Omgg I LOVED this book! Gwen and Alex will forever hold a place in my heart. I giggled, kicked my feet and I cried but I enjoyed every second of it

Ummmmm excuse me?! The tension and longing in this book, the lyricism and descriptions of the music, ughhhh chef’s kiss. The former orchestra kid in me ate this up.

Not Another Love Song was my first Julie Soto book, and I’m excited to read more of her work. This book read very quickly, and it might be my favorite contemporary romance I’ve read this year.

The book follows Gwen Jackson, a young violinist playing in the Manhattan Pops Orchestra. Gwen is uptight, anxious, and a gifted musician. She meets Xander Thorne, a bad boy cellist, who plays in the Pops and in a quasi-rock/classical band. The two have a connection (dislike to lovers) and definitely have chemistry, as they work and make music together. The cello scene?! Thank you 🙌. Anyway, the book has complicated family dynamics, loss, and fun side characters that I also enjoyed.

I’m not super familiar with Reylo fanfic, but Adam Carlson probably made me a fan. That said, even though this started out as fanfic, I really enjoyed Alex/Xander and Gwen’s story. The pining, longing, tension (I know I said it already, but it bears repeating), was so good.

My main issue was I wish we’d seen the MCs get to know each other a little bit more, but I don’t think that really took away from the story or how I felt about it.

Much thanks to Forever and NetGalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review. Not Another Love Song is expected to be published July 11.

𝑰𝒕'𝒔 𝒔𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚, 𝒊𝒕'𝒔 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒂 𝒄𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒐 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒇𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒊𝒏 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒂 𝒗𝒊𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒏.

I wish I could write as beautiful and eloquent as Julie because this book deserves the best words. Unfortunately, I can't, and you're stuck with my ramblings.

𝘍𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘔𝘦 𝘕𝘰𝘵 was one of my top reads last year. I have zero doubts that 𝘕𝘰𝘵 𝘈𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘚𝘰𝘯𝘨 will be a top read this year. Even if you don't love music or have any interest in string instruments, the story will capture you. The tension. The chemistry. The spice. Literal perfection. I'm immediately going down a YouTube whole looking for string covers because it's all I could think about reading this. I just want more!

🎵 Rivals to Lovers
🎵 Musical Prodigies
🎵 Grumpy x Sunshine
🎵 Found Family
🎵 He Falls First
🎵 Dual POV

Things I loved about this book:
1. Dual POV (even though you can’t tell from the table of contents).
2. That some of the characters from Forget Me Not made appearances in this book. They are standalones, but I recommend reading in order so that you see the character crossover.
3. How well the author described the whole story. I am not typically a fan of classical music so I had no clue what most of the terminology meant regarding the sheet music, but I was still able to feel like I was hearing the music when they played the more mainstream songs.
4. How the ending came together. I won’t spoil it, but I am glad she was able to tie everything together with a pretty bow.

Things I didn’t like about the book:
1. 3rd person POV (although this was one of the best I have read this year).
2. The MMC’s “Xander” persona gave god-complex vibes. I understand he was trying to give off the “I don’t give a crap what anyone thinks about me and I do what I want” energy, but it came off like “everyone else is beneath me and I’m holier than thou”. It made it hard for me like his character until he and the FMC started to get to know each other better and we got to see more of the real him.

I spent most of the time reading this book anxious and waiting for the other shoe to drop. That’s a sign that I was emotionally invested in this book and I love going through the gambit of emotions along with the characters. Overall, very well done! Can’t wait to read then next one next year!

Not Another Love Song follows violinist Gwen and her rival, cellist Xander, and their musical rivalry turned love story. Gwen is a self taught prodigy violinist playing in the Manhattan Pops orchestra. She is a longtime fan of Xander’s music, but when they start to work together in the orchestra, she quickly learns that her musical crush is actually an arrogant and controlling musician. Focused on his music and growing popularity, Xander is unaware of Gwen‘s existence until they have a run-in outside of work that ignites their passion filled rivalry.

Gwen and Xander have excellent chemistry and their banter will have you giggling and kicking your feet. I love that the two of them are classical musicians, it was a nice twist on the trending rockstar romance trope. Julie does an excellent job at wrapping the reader up in the music and demonstrating the passion that musicians find in playing. It made me nostalgic and reminded me of why I love playing music. The characters show how music can be both beautiful and sensual (THAT seen, depicted on the cover, takes the passion found in music to a whole other level hehe). This was a fun, sweet read that will leave music lovers wishing for their own Gwen./Xander.

I really wanted to like this story because it was showing up on my social media everywhere. But the characters are so very toxic, and maybe that is the point, but I could not enjoy it as much as I wanted to.

We begin with Gwen, who is the embodiment of the "she doesn't know how great/beautiful she is" trope who somehow as an 18 year old self taught violinist scored a chair in a New York City Orchestra. Sure it's not the Philharmonic, but it's still New York City.

