5 star author Tbh hasnt missed yet and makes me actually remember why i read so much contemp romance

the only thing that was rlly blaring to me and got me was how unrealistic the whole classical-music-universe seemed to be . i know nothing abt that industry but it does seem like rlly hard to achieve that level of fame alex was able to gain when he plays um The cello .? And teenagers watching classical concerts .

But also .. I mean they did say he had 100k followers actually . But then they were opening for u2 !!! but also is u2 that popular in 2024?????

Lots of conflicting ideas for this one. You can make an argument of it being wattpad-ish but there are also some well-written scenes like the flashbacks of gwen and mabel . and no character development .. sure gwen runs and alex is susceptible to lorenz but by the end of it alex is free of him and gwen finally finds what she actually loves abt music.

abt alex being manipulative .. um where. bc i missed this. and im usually pretty good at spotting red flags from mmc’s in books and dropping the book immediately . while alex was judgey about her cello and violin playing it was explained why he was- bc he saw the potential in her, and he also didnt know she wasnt a cello player .. and gwen even says he was correct about her not being relaxed while playing the violin and instead of insulting her again he tries to help her And Does Help Her BTW! And she falls in love w music in a new way .

the pacing was , to me, not that slow. i didnt see parts that were ‘filler’ or dragging. maybe people found it slow in regards to the romance bc the romance wasnt really the overpowering plot point in this one . it was gwen and the pops and alex and his history. those things werent slow. gwen had been with the pops for yrs, she trusted nathan and idolized ava , so ofc she isnt going to see how theyre villians without it being spelled out for her. she trusts these people.

alex’s plot with lorenz and his mom was complicated, bc he had literally changed alex’s entire personality and given him a new name. he didnt even know where alex started and where xander ended. he didnt know how to separate the two. he didnt even know how to communicate with his mom anymore bc he’d been so messed up by lorenz’s manipulation. Not to mention the abuse nathan had done to him, and the guy was married to his mom , so how was he meant to go about this other than taking it slow finding out what to do and being conflicted?

idc this was good to me and the bad reviews like i get u but also .. i have my rebuttals prepared