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Blue Notes #1-6
Blue Notes
Immerse yourself in the best-selling Blue Notes universe, where music and romance are intrinsically intertwined. In Blue Notes, a struggling jazz violinist meets an attorney for a true journey of the heart; in The Melody Thief, a renowned cellist, sought after by conductors the world over, seeks hope and forgiveness from a lawyer; in Aria, rekindled lust blossoms into a true romance in world of opera; in Prelude, a world-renowned conductor clashes with a substitute violinist; in Symphony in Blue, revisit the couples of the Blue Notes series; in Encore, the cool kid violinist and the wannabe conductor dance in and out of a relationship and in Dissonance, a British noble on the run meets a busker in a subway.
1414 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 11, 2016
7 people are currently reading
27 people want to read
About the author
Shira Anthony
43 books428 followersShira Anthony is a complete sucker for a happily-ever-after, and rarely reads or writes a story without one. Never a fan of instalove, Shira likes to write stories about real men with real issues making real relationships work.
In her last incarnation, Shira was a professional opera singer, performing roles in such operas as “Tosca,” “Pagliacci,” and “La Traviata,” among others. Her Blue Notes Series is loosely based upon her own experiences as a professional musician.
Shira is married with two children and two insane dogs and when she’s not writing, she is usually in a courtroom trying to make the world safer for children. When she’s not working, she can be found aboard a 36’ catamaran at the Carolina coast with her favorite sexy captain at the wheel. She’s given up TV for evenings spent with her laptop, and she never goes anywhere without a pile of unread M/M romance on her Kindle.
Interested in hearing Shira sing? Here's a link to a live performance of Shira singing an aria from Puccini's "Tosca": http://www.shiraanthony.com/wp-conten...
You can subscribe to Shira's monthly newsletter for updates, free fiction, and subscriber-only contests here: http://www.shiraanthony.com/newsletter/
In her last incarnation, Shira was a professional opera singer, performing roles in such operas as “Tosca,” “Pagliacci,” and “La Traviata,” among others. Her Blue Notes Series is loosely based upon her own experiences as a professional musician.
Shira is married with two children and two insane dogs and when she’s not writing, she is usually in a courtroom trying to make the world safer for children. When she’s not working, she can be found aboard a 36’ catamaran at the Carolina coast with her favorite sexy captain at the wheel. She’s given up TV for evenings spent with her laptop, and she never goes anywhere without a pile of unread M/M romance on her Kindle.
Interested in hearing Shira sing? Here's a link to a live performance of Shira singing an aria from Puccini's "Tosca": http://www.shiraanthony.com/wp-conten...
You can subscribe to Shira's monthly newsletter for updates, free fiction, and subscriber-only contests here: http://www.shiraanthony.com/newsletter/
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 29, 2016
BLUE NOTES -3 stars
The book started strong. And I mean strong. Jason, a successful lawyer out of NY, decides he’s had enough of his routine and heart-break and wants to leave for Paris on a 2 month sabbatical right now. And he does just that. This part I loved. There are wonderful descriptions of the city through Jason’s eyes, the dark alleys, and the hole-in-the-wall jazz bar where Jason meets Jules. Jules is a 22-year old aspiring violinist who scrubs dishes for a living and performs with his band whenever there’s a cancelation at the bar. While Jason initially rejects Jules’ advances, claiming he is straight, we are in on the secret, because Jason is attracted to men but hasn’t really acted on it before –awkward teenage fumbles notwithstanding. And yet, circumstances encourage Jason to invite Jules to his sister’s house in Paris, where Jules stays, for several days.
Here things got a little tricky for me. First, the whole thing felt very formulaic. Jason and Jules were in a bubble. I get that Jason didn’t really know anyone in Paris but what about Jules? He just takes off for days on end, living on some stranger’s house, doesn’t check in at work, except for telling his roommate where he is, and just... gets on with it. Um, what? They play tourist for a few days, they go home where Jules cooks, and they have sex. That’s fine for Jason, who is on vacation, but the fact that Jules could pretty much take a similar break from his life just as easily –granted he doesn’t have a career, but still- didn’t come off as authentic to me.
Then the story started dragging for me a bit. I guess I was hoping for more character growth, or relationship development, but instead there was a lot of "Jason and his sister swoop in to save the day.” Yes, Jason spent many years in France as a teen and his name is apparently very well-known due to his career, I just didn’t buy that he could just provide solutions so easily for complicated problems occurring to a different country, like with Jules’ brother. It was presented as if Jason had these badass connections everywhere not only in the law enforcement world but in the music industry as well. At some point he casually mentioned introducing Jules to this big name agent or something. I get that it can happen, but it was too convenient.
