As. former violinist (*cough cough* in fourth grade), it was really fun to relive orchestra through Gwen’s experience. Of course who wouldn’t want to be first chair and fall for the hot super star cellist? The dynamic between the two of them was quite familiar, and I am a fan. It wasn’t my favorite rendition but I did enjoy it. If you are also a former orchestra kid and love a tall dark sexy guy with a rough relationship with his mom, definitely give this a read.

Julie Soto did it again! This book was fantastic start to finish. I know nothing about music or musical instruments but that was fine. It wasn’t so much of the story that I couldn’t follow along. I loved the main characters and their love story. Loved that he wanted her from the beginning. Loved that she was strong and held to her beliefs and confidence. The spice level was perfect too! It’s also always fun when characters from a previous novel are mentioned so I really enjoyed our friends from Forget Me Not being included. Can’t wait for what book comes next from Julie Soto!

Romantic, stirring, and perfect for the music nerd in me. This hit all the right notes (haha) and I would pick up anything Soto writes. She is a masterclass on mixing feelings with propulsive plot and overall tenderness.

Thank you so much for letting me read this book! I adore Julie Soto! Her characters are fantastic and funny, and the story is beautiful. I love that Julie grabs you in the first chapter, and makes you love everyone. This is a recommend read for my friends!

First, thank you to Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

I adored Soto’s book “Forget Me Not” and “Not Another Love Song” was one of my most anticipated books of 2024. The premise is so interesting, especially as a former musician myself. The tension and spice between Gwen and Xander were well done. I loved how they challenged each other and became each other’s muse.

Overall, though, the book was disappointing. The main characters lacked depth, especially Gwen. We never truly understood who she was outside of playing violin. She didn’t seem sure of herself or confident in anything either. I have no idea what her motivations were other than essentially people pleasing. She lacked the depth we saw in Ama in “Forget Me Not.” Xander also seemed one not as solely a famous musician without any other hobbies or traits. I would have liked to explore their other interests or friends or for them to have one conversation that didn’t revolve around music.

Even though this book had flaws in my mind, I’ll absolutely read what Soto puts out next. The book seemed to set up our next couple, but we’ll see!

This is in my top 3 favorite contemporary romances I've ever read.

I don't read much contemporary romance, because I usually need more worldbuilding detail to experience kind of escape that I seek when I read. I am in no way musical, so the world of this book feels far enough removed from my daily life that it provided the perfect level of escapism.

I love everything about this story - the meet cute, the crackling tension, the slow burn build up to the relationship, the conflict and the intimate scenes were all amazing. I loved it.

I highly recommend this book for lovers of spicy romance, Reylo fanfiction, and/or those looking for a bingeable romance to escape into.

Thank you Forever Publishing and NetGalley for providing a digital galley for me to review.

I love Julie Soto! Having been a fan of this author's fan fiction, I was really excited when Soto's first book, Forget Me Not, was published. It was a 5 star read, as was Not Another Love Song. I liked both of the main characters. I loved the fact that Ama and Elliot showed up. I hope Soto keeps writing: both her fanfiction and new books.

I. Love. This. Book.

After reading Julie Soto's review and learning that her new one was available, I could not have run faster to request it from NetGalley. Thanks to the Forever team for this ARC! I will be singing this book's praises right through publication day.

Knowing that the story has its roots in Reylo fanfic hooked me but Julie's writing kept me there. I knew music was sexy (I'm a regular symphony attendee: including a performance of Rise of Skywalker, which could not be any more Not Another Love Song coded), but I have a whole new appreciation for the strings section! I loved all the characters, I loved the plot, I love the cover (and THAT scene, whew!). The connections to Forget Me Not were perfect.

Julie Soto has become an instant read author for me and I'm happy to share her books with my audience.

4.25 stars: This book is so good! The love story of a cellist and violinist, Not Another Love Song is jam packed with angst, longing, and steam.

The strongest part of this book is definitely the central romance; I enjoyed both of the characters, and I thought their relationship had a natural progression throughout the book. The steamy scenes were hot, but I also felt they had an emotional connection in addition to the physical connection. My one nitpick about the romance is that they got together a little too quickly. I would have liked to see at least one more date/ non-steamy connection scene before they got together, but that didn’t break the book for me.

I enjoyed the characters in the book a lot, and I was very interested in the familial dynamics in the book. I thought Soto did an excellent job of depicting realistic messy family dynamics and how different people respond to them. However, I don’t think there was a full resolution of some of those dynamics, especially given how complex they are. While the romance should take center stage in a romance book, the familial relationships got lost in the efforts to wrap up the romance and I would have liked to see another chapter or two dedicated to wrapping those conflicts up as well.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this as a great contemporary romance read! I liked it even more than Julie Soto’s first book!

Goodness this book had me obsessed. It was an absolute delight with the perfect amount of angst, spice, heartbreak, anger, and love. The NY setting was realistic instead of corny. Gwen & Xander have me now wanting to head straight to a symphony. Absolutely recommend. In fact I Immediately went and grabbed a copy of Julie Soto's Forget Me Not which has a Xander cameo. This is definitely an author to keep eyes on. Ali Hazelwood promised us a spicy cello scene here and JULIE DELIVERED!

Julie Soto has written a perfect rom com once again. So vivid, so beautiful, so well done. Though the conflict frustrated me I would always rather feel frustrated and angry for characters than not care about them at all! Can’t wait to have this in store and hopefully see it become something bigger as it is released and loved.

