Blue Notes

By: Shira Anthony

Narrated by: Peter B. Brooke

A Blue Notes novel.

Blame it on jet lag. Jason Greene thought he had everything: a dream job as a partner in a large Philadelphia law firm, a beautiful fiancée, and more money than he could ever hope to spend. Then he finds his future wife in bed with another man, and he's forced to rethink his life and his choices. On a moment's notice, he runs away to Paris, hoping to make peace with his life.

But Jason's leave of absence becomes a true journey of the heart when he meets Jules, a struggling jazz violinist with his own cross to bear. In the City of Love, it doesn't take them long to fall into bed, but as they're both about to learn, they can't run from the past. Sooner or later, they'll have to face the music.

Note: Each Blue Notes novel is an independent story, although the characters all inhabit the same classical-music universe. Books in the series can be listened to in any order.

©2014 Shira Anthony (P)2015 Dreamspinner Press

it was ok

too cliche to be relatable at all but I'm always down got a good prince / pauper story if told right. I liked the French speaking narrator, with more was expanded into Jules personal life. the romance started off a bit one sided and I'm glad it at least evolved there towards the end. maybe it's too soon to judge since I have not read the others yet

a litte slow in pace, but fast in falling in love

I think the synopsis of this good aptly described the journey to love for Jason Green and Jules Bardon. I do feel bad but I found this story to be quite slow in pace. The only quick development was Jason jumping into a gay relationship after being "straight" all this time.

I was also indifferent to the characters and the narrator didn't help as he was monotoned. While I sympathized with Jason but he was boring to me. I don’t condone cheating but I felt like she cheated to get a rise or some kind of emotion from the workaholic. Also Jason clearly used work to avoid dealing with the lack of intimacy or feeling with his fiancée. So I had clearly didn’t truly sympathize with Jason as he was not honest with her nor himself. Jules was also difficult to embrace as he appeared adrift in life and sort of lazy. I did enjoy his relentless pursuit of Jason, though Jason caved really quickly for a straight man. I think I could have used more emotional upheaval or angst to engage me. I am not sure if I will continue with the series but the author’s description of Paris definitely piqued my curiosity about Paris, the city of love.

Narration makes the book even better!

This is my first book by Shira Anthony and it was very good. I really loved how she wove the music throughout the entire story, using the music analogies to move the story forward so fluidly.

I think the writing is excellent and for the first part of the book I was really compelled. It started to unravel for me when our MC Jason aka “Jaz” falls under the spell of the alluring Frenchman so easily. For a straight guy (mostly entirely straight guy) it felt a bit too easy.

I loved watching the couple fall in love and Jules is an engaging character. I was really rooting for him and his budding music career. However… I was really disappointed by “the big misunderstanding”. I could see Jules getting mad when he sees Diane (the ex) in Jason’s arms, but when both have declared the big “L” word wouldn’t he at least give him a fighting chance at an explanation… especially after he calls so many times. And Jason, he claims he could never find the man to properly explain – but he’s homeless! How hard could it be to track him down through his job or his friends?

I think it would have been a more poignant story had they dealt with the more real hurdle of their huge age difference, their different life styles and the fact that they live on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

That being said, there was a lot of really great writing and I thought the love story between the two was very sweet and steamy.

Audio

Peter B Brooke, with your vaguely southern twang… what an amazing French accent you have!! I absolutely adored listening to this because he did such great work with both the French and the accented English. It was practically flawless to my non-French speaking ears!

I really think the audio is the way to take in this story – his narration adds so much flavor to the characters that it absolutely raised my rating from a 3.5 to a 4.5 of 5 stars.