And back to the formula. There was the big misunderstanding, the grand gesture, and a HEA. The epilogue was admittedly lovely and put a smile to my face. But the way there made me struggle to keep reading –having had to put the book down and pick it up several times in order to finish. It’s overall a light romance, with just a bit of angst, that many friends of mine on GR have enjoyed a lot. So you might enjoy being transported to Paris with the MCs more than I did. There were some very romantic scenes where Jules plays the violin for Jason that stood out. But, keep in mind that it does read like it comes from a recipe in places and is quite predictable.
THE MELODY THIEF -2 stars
I fell head over heels in love with Cary! Such a sweet, tortured character. Cary is a successful, famous cellist whose story takes place in Milan. He has serious self-esteem issues and his coping mechanisms are alcohol and bathroom sex with strangers. No intimacy. No real relationships. One night, an Italian man takes care of Cary after a mugging. Antonio is a handsome lawyer, father to a 6 year old boy, Massimo. I have to say I enjoyed reading about their relationship a lot more than Jason and Jules’ from Blue Notes. There was a sweetness to it all and the family vibe with Massimo helped to that effect. There was something really weird though. Antonio and Cary pretty much got their HEA around the half way mark. And after that, the story just dragged. There was unnecessary drama on top of unnecessary drama, specifically Cary’s dad. It was a solid 4 stars for me until all of that started happening. I was loving the book. There was literally no reason for it! The dad subplot ended up creating problems for Cary and Antonio but in a very unrealistic way. Why ruin a perfectly happy ending with half a book’s worth of shit? I don’t get it. It was like the story ended and there was a follow-up book after it to put the characters through the wringer. It seriously annoyed me and I had to bump my rating down.
ARIA -2.5 stars
Second chance romance! I love this trope. Sam and Aiden had met 5 years ago and dated for about 2 weeks when Aiden accepted a scholarship in Germany and left. Aiden was upset when he met Sam at a party organised by their mutual friends Jason and Jules in Paris. But, the sparks went flying and they started hooking up again while Sam was on vacation. But, as all good things, the vacation came to an end and Sam had to return to Philadelphia and his law firm while Aiden was busy travelling the world singing in opera houses. This book felt a lot lighter than the first two in the series. Aiden and Sam have the long-distance relationship challenge to overcome (once they decided to go steady that is) but are overall a good match. Their chemistry was strong and their sex life had more than a little healthy kink to it. All good stuff. But, as is becoming quite a pattern with these books, there has to be some contrived drama towards the end on multiple fronts. Why? I don’t get why it has to be so formulaic. If the drama succeeded in changing the dynamics a bit and creating some tension, I would be all for it, but once more, it takes the form of multiple things happening at once, miscommunication issues, the characters acting in unexpected ways out of the blue, and the relationship being threatened. I am sort of dreading reading the fourth book, because I know now, no matter how good, it will all go to shit towards the last 20% and for no good reason either.
Prelude -DNF
This started off really well, which is usually the case in this series but unfortunately did not hold my interest. I have been picking it up and putting it down for weeks, able only to read a few pages at a time. At this point, I'll have to say the author's writing style probably does not agree with me.
Music lovers looking for relatively light hearted, low angst stories might find this series appealing.
ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. See this review at Gay Book Reviews.
The book started strong. And I mean strong. Jason, a successful lawyer out of NY, decides he’s had enough of his routine and heart-break and wants to leave for Paris on a 2 month sabbatical right now. And he does just that. This part I loved. There are wonderful descriptions of the city through Jason’s eyes, the dark alleys, and the hole-in-the-wall jazz bar where Jason meets Jules. Jules is a 22-year old aspiring violinist who scrubs dishes for a living and performs with his band whenever there’s a cancelation at the bar. While Jason initially rejects Jules’ advances, claiming he is straight, we are in on the secret, because Jason is attracted to men but hasn’t really acted on it before –awkward teenage fumbles notwithstanding. And yet, circumstances encourage Jason to invite Jules to his sister’s house in Paris, where Jules stays, for several days.
Here things got a little tricky for me. First, the whole thing felt very formulaic. Jason and Jules were in a bubble. I get that Jason didn’t really know anyone in Paris but what about Jules? He just takes off for days on end, living on some stranger’s house, doesn’t check in at work, except for telling his roommate where he is, and just... gets on with it. Um, what? They play tourist for a few days, they go home where Jules cooks, and they have sex. That’s fine for Jason, who is on vacation, but the fact that Jules could pretty much take a similar break from his life just as easily –granted he doesn’t have a career, but still- didn’t come off as authentic to me.
