Review: My Favorite "Blue Note"
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 17, 2014
I have read all the books in the "Blue Note" series available in the Kindle Store, and for some reason, I liked this one the best.Perhaps it is just the sheer power of the two main characters. Alex was a kid "in the system", bounced from foster home to foster home, to group home (where he was abused) and then, the streets. Somehow, through it all, his music, played on the aging violin his mother gave him before she died, sustained him, both physically and spiritually. And his amazing talent for the instrument had not gone unnoticed. Taken under the wing of a teacher who, himself, had once been a promising violinist, and his friend, the Artistic Director of the Chicago Symphony, he became a recognized virtuoso, a veritable "rock star" of classical, Jazz and even classic rock music.David, on the other hand, is one the world's most respected conductors. The current Artistic Director of the Chicago Symphony, he meets Alex only as a last-minute substitution for a sick soloist. David, the child of great wealth, though orphaned at a very young age and raised by his rich, but demanding and difficult grandfather, is not just brilliant, he's a veritable prodigy, ascending to the podium of one of the great symphony orchestras at a very young age.Their meeting on stage, their amazing musical rapport, and their youth and beauty lead to the only possible conclusion - they were meant for each other, and despite some rocky times, they would end up together. After all, "Prelude" is a romance novel and Ms. Anthony, an accomplished writer.Of all the books I've read in this series (and I must admit that I just love that they're all based on the world of Classical music), I liked this one because, unlike the others, the music itself became the dominant metaphor. It's about love, passion and honesty expressed in a musical score, even when it couldn't be expressed in real life. It's about fear and its about a muse - a force that grants courage to the artist to express the vulnerability and passions of his or her very soul, and to expose his most intimate thoughts and feelings to an audience for their judgment.It's a very exciting theme and Shira Anthony handles it with aplomb. She's a master at painting characters and bringing their thoughts, fears and reaction to the page with an economy of words. I had to read this one in a single sitting.I'm glad I did.