.

Whilst an interesting story, I grappled with the style of writing, particularly as it jumped from one scene to another with little continuity. I also found the teacher-student relationship difficult to become immersed in, particularly given the romantic nature. Whilst this might have been difficult, the underage nature of Alina, was not that easy to accept, even though there were only a few years difference between Nicolai and Alina.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley. All thoughts and opinion are my own.

This book had a lot going for it, based on its summary; it completely fascinated me but ultimately it didn't deliver. I honestly felt I was reading a first draft rather than an almost ready-to-publish book.

What drew me into the book was the forbidden romance and the musical prodigy hoping to see a tension-filled romance and explore her talents and seeing her grow as a person after what you clearly see she had a rough life.

I had a lot of issues with the book, firstly with the main characters. Based on how the book was marketed, I did not expect the protagonist to be an underage girl and that wouldn't have been a problem if her character didn't feel so immature, the feeling she gave me was of being much younger than 17, had she been older and more mature I think I would have been rooting for a romance between her and Nicolai. Now for Nicolai, I didn't like his character, it felt like he didn't fit into the story, like the only contribution he made for the plot was being her teacher, therefore, making a romance between them forbidden and giving her somewhere to live, apart from that I didn't feel that there was really more to him the moments between the main pairing felt forced and the constant reminder of his character that all he wanted was to be a great teacher felt too forced and not believable again based on the characters age, because as a musical prodigy fresh out of school why was he not pursuing music?

Another issue is the continuity, the sequence of the story was very confusing, and that made it very hard to read and follow it. It got to the point where you couldn't even tell what time of the day it was, how many days or hours were between scenes, or where the actual locations of the characters were.

The main reason why I rated this book as I did, was that the book wasn't believable on any level, the context felt surreal, the characters were poorly written, and the pacing was confusing most of the time. I would have liked to see older characters or more mature ones and for them to have more believable circumstances to how their paths eventually lead them to the school.

In the immortal words of Tyra Banks, “I was rooting for you. We were all rooting for you.” This book had a lot of good things going for it that made me stick it out to the end, but somehow it managed to miss the mark entirely every single time.

Alina is an Italian American musical prodigy. A Synesthete, someone who associates colors with the sounds around them, she is singled out by her public school in California and selected to audition for a scholarship at a prestigious school in England. A scholarship that is then awarded to her, but one that her father refuses to allow her to take. Her mother, recognizing that this is Alina’s way out of an abusive home and away from a life that will only lead to her marrying someone who may also abuse Alina like her father does, packs Alina up and puts her on a plane to England to pursue her dreams. Once there Alina learns that unfortunately her paperwork was never completed by her parents which has left her with no room and board. Terrified to ask for help and even more terrified to return home, Alina decides to live in hiding in a closet at the school. She is successful in this for a few weeks, but is then discovered by one of the higher class students whose mother happens to be on the school board. Being blackmailed into leaving, Alina almost falls into the wrong hands on the street in the middle of the night but is unwittingly rescued by her teacher and private music mentor, Nicolai Thorburn. Unable to secure her a flat of her own until after the holiday, Nicolai offers Alina the guest room at his apartment and helps her get on her feet. While both find themselves attracted to the other, with Alina only being seventeen and Nicolai being her teacher neither of them pursue anything romantically. Instead, finding they are both very similarly gifted with familiar backgrounds and histories, they take the time to get to know each other and help each other grow past the hurts that have damaged them and held them back from reaching their dreams. But of course a student living with a teacher cannot stay a secret forever, especially in a school of gossipy students and wealthy parental board members. The question is what is the price one would be willing to pay in order to save someone else’s dream?

I loved the concept here. I loved exploring Alina’s gift and I loved the moments she spent with her teacher learning to navigate and understand her gifting. As a pianist myself watching the colors she associated with the notes of different pieces meld together into a beautiful symphony of the senses was pure perfection. Alina’s background, coming from a very ethnic and physically abusive patriarchal home, and the subconscious effect it has on her train of thought and her decisions/reactions was painful but very delicately handled. You could truly see how she had innocently buried the abuse and how it affected her quality of living until she began to finally acknowledge it for what it was, speak it out loud, and then ultimately use it as a tool to strengthen herself instead of allowing it to continue to define and defeat her.

Reading a book marketed as a romance and then meeting an underage main character, I was not quite sure how I wanted to take Nicolai’s character. Had Alina been older I would have been entirely for a blossoming romance between them, but give the context of the story, Alina’s age, and her history I found myself longing for more of a Mr. Holland’s Opus. Nicolai was a great character and a musical prodigy himself fresh out of school at age 22, he was the perfect character for a romance. He just didn’t seem to fit the story. Constantly reinforcing from page one that he loved all his students and wouldn’t pursue anything romantic with any of them just made the final page declaration of love between he and Alina feel slightly icky, even with their decision to not pursue any form of physical affection until after her eighteenth birthday. For the build up of his character he either needed to stand by his word and stay an incredible teacher who just wanted to inspire, love, and pour into his students, or his insanely attractive teacher-self needed to have a smoldering romance with someone already on his level. There were just a lot of mixed signals here.

All of my personal take on the characters and storyline aside, my biggest issue with the book as a whole was continuity. It was very confusing and at times extremely hard to read and follow the story. For instance one part in particular sees Alina going to bed, and in the very next paragraph it states during the night she woke up and was looking at the lantern lights they had placed on the terrace. The next thing you know she is being grabbed and thrown into an alleyway. It isn’t until after the altercation and her escape that you find out Alina was walking home from work alone when this transpired. However by this point you have absolutely no idea what time it is, what day it is, where the actual locations of the characters were, or if it was even real or just a dream sequence. I’d love to say this was an isolated incident but it happened repeatedly throughout the entire book. I wish I could say it came across as a formatting issue but at the end of the day the book seems like it still needs some heavy, heavy editing.

Like I said, there were some good things here and some aspects that I really did truly love and enjoy. It just seems largely unfinished and it’s hard for me to give it a higher rating because of this.

I would like to thank NetGalley and the author for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

The premise of this book sounded so good, but perhaps my expectations were too high. The title is about the main character being a synethete but I felt like this aspect of the character was merely an afterthought and barely explored. The focus of the story was about a forbidden love story and honestly it wasn't a storyline to really root for. The characters felt stand-offish. The main character wasn't very likeable. I really wanted to like this story but it fell flat for me.