Then the story started dragging for me a bit. I guess I was hoping for more character growth, or relationship development, but instead there was a lot of "Jason and his sister swoop in to save the day.” Yes, Jason spent many years in France as a teen and his name is apparently very well-known due to his career, I just didn’t buy that he could just provide solutions so easily for complicated problems occurring to a different country, like with Jules’ brother. It was presented as if Jason had these badass connections everywhere not only in the law enforcement world but in the music industry as well. At some point he casually mentioned introducing Jules to this big name agent or something. I get that it can happen, but it was too convenient.
And back to the formula. There was the big misunderstanding, the grand gesture, and a HEA. The epilogue was admittedly lovely and put a smile to my face. But the way there made me struggle to keep reading –having had to put the book down and pick it up several times in order to finish. It’s overall a light romance, with just a bit of angst, that many friends of mine on GR have enjoyed a lot. So you might enjoy being transported to Paris with the MCs more than I did. There were some very romantic scenes where Jules plays the violin for Jason that stood out. But, keep in mind that it does read like it comes from a recipe in places and is quite predictable.
THE MELODY THIEF -2 stars
I fell head over heels in love with Cary! Such a sweet, tortured character. Cary is a successful, famous cellist whose story takes place in Milan. He has serious self-esteem issues and his coping mechanisms are alcohol and bathroom sex with strangers. No intimacy. No real relationships. One night, an Italian man takes care of Cary after a mugging. Antonio is a handsome lawyer, father to a 6 year old boy, Massimo. I have to say I enjoyed reading about their relationship a lot more than Jason and Jules’ from Blue Notes. There was a sweetness to it all and the family vibe with Massimo helped to that effect. There was something really weird though. Antonio and Cary pretty much got their HEA around the half way mark. And after that, the story just dragged. There was unnecessary drama on top of unnecessary drama, specifically Cary’s dad. It was a solid 4 stars for me until all of that started happening. I was loving the book. There was literally no reason for it! The dad subplot ended up creating problems for Cary and Antonio but in a very unrealistic way. Why ruin a perfectly happy ending with half a book’s worth of shit? I don’t get it. It was like the story ended and there was a follow-up book after it to put the characters through the wringer. It seriously annoyed me and I had to bump my rating down.
ARIA -2.5 stars
Second chance romance! I love this trope. Sam and Aiden had met 5 years ago and dated for about 2 weeks when Aiden accepted a scholarship in Germany and left. Aiden was upset when he met Sam at a party organised by their mutual friends Jason and Jules in Paris. But, the sparks went flying and they started hooking up again while Sam was on vacation. But, as all good things, the vacation came to an end and Sam had to return to Philadelphia and his law firm while Aiden was busy travelling the world singing in opera houses. This book felt a lot lighter than the first two in the series. Aiden and Sam have the long-distance relationship challenge to overcome (once they decided to go steady that is) but are overall a good match. Their chemistry was strong and their sex life had more than a little healthy kink to it. All good stuff. But, as is becoming quite a pattern with these books, there has to be some contrived drama towards the end on multiple fronts. Why? I don’t get why it has to be so formulaic. If the drama succeeded in changing the dynamics a bit and creating some tension, I would be all for it, but once more, it takes the form of multiple things happening at once, miscommunication issues, the characters acting in unexpected ways out of the blue, and the relationship being threatened. I am sort of dreading reading the fourth book, because I know now, no matter how good, it will all go to shit towards the last 20% and for no good reason either.
Prelude -DNF
This started off really well, which is usually the case in this series but unfortunately did not hold my interest. I have been picking it up and putting it down for weeks, able only to read a few pages at a time. At this point, I'll have to say the author's writing style probably does not agree with me.
Music lovers looking for relatively light hearted, low angst stories might find this series appealing.
ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. See this review at Gay Book Reviews.
August 3, 2016
*I received a free copy of this book to read for Inked Rainbow Reads in exchange for an honest review.*
Shira Anthony is one of my favorite authors and this series is a wonderful example of what I've come to expect from her. These stories are thought-provoking, and she really brings her characters to life. They are flawed and relatable, and through these books there is a theme of courage and personal growth.
There are many musical references through these stories. Even though I was lost on some other the finer points about the music and the business of music, I still loved each and every story.
These books are interconnected, but they can also stand alone. Together they create a rich community of wonderful characters whose stories are interwoven.
