Review Tour: Reverie (+$25 Amazon GC Giveaway!)

Title: Reverie 

Author: Lauren Rico

Series: Reverie #1

Pages: 360

Date Published: 2016

Publisher: Harmony House

Format: Kindle

Genre: Dark Romance 

Source: Goddess Fish Blog Tours
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Synopsis:

Julia James has spent most of her life hiding in plain sight. For her, the cello was a way to get past a hellish childhood. Even now that she is one of the top cellists in the country, and a contender in the most prestigious, high-stakes music competition in the world, she hopes no one will notice her. But then someone does.

A chance (or is it?) encounter brings her to the attention of the distractingly sexy, charismatic French horn player, Jeremy Corrigan. As he helps her to embrace her talent, her sexuality and her past, Julia thinks she might finally be headed toward her happily-ever-after. Unfortunately, happily isn’t so much ‘ever-after’ for Julia. The lines between love and obsession are blurred.

~My Thoughts~

I'm going to be honest here. I was not expecting to like this book. From the premise, I was expecting the sappy "dark and angsty hero falls for a woman with her own troubled past" motif. I'm a little sick of reading about just how angsty and damaged everyone is only for them all to magically resolve their life-long issues because of *swoon* romance. At the beginning of Reverie, that's just what I thought I found, but Laura Rico pulled off a lot of surprises and that turned the book from ho-hum to instant attention-grabber for me. 

Jeremy isn't all that likeable. He's intimidating. And a bit creepy. Hell yeah he's sexy (and Julia certainly thinks so) but he so has som Phantom of the Opera vibes going on. Jeremy is so totally the phantom of the opera I'm surprised he doesn't have half mask throughotu the story, although I suppose that would prevent him from playing the french horn... 

Anyways. Because I didn't particularly like Jeremy, I was pumped when the story started to progress to a stalker-intimidation sort of narrative, and he didn't change because of Julia's love and attention. If anything that seemed to drive him into more of his baser instincts. 

I felt like you really got a lot of the author when reading about Julia. There seemed to be a lot of similarities to their histories and personalities (Maybe you can confirm or deny in the comments Laura! :) Hopefully a similar drama never happened to you though, that would be scary! 

As far as the plot goes, I felt a little distracted in the beginning. This is fair sized read, and it took some time to really get into the meat of the story. I can forgive this a bit because it always takes some time to set the tone, setting, and character details before charging ahead. Once Julia and Jeremy's relationship took off, the plot did too and I found myself eagerly returning to my kindle when I should have been doing things like work, making dinner, eating dinner, and paying attention to my very forgiving fiance. 

I don't want to spoil anything for you readers, but suffice to say this one is more a thriller than a romance. I find myself sick to death of cheesy romances, so this one with lots of dark and twisty will make those realists out there really happy. Romance is fun, but it can also be scary, sick, and terrifying. Experiencing the relationship as Julia really brought those emotions home and adds some suspense and spice to an otherwise tame story. 

~Try an Excerpt!~

I inhale every phrase, and my entire body moves in a circular pattern, cello lovingly embraced between my knees. It takes me to places I don’t usually allow myself to go, places buried deep in the back of my mind. 

My mother lives here, in this place where the music brings me. She’s a young woman, not much older than I am now. I can see her pretty, fair face. She has freckles like me, and a head full of coppery curls. I imagine her leaning over me and tucking me in. She brushes the hair from my forehead and tells me to have sweet dreams. But they are not sweet at all. As my bow slices across the strings, I hear her and my father yelling through the night. I dig into the Bach harder, recalling the crash of objects hurled and the smack of a hand on someone’s face. Whose? I don’t know. 

My fingers move frantically now, recklessly. The music could break apart and shatter in an instant. But it doesn’t. It slows and begins the lament. The crying. Her tears. There it is. He slapped her, this time. The cello is a wordless voice, heaving and sighing with the weight of her sorrow. The bow carries my fear with it as it swings to each string in turn. My parents are so volatile. They cannot hold our fragile life together. It just spirals out of control, picking up speed again, until it reaches a fever pitch.

Without warning, my hand slips across the D string, lurching forward and sending my bow flying across the room. It hits the floor with a sickening ‘thwack,’ returning me instantly to the tiny, pitch-black room in which I have lost myself once again.

~Meet Lauren!~ 

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 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. 

You can hear Lauren Rico on SiriusXM's Symphony Hall Channel; on WSHU-FM in the New York metro; WSMR in Tampa/Sarasota, FL; WDAV in Charlotte, NC and KMFA in Austin, TX

Lauren will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

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