Then we have Xander/Alex who literally is the poster boy of male privilege and generational wealth who can seemingly keep a touring rock career and a spot on the same orchestra as Gwen.

Spoiler: They end up together and the smut is amazing. 10/10 no notes.

But the characters made me want to throw my phone across the room half the time. But it is a well written book, and I think the Star Wars girlies are going to love it.

3.75/5

Honestly, Alex/Xander pissed me off to the max. The things he said to Gwen at the beginning were unnecessarily rude. I get it was supposed to be cause he had a crush and that bothered him, but he's an adult. He frankly should learn to interact with adults better. Also, the switch from hate to love was SO sudden. Considering how much of a dick he was and the lack of any apology, Gwen should not have gotten with him so easily. This book would've benefited from being a slow burn.

IF we ignore the first part of the book, I was having a great time. I loved their relationship once they got together. It felt raw. When Alex loves, he loves with everything inside of him.

I wish it had more POV moments from Alex. That could've improved the first half of the book because we would've had SOME insight for why he was such an asshole.

The ended also pissed me off because there was no satisfaction. Like please put more time into your conflict resolution at the end. And please give a more satisfying punishment to the assholes.

Overall, I loved from 30% to 90% of the book, just gripes with the beginning and end. Will absolutely still pick up the next Julie Soto book.

3.25 ⭐️
I was super excited to read this book as I really enjoyed the first book in this series, however I was a little disappointed. I really liked the concept/plot of this book as a whole as it was unique and original. The idea of symphony musician rivals falling in love is fun and creative, but I felt the actual development of the story and the characters was lacking. The way the romance plot developed was almost out of no where. It was as if nothing happened and then everything happened which caused a disconnect for me. I thought there was a lot of potential for character development that was not explored. I just never really felt like I got to truly understand or connect to either of the characters. With that being said overall it was a fun little story and if you’re looking for something simple and cute you will probably enjoy this book. However, if you’re going into this hoping for a more complex storyline that really delves into the characters you may find yourself disappointed.

The inner band kid in me is squealing over this book!!!! The tension, the pining, the banter, UNMATCHED. Gwen and Alex were so sweet and such a fun concept of them performing, playing duets together. I loved the character development of Alex and his progression of shifting more from Xander to who Alex truly is. The romance was written with steamy moments sprinkled in, but still compellingly balanced with plot to make it well balanced, the perfect new adult romance for a romance lovers TBR!

Another fantastic romance from Julie Soto! Not Another Love Song follows self taught violinist, Gwen Jackson and surly rock star cellist, Xander Thorn. I love love loved the two main characters, but I will say that I found the side characters to be a little lacking. If you’re looking for a steamy romance this summer (with a plethora of music vocabulary) this is the book for you!

Julie does an excellent job of weaving a tale of two musicians, neither of which are truly living the lives they wanted for themselves. On the outside, Alex and Gwen seem to have it all- him, as a rock star cellist, and her as the first chair violinist at the Manhattan Pops Orchestra. But when they run into each other at a wedding Gwen is playing in, they realize that their relationship can be so much more together.

Their journeys of discovery are well-written, and the cast of characters is outstanding. Each secondary character has their own backstory and none of them feel superfluous to the overall plot. My only quibble is the vast amount of music terminology used- obviously, this is a book about music, but as someone with limited knowledge of music and music theory, I struggled to understand the metaphors Julie was writing.

Otherwise, it’s a fun contemporary romance with just the right amount of angst and heartbreak, with a comforting HEA at the end!

a professional violist and cellist & rivals to lovers? yes, please.
this was my first Julie Soto book, and i thoroughly enjoyed it (and i've heard such great things about Forget Me Not, so i will most likely read that in the future). this novel follows Gwen and Xander, professional violist and cellist, respectively, and their developing relationship and tensions as they continuously begin to encounter each other throughout their day-to-day lives, both working at the Manhattan Pops. tensions rise between them after Gwen is offered the role of First Chair at the Manhattan Pops, a role which Xander was working towards.
i overall enjoyed their romance throughout the novel, though i do think, at times, it was rushed and unrealistic, which pulled me away from the story and characters. nonetheless, i did devour through this story in less than 2 days, so it is a romance book i would definitely recommend.
thank you NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for this e-arc!!
[4.0 stars]

rating: 3,5 stars.

I would like to thank NETGALLEY and the publisher for providing me this arc!

I'm super glad that I had the opportunity to read this book before it's release date, since it was a story I enjoyed a bunch of things from and enjoying a book it's a hard thing for me these days.

