Genre: New Adult (Dark Contemporary Romance/Psychological Thriller)
Date Published: April 30, 2016
Publisher: Harmony House Productions
Top cellist Julia James has begun a whole new life- happily married and expecting her first child. She is finally poised to have the life she's always dreamed of and she is finally able to put the past behind her.
Unfortunately, the past isn't quite done with Julia yet.
Riding high on his gold medal win at the Kreisler International Music Competition, Jeremy Corrigan is stunned to find his reputation in tatters, along with his plans for fame and fortune. But Jeremy isn't one to tolerate failure.
Once he has determined that Julia and her husband are to blame for his troubles, there's nothing he won't do to regain control over his fate... and theirs.
Love, redemption and betrayal collide in the dark romance, RHAPSODY.
Rhapsody is the sequel to Reverie by Lauren E. Rico. If you haven't read the first book, please go read it before you read this review. I'm not responsible for any first book spoilers you may come across. I tried, but it'd be impossible to not slip up little bit about book one while reviewing book two.
I absolutely lost myself while reading Reverie. My enchantment broke a little during Rhapsody when it started getting a touch politicy with all the talk of liberal vs conservative. It felt like a mild political agenda push, and it took me out of my trance. With the election tomorrow, it's been impossible to get away from politics for a while now, and the last thing I wanted was to find it in my fictional worlds too. Maggie & Brett could have had the same realizations and experiences at the soup kitchen and what not without bringing politics into it. Thankfully, once past about first quarter of the book or maybe less, that talk ended, and I was able to re-engage.
We get to know Brett much better this time around. In the first book, I thought he was playing the role of enabler as a survival mechanism, but there was one particular action and then that glimpse into his mind at the end of Reverie made me think he was more like his brother than I thought. It surprised me. Is he like his brother? Or was my first impression closer to the truth? I'm not telling, but he's one complicated dude. Maggie was a hoot. I liked her a lot actually. She's pretty straight forward and doesn't take crap. Brett needs some of that in his life. Actually, all the characters do.
We also get Julia and Jeremy's perspectives again, but this time we get Matthew's point of view too. I knew pretty much where he stood from his actions through out the series so far, but I enjoyed getting his actual perspective. The different perspectives this time around were very beneficial. They allowed me to really get to know the people around Julia and Jeremy. I'm convinced Julia lacks any kind of self preservation skills at this point. She needs these guys to protect her it seems. Jeremy is getting desperate and even more angry. The more this happens the scarier he gets, but I think that's going to be his downfall. I think he's going to start getting too confident. Yes, even more than he already is, and I think he's going to get sloppy. I think he already has a bit. I have a lot of "thinks" in there, but they're just my predictions. We'll see in the next book. There is so much depth to this series both in the story and the music surrounding it. I don't even know classical music well, but I can feel the emotions of it through the author's writing. That's a pretty amazing thing. This is a highly addictive series, and a new favorite for me. Be prepared. When you pick it up, you won't be able to put it down until you're done.
Rhapsody by Lauren E. Rico was kindly provided to me by the author for review. The opinions are my own.
Lauren Rico was going to be principal French horn of the New York Philharmonic. That was HER plan, anyway. The New York Philharmonic had no idea of her intentions, and that's probably a good thing, since she wasn't an especially good French horn player!
Lauren was, however, an exceptionally good classical music radio host. Calling herself a “Classical Music Reanimator,” she has made a career of bringing back long-dead composers from The Great Beyond and plopping them down smack in the middle of the 21st century. In other words, she does her best to demystify classical music for her audiences by taking it off a dusty old pedestal and putting it into a modern context.
It's only been over the last couple of years that Lauren has discovered a passion for writing, which she's managed to combine with her love and knowledge of the classical music world. That's when she had the realization that she had something special with this story of love and obsession and music.
These days, you can hear Lauren Rico on SiriusXM's Symphony Hall Channel 76, on WSHU-FM in the New York metro region, WSMR in Tampa/Sarasota, FL, WDAV in Charlotte, NC and KMFA in Austin, TX.
To learn more about Lauren E. Rico and her books, visit her website.You can also find her on Goodreads, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.
I absolutely lost myself while reading Reverie. My enchantment broke a little during Rhapsody when it started getting a touch politicy with all the talk of liberal vs conservative. It felt like a mild political agenda push, and it took me out of my trance. With the election tomorrow, it's been impossible to get away from politics for a while now, and the last thing I wanted was to find it in my fictional worlds too. Maggie & Brett could have had the same realizations and experiences at the soup kitchen and what not without bringing politics into it. Thankfully, once past about first quarter of the book or maybe less, that talk ended, and I was able to re-engage.
We get to know Brett much better this time around. In the first book, I thought he was playing the role of enabler as a survival mechanism, but there was one particular action and then that glimpse into his mind at the end of Reverie made me think he was more like his brother than I thought. It surprised me. Is he like his brother? Or was my first impression closer to the truth? I'm not telling, but he's one complicated dude. Maggie was a hoot. I liked her a lot actually. She's pretty straight forward and doesn't take crap. Brett needs some of that in his life. Actually, all the characters do.
We also get Julia and Jeremy's perspectives again, but this time we get Matthew's point of view too. I knew pretty much where he stood from his actions through out the series so far, but I enjoyed getting his actual perspective. The different perspectives this time around were very beneficial. They allowed me to really get to know the people around Julia and Jeremy. I'm convinced Julia lacks any kind of self preservation skills at this point. She needs these guys to protect her it seems. Jeremy is getting desperate and even more angry. The more this happens the scarier he gets, but I think that's going to be his downfall. I think he's going to start getting too confident. Yes, even more than he already is, and I think he's going to get sloppy. I think he already has a bit. I have a lot of "thinks" in there, but they're just my predictions. We'll see in the next book. There is so much depth to this series both in the story and the music surrounding it. I don't even know classical music well, but I can feel the emotions of it through the author's writing. That's a pretty amazing thing. This is a highly addictive series, and a new favorite for me. Be prepared. When you pick it up, you won't be able to put it down until you're done.
Check out my review of the other books in this trilogy!
Lauren was, however, an exceptionally good classical music radio host. Calling herself a “Classical Music Reanimator,” she has made a career of bringing back long-dead composers from The Great Beyond and plopping them down smack in the middle of the 21st century. In other words, she does her best to demystify classical music for her audiences by taking it off a dusty old pedestal and putting it into a modern context.
It's only been over the last couple of years that Lauren has discovered a passion for writing, which she's managed to combine with her love and knowledge of the classical music world. That's when she had the realization that she had something special with this story of love and obsession and music.
These days, you can hear Lauren Rico on SiriusXM's Symphony Hall Channel 76, on WSHU-FM in the New York metro region, WSMR in Tampa/Sarasota, FL, WDAV in Charlotte, NC and KMFA in Austin, TX.
To learn more about Lauren E. Rico and her books, visit her website.You can also find her on Goodreads, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.
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