When searching for a new book, I’m always a fan of stories that intersect with my other passions. And Julie Soto’s Not Another Love Song stood out to me from just the front cover.
I have always loved music. In my youth I played the viola (not well) and started teaching myself how to play the guitar. Performing in a music ensemble—whether that be a stage production or an orchestra—has always been one of the great joys of my life. There’s something powerful about music as a connector between human beings.
For those that have never played an instrument, it may be difficult to understand, but to me performing music feels like speaking on a more expressive level. It’s less about the message transmitted but more about the feeling.
All this to say, while my viola days are far behind me, I still love music even more each day and could not imagine life without it. And an orchestra setting feels like the perfect backdrop for a swoony romance novel.
While music is moving and beautiful, the industry can be rife with politics. In Not Another Love Song, violinist Gwen Jackson is offered the first chair position at the Brooklyn Pops and her whole life is turned upside down. She’s never been the star of the show at her job, and being the first chair of an orchestra has never been part of her plan. When Gwen assumes the role, she expects to work hard to meet the pressures from her fellow players and the public to make the season a success. What she does not expect is Xander Thorne.
Xander is a brooding social media star and cellist part who is part of a famous rock/string band. He has been playing for the Brooklyn Pops for a year when Gwen assumes the position of first chair.
He also has no idea who Gwen is.
Once their worlds collide, an undeniable chemistry blossoms between Gwen and Xander. They quickly become the talk of the music world. But pressures of a public relationship and Pops politics threaten to tear them apart, and Xander and Gwen must see if their growing romance can withstand the secrets and histories that hide in the shadows.
I would say Not Another Love Song falls into the category of a low-stakes, enjoyable read. It hits all the notes of a classic bad-boy/nice girl romance. The male main character is a brooding heartthrob with a secret past, and the female main character is buzzing with enthusiasm but also hiding the wounds from her childhood. I wouldn’t describe the relationship between Gwen and Xander as toxic, but it happens fast and is quite intense. There is also a heavy amount of miscommunication happening in this book that drags the drama between them out longer. It is easy to see who the foul players are from the start, and yet the two main character choose willful ignorance for quite a large section of the book, which can become frustrating as a reader. Overall, the book handles the key conventions of a romcom through a music industry lens with ease, and even though it was clear where the character arcs were going from page one, I didn’t entirely mind the familiarity of the story.
I would say the hardest buy-in for me was understand where Gwen stands as a musician. She is a character painted to be brimming with talent. To play as well as she does and to be as successful as she is would require her to have some level of perceptiveness when it came to the opinions of her peers or those in the industry. And yet, it feels as though Gwen is entirely blind to the views of her peers about her quality as a musician. Am I to believe that she was showcasing all of this talent for years and was unaware of her potential until she was directly offered a promotion? Or was she truly a mediocre player that had been elevated for the sake of optics? It was at times confusing to understand where she really stood amongst her peers.
But also, this is a romance novel, so I offer this critique with a grain of salt. The story is certainly not meant to reflect the real lives of up and coming violinists with total accuracy, as the driving force of the story is, in fact, romance—and trust me when I say there is plenty of romance in Not Another Love Song.
The chemistry between Gwen and Xander is strong from the moment they meet, and I found myself longing to hear the music instead of just read about it. Writing books centering music is a challenging feat, considering there are only so many descriptors for a song that can elicit an image when readers are not hearing the music themselves. When possible, I did pop on a pair of headphones to listen to the pieces referenced, and it really added a new dimension to the reading experience.
If you’re in a steamy romance era, I would recommend adding Not Another Love Song to your reading list.
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