I'll start by saying that I didn't had any problem with both main characters. They were not the deepest and best-written characters in the world but neither of them were shallow. They also didn't make me annoyed, and this is reason enough for me to not criticize them. As a couple, unfortunately their relationship was a little too fast for my liking, and while it was a good (and hot) scene for me it was at same time a little strange to read him touch her so openly while she played the cello because they were not that intimate yet and before that moment didn't even had a full conversations with each other (the scene where they encounter each other in the taqueria doesn't count). So it was very "instalust" for me and this really isn't my cup of tea, but since their tension and chemistry were good and they were cute this issue (that usually would be something big to me) didn't bother me as much. Still makes me a little upset? Yes, but i got over.

Other two big positive things for me about this book were the author's writing and the ambiance of the story. Gwen and Alex are both musicians and I appreciate that Julie was consistent enough with it and wrote the main characters actually working with music and having contact with it in every tiny moment of the book, instead of just claiming them as musicians and writing some quotes and mentions about it. Regarding the writing, I found it good and easy and made me keep reading the book for hours too and I missed the feeling of being so imersed in a story.

Something that also wasn't good for me was the third act break up. It was very abrupt and happened too close to the ending and as a consequence for that, the way that the problem was solved and the couple apologized themselves were also fast and this was reasoning enough to make me a bit frustrated.

Conclusion: the book was really good and fun for me, but unfortunately some things didn't allow me to give a 5 stars rating and i wish that goodreads could allow me to give half stars because i somehow feel like 3 stars are too low to explain the way i connected with the book. Still, the problems didn't erase how glad i am to have "Not another love song" as one of my 2024 readings and I look forward to read another Julie's books.

I am absolutely blown away by this book. It is perfect in absolutely every way.

There is not a single flaw!

Gwen and Xander are rival musicians who both play in the Manhattan Pops Orchestra. However, their worlds could not be further apart. Gwen started teaching herself violin at the age of 11 and has very few ambitions for her professional music career. Xander, on the other hand, is the front man in a popular group called Thorne and Roses and a rockstar cellist. Xander is unaware that Gwen even exists until she plays at a wedding he is a part of and she is forced to play his cello instead of her typical violin.

When the current first chair of the orchestra retires, Gwen is encouraged to audition for the spot despite only being with the Pops for 4 years. It would make her the youngest first chair in history and is certainly a great news story and money maker for the Pops. However, tensions rise between Gwen and Xander because he has been coveting that position his entire life. The two have to learn to work together while also navigate their growing feelings for each other.

I haven't read Soto's previous work but I don't think it's necessary to fully enjoy this book. I thought Soto did a great job with a lot of the music aspects of this book as well as creating the chemistry and tension between Gwen and Xander. The story felt fresh and it was a great break from a lot of other romances I read. The grumpy MMC that can actually hold a conversation? Thank you! Nothing infuriates me more than a grumpy character who only knows how to grunt. I love that Xander found ways to express himself to Gwen and acknowledges that he isn't the best communicator.

What I struggled with during this book was the middle lost my attention for a bit. The first 30% really had my attention and I was so engaged, but after Gwen's promotion I lost interest for a bit. The ending was also a bit lackluster for me and felt like everything was wrapped up a bit too quickly. I also thought the romance between Gwen and Xander went from 0 to 100 too quickly. I know there was tension but the progression was fast. All that to say, I definitely enjoyed this book and I think those who enjoyed her previous book will also enjoy this one.

3.5 stars from me and I intend on picking up Soto's other books!

Thank you to Forever and Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

omg omg omg omg omg
JULIE SOTO YOU ARE MY NEW FAVORITE AUTHOR!

I was BLOWN away by Forget Me Not in 2023 and this book is the IT book for me in 2024. Julie's writing is literally unreal. Finding out that this started as Reylo Fanfiction had me rolling because I pictured the MMC as Adam Driver the entire time. IT WORKS FOR ME OKAY?!?!!

The tension. The chemistry. THE HANDS!!! ahhhhh!!! I am literally not joking when I say this book is my everything.

As someone who knows absolutely nothing about music, I can tell you that you're still going enjoy this book. We get cameos from Ama and Elliot in this book and I was SCREAMING because I love those little babies so much! And there's hints that the third book we will see friends from the first two books as well which I cannot stress enough, will put my heart into cardiac arrest!

Gwen Jackson is a violin prodigy who took up the instrument at age 11 after befriending music shop owner Mabel after her mother passed away. Shortly after, her grandfather who was taking care of her also passed, and Mabel becomes her pseudo mother. At the age of 22, Gwen has been playing for the Manhattan Pops as a violinist for 4 years despite her lack of formal training. During one of her side gigs as a wedding musician with her best friend and roommate Jacob, she is tasked with playing the Cello and is given the instrument of legendary rockstar and groomsmen Xander Thorne of Thorne and Roses ( her favorite instrumental band). Xander is also in the Manhattan Pops but doesn't even know who Gwen is. He mean mugs her all night as she plays an instrument she doesn't even know how to properly play and makes comments about how she's awful.