I was so pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. The love story in this book was beautiful and raw. I felt very connected to the characters and was invested in their relationship. Many modern romances lack character development and chemistry between the main characters, but this truly felt complete and full of substance. I was nervous I would be lost due to the music terminology; and although there was quite a bit of that, I was never confused about the story. Those who are not familiar with the music or orchestra industry should NOT be afraid of this book. It was very digestible and easy to understand even with all of the musical jargon! Overall, I would say this is one of my favorite romance novels to date. It was the perfect length, perfect amount of plot and romance (and spice!), and kept me captivated from the very beginning.

Lovely and emotional palette cleanser for me. Julie Soto has done it again! I loved falling in love with these characters. As a reader whose life has always been full of music, it was so fun to read about characters who share that connection! The romance felt raw and real in the best of ways. It was simultaneously heartbreaking and heartwarming. Seriously, a must read for anyone who loves music and romance.

Julie Soto outdoes herself! With well fleshed out characters and enough push and pull to really keep me interested. The Boston Pops type setting was engaging and I really enjoyed the cameos from Forget Me Not.

Loved this one! What a great follow-up to Soto's first book -- and it was fun to see Ama in the background of NALS. I loved the peak into orchestra culture (who knew classical music could be so steamy?), and the New York-iness of the book was just great. And that cello scene! Five stars!

Did I think I needed a romance novel about two people who are musical prodigies!? No. But DANG am I glad to be proven wrong!
This book was totally unexpected in THE BEST WAY!

Julie Soto was already an autobuy author for me (I read Forget Me Not and it was EXCELLENT) but this book solidified that even more if possible. I read a lot of Romance Novels and they can sometimes start to blur together.... But that is NOT the case with Not Another Love Song! I think my cheeks are still sore from smiling so hard while reading this and I found myself holding my breath because of the beautiful tension and chemistry between our two main characters!

This story follows Gwen, a musical prodigy and self-taught violinist, who plays for the Manhattan POPs. One day her life is basically turned upside when she is offered the first chair of the orchestra. She is quickly thrust into the limelight... but is she ready for it and all the "politicalness" it entails... I must confess I know nothing about music but the way Julie wrote the musical scenes I swear I could almost hear it!!!

While Gwen is dealing with all these sudden changes in her life she keeps crossing paths with Xander Thorne. The lead member of a "rock band" called Thorne and Roses and the first chair for the Cello players at the Manhattan POPs with Gwen... when they first meet it does not exactly go well... but their chemistry is undeniable to say the least.

This is very much a rivals to lovers storyline and who knew spicy scene with a cello was missing from my life!?!?! AHHHH!!! I'll never look at this instrument the same again!

Gwen and Zander's journeys are beautifully written. Their love seemed a little "insta love" or instant connection kind of love BUT I loved it. It made so much sense to me and I think that music does really bring people together in a more intimate way that people realize.

My only "grief" with this book is the ending... I think it wrapped up too quickly and some loose ends needed to be tied up more so than they were BUT that's okay. I still LOVED it and will recommend to everyone I see from now on!

I also recently found out Julie writes Dramione FanFic under a pen name so I will be starting that series ASAP!

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for providing me with this AMAZING book's digital reviewer copy in exchange for my honest opinions.

4/5 stars

this was my first julie soto book and it will not be my last! oh my! the mind that julie soto has is amazing.

‘not another love song’ doesn’t have the traditional tropes i gravitate towards but there is an addictive nature to this book, that i fear i might need to read some more books like it!

tropes:
- rivals (kinda just hate each other) to lovers
- he falls first
- boy obsessed fr
- workplace romance
- she’s a violinist x he’s a cellist
- musical prodigies
- amazing banter
- dual pov (though we don’t see his very often)
- forced proximity


this book follows an anxious yet extremely talented violinist, and a really cocky and confident cellist (or so we think!). while they work together at an orchestra, he’s never noticed her… until now..

this author is extremely talented, it is well written, and in a third person pov (omniscient) that is hard to do right, but soto did it perfectly!

i need to reread this asap, i wanted to throw up, scream, cry, laugh, and overall force myself into this story because i want to be loved the way xander’s loves.

such an amazing book, the spice isn’t overwhelming and is there where needed (not an overload of it, it is more plot based, but with such good tension)!

Not Another Love Song made me wish I played an instrument, who knew a violin or cello could be that sexy. Soto’s first book Forget Me Not was one of my favorites last year and although I prefer it, this one was really great too. I enjoyed the pacing and tension between Gwen and Xander. Also loved the cameos from Ama and the other characters.

The only reason it’s not five starts is because at the beginning I did find that Xander came across as a bit too rude and entitled for me. I get that he was raised to be the best at playing and being praised, but he had no respect for other peoples time. I’m glad his character was able to grow, he was down bad for her. Gwen felt like such a sweet character despite going through a lot at such a young age, she found her passion and worked hard of it. I like reading books that showcase professions or hobbies I don’t know much about, it’s fun to learn about new things. Overall great romance story.

Thank you to NetGalley, Forever (Grand Central Publishing) and the author for the opportunity to read this ARC and share my honest review.

This book was amazing! Imagine if Black Swan was a hilarious romance set in an orchestra. The characters are so into their music that it sparks a crazy love story. Alex and Gwen's chemistry is both sweet and explosive. What's cool is they start off as rivals but end up falling for each other. Their musical talents are out of this world, but they come from totally different backgrounds, which makes their love story even more interesting. Plus, the guest appearances from Forget Me Not were a blast! Overall, this book gets a perfect 5/5. You've gotta read it, binge it, and definitely buy it!

This was so cute ! I loved seeing what Ama and Elliot are up to. This was third person vs dual pov like forget me not . I loved how grumpy Alex / Xander was and then how he totally melted for Gwen, very romantic ! All the music stuff was new to me but the author did a good job explaining it .