Keyed Up

Keyed Up, Laura M. Baird

Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews

Genre: women's fiction, Romance

I was looking forward to this, I'm a sucker for a second chance romance, but though it was a really well written book the story itself just wasn't great for me. a decent read, but not one that I'd want to reread. 

I felt as though I was reading part two of a duo, where book one would have covered Penelope and Sebastian's earlier romance, it just felt like I had missing gaps in the story. That was all covered eventually, but at first it felt somewhat odd to me. 

Penelope is a very confident lady, the way she takes charge of the others, although they've been there years, is something only someone very self assured could do, and yet at other times she feels very shy and lacking in self esteem...
Sebastian, I really didn't ever get to grips with why he stopped their romance on the first place. There are reasons given later but for me they weren't strong enough to give up on a love if its serious.
That's part of the issue for me though, I didn't really feel the *love* between them, didn't see that magic connection I needed. There are moments when they get very hot and heavy but TBH that just feels like classic lust, not because there's anything more serious between them. That ten year gap - if they really felt that strongly why did they let it go so long, why leave it to chance before they come into contact together?

Still, as ever that's just me, just my thoughts and you may feel very differently.
It is a very well written story, great characters, no missing parts, or plots left in mid air but it was just the story itself that wasn't quite right for me. I enjoyed it, but wouldn't reread. 

Stars: Three, well written but lacking in emotion and drama for me. 

ARC supplied for review purposes by Netgalley and Publishers

this was a great story. It flowed so nicely I didn't want it to end. It had just enough everything with all the characters. I also liked the music theme.

'Eyes closed, she sighed and moved with his hands as if she were his marionette; his to control.
And he wanted to control her.
He wanted to strip her bare and conquer every inch of her.'

I really truly wanted to love this book but there where a few factors for me that I couldn't get past in order to enjoy the over-all experience of Keyed Up. I'm not sure if it was because of the setting of this book in a world of privilege, prestige and classical music or if it was how the author interpreted it, but the dialogue and use of language in this book had me struggling to connect with any one character. They sounded stilted, one dimensional and lacking passion. Everything seemed so formal and rigid, from how they interacted with each other to the shopping trips and arguments, even how they made friends with others. Because of this I didn't connect to the heroine, Penelope. I found her to be too weak, timid, unsure and a little immature, with the exception of when she was playing her music, then she transformed into a passionate and secure and confident woman.
Sebastian, our hero had all the makings for being a sexy, debonair older man but he too fell a little flat. He never could make up his mind on whether he wanted Penelope in his life or not and thus was born an indecisive hero and the unassertive heroine. There wasn't much of story-line to overcome the lack of engaging characters unfortunately, there where too many unnecessary details crowding up the chapters so it felt listless and unexciting. It will maybe appeal to other readers but for me I just could not connect to any of it and I so wanted to.