Flashforward to rehearsal for the Manhattan Pops and Xander won't take his eyes off her. Soon afterwards, Gwen is awarded first chair of the orchestra over Xander and he is displeased to say the least. Turns out Xander is actually Alexander Fitzgerald, the son of the first chair violist Ava Fitzgerald who's family not only started the Manhattan Pops, but who use to be composer partners with Gwen's pseudo mom, Mabel. We find out that Alexander use to be a violinist and even trained with Mabel and attended Juliard only to drop out, change his identity and pick up the Cello for this rock band.

Despite losing his first chair position that he thought he had in the bag, Xander/Alex cannot stop showing up the practice and watching Gwen perform. The two keep crossing paths and eventually create a musical masterpiece together that also pushes the boundaries of professionalism. This scene lives rent free in my brain and my GOD when you read it too your jaw will hit the floor!

Xander/Alexander and Gwen end up playing their musical composition together on stage and soon Xanders step-dad Nathan tries to manipulate their music to promote the Manhattan Pops as it's in financial ruins. What started as a rivalry, blossoms into true affection and appreciation between Xander and Gwen. But with publicity and pressure comes problems and the two find themselves fighting uphill to maintain their relationship.

This one is just seriously so so good and I cannot wait for anything Julie Soto writes. THANK YOU Forever Pub & Netgalley for this ARC!

This book HOOKED me from the beginning. I absolutely was engaged since the first page and Julie Soto’s writing. She has a way with words that make us want to keep going and see how she crafted everything about this story. The first 20% to 40% were sooo engaging. I found that the pacing suffered a bit after the initial 30% of the book, it felt like a new story started and everything happened so quickly I felt whiplash. Also, Xander turns a switch and the relationship develops rather quickly and I felt it wasn’t deep enough.

Gwen was a hard character to enjoy sometimes, she was too in her head (THE DIALOGUE IN HER HEAD WAS putting me off) and doubted herself TOO DAMN MUCH but, I can also understand how failure or not being good enough plays a huge part on not feeling like you deserve good things or become something greater. Xander Thorne, what a complicated character to read about but, I LOVED how he told out FMC off and also showed her she could BE so much more; she didn’t need some assh***. He told her straight up what she needed to change and improve in order become the best version of herself as a person but also as an artist.

The spicy scenes were TOP NOTCH. The violin scene?? The bathroom scene???? Also, how Julie displayed how music was beautiful but also sensual and made them connect into another aspect of themselves as a couple but, also their sexual tension.

I DESPISED AVA, my god. What an annoying character, GIRLY, STAND UP FOR YOU AND YOUR SON. THAT MAN IS NOT WORTH LOSING FRIENDS, FAMILY AND YOURSELF IN THE PROCESS. I know we had two “villains” but, that woman made my skin and blood BOIL with anger.

I’m calling it now. This might be my favourite romance of the year.

The tension in this book is off the charts. I absolutely devoured this story and these characters. The small gestures from Xander had me swooning. He is just so far gone for her and I loved every second of it,

Mainly told from Gwens POV, I loved the brief Xander perspectives woven into the story. It felt like a perfect balance of both. The TENSION was incredible, I was a giddy mess reading this book. I also loved the found family elements to this story and fans of Forget me Not will have a few fun moments! Immediately after finishing it I wanted to read it again, so it's safe to say this might be a new comfort read.

I will not think about a cello the same after reading this book 🎼

“It’s simple really, it’s about a cello who fell in love with a violin” 🎻

Gwen and Xander are rival musicians who both play on the Manhattan Pops Orchestra. They had very different childhoods and upbringings though. Gwen is a self taught violinist while Xander is a rockstar cellist. Gwen earns the first chair and will be known as the youngest violinist to take a first chair in history. The tension between these two is so thick and I loved every second of it! The way these characters share their feelings through music was absolutely beautiful. I really need these songs to be released in real life, but for now Vitamin String Quartet will have to do 🎶

I also loved the character crossovers from Forget Me Not. While you do not need to read that book first, it was a fun tidbit to see them again.

“I need to be in your orbit in some way, and if you don’t want me to touch you and kiss you and f**k you, then let me make love to you onstage every night because it’s the most love I’ve ever felt in ten years”

Thank you to the publisher for providing this ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Not Another Love Song will be published July 16th.

I love a good enemies to lovers book and this one did not disappoint! Although it is a stand alone book, I highly recommend reading Forget Me Not before reading this one for a bit of background on the side characters of this book. I found some parts to be a bit slower but overall, this is a fast read with lots of character development. Orchestra is something I know next to nothing about which did at times feel like a slight hindrance. However, my lack of orchestra knowledge didn’t prevent me from loving the book, the characters, and the plot as a whole. Soto wrote the book so well that at times I felt like I could hear the music she was describing simply through her words.