These can be read in any sequence, but I read them in the sequence they are listed in the bundle. It's the order in which they were written. Here is the chronological order of the books for anyone who prefers to read them that way: 1) Encore, 2) Prelude, 3) Blue Notes, 4) Aria, 5) The Melody Thief, 6) Symphony in Blue, 7) Dissonance
Blue Notes
I love this book! Jaz and Jules are such wonderful characters and so easy to love. And Jaz's sister, Rosalie, is a strong, well-developed supporting character. The story is engaging, heart-warming and sexy. This is a thought-provoking and passionate story about self-discovery, coming home, and starting over.
The Melody Thief
This book touched me deeply. Shira Anthony does a wonderful job exploring some difficult topics with sensitivity. Cary and Antonio are great characters and Massi just steals the show! This is an incredible story about addiction, hurt, transformation and family.
Aria
This is a beautiful, bittersweet romance about letting go and moving on after tragic loss. Aiden and Sam are wonderful characters. And it was great to see other characters from series coming together in this story as well. This book didn't engage me quite as much as Blue Notes and The Melody Thief, but it was still a great read and highly recommended.
Prelude
This is a wonderful story about vulnerability, creativity and the courage to love and be loved. I didn't mind the jump back in time for this (because i didn't read these chronologically). It's great to glimpse back in order to get to know David more and be finally introduced to Alex properly.
Symphony in Blue
This novella feels like an epilogue for each story so far all tied into one. There's a strong feeling of chosen family - heartwarming and romantic.
Encore
Just when I thought there would be no more surprises with this series, this book floored me. John and Roger's story is sweet and sad and I find it a bit more mature and real than the other stories. It brought me to tears more than once and made me smile many times. Wonderful!
Dissonance
This is a beautifully written, heartrending but hopeful book. It's great to see another side to Cam, and the dynamic between him and Galen is fascinating. Cam's mysterious fall from grace adds an element of suspense to this book that I really enjoyed. I'll include a trigger warning for this one. This delves quite deeply into past sexual child abuse.
Shira Anthony is one of my favorite authors and this series is a wonderful example of what I've come to expect from her. These stories are thought-provoking, and she really brings her characters to life. They are flawed and relatable, and through these books there is a theme of courage and personal growth.
There are many musical references through these stories. Even though I was lost on some other the finer points about the music and the business of music, I still loved each and every story.
These books are interconnected, but they can also stand alone. Together they create a rich community of wonderful characters whose stories are interwoven.
These can be read in any sequence, but I read them in the sequence they are listed in the bundle. It's the order in which they were written. Here is the chronological order of the books for anyone who prefers to read them that way: 1) Encore, 2) Prelude, 3) Blue Notes, 4) Aria, 5) The Melody Thief, 6) Symphony in Blue, 7) Dissonance
Blue Notes
I love this book! Jaz and Jules are such wonderful characters and so easy to love. And Jaz's sister, Rosalie, is a strong, well-developed supporting character. The story is engaging, heart-warming and sexy. This is a thought-provoking and passionate story about self-discovery, coming home, and starting over.
The Melody Thief
This book touched me deeply. Shira Anthony does a wonderful job exploring some difficult topics with sensitivity. Cary and Antonio are great characters and Massi just steals the show! This is an incredible story about addiction, hurt, transformation and family.
Aria
This is a beautiful, bittersweet romance about letting go and moving on after tragic loss. Aiden and Sam are wonderful characters. And it was great to see other characters from series coming together in this story as well. This book didn't engage me quite as much as Blue Notes and The Melody Thief, but it was still a great read and highly recommended.
Prelude
This is a wonderful story about vulnerability, creativity and the courage to love and be loved. I didn't mind the jump back in time for this (because i didn't read these chronologically). It's great to glimpse back in order to get to know David more and be finally introduced to Alex properly.
Symphony in Blue
This novella feels like an epilogue for each story so far all tied into one. There's a strong feeling of chosen family - heartwarming and romantic.
Encore
Just when I thought there would be no more surprises with this series, this book floored me. John and Roger's story is sweet and sad and I find it a bit more mature and real than the other stories. It brought me to tears more than once and made me smile many times. Wonderful!
Dissonance
This is a beautifully written, heartrending but hopeful book. It's great to see another side to Cam, and the dynamic between him and Galen is fascinating. Cam's mysterious fall from grace adds an element of suspense to this book that I really enjoyed. I'll include a trigger warning for this one. This delves quite deeply into past sexual child abuse.
May 22, 2018
This has been one beautiful series. Full of ups and downs. Good and bads. But full of love and hope.
mm-have-bk
August 31, 2025pRdsp
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews