Reviewed by Chris*
TITLE: The Melody Thief
SERIES: Blue Notes #2
AUTHOR: Shira Anthony
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 230 pages
BLURB:
Cary Redding is a walking contradiction. On the surface he’s a renowned cellist, sought after by conductors the world over. Underneath, he’s a troubled man flirting with addictions to alcohol and anonymous sex. The reason for the discord? Cary knows he’s a liar, a cheat. He’s the melody thief.
Cary manages his double life just fine until he gets mugged on a deserted Milan street. Things look grim until handsome lawyer Antonio Bianchi steps in and saves his life. When Antonio offers something foreign to Cary—romance—Cary doesn’t know what to do. But then things get even more complicated. For one thing, Antonio has a six-year-old son. For another, Cary has to confess about his alter ego and hope Antonio forgives him.
Just when Cary thinks he’s figured it all out, past and present collide and he is forced to choose between the family he wanted as a boy and the one he has come to love as a man.
Note: The Blue Notes Series can be read in any order. Each is a stand-alone story from the same classical music universe.
REVIEW:
The Melody Thief is the second book in Shira Anthony’s Blue Notes series–though the stories are all written so that they can be read individually. I had previously read Blue Notes and found that I enjoyed it, and have been looking for an excuse to read more books in the series.
This one I probably liked more than the first. Probably a lack of trauma-inducing french words (strangely enough, Italian is the other foreign language I took at uni–though it was not nearly as horrible as my experience with the french language).
Cary is a successful cellist, though he has always felt like a bit of a fraud. Trying and failing to live up to his mother’s exacting expectations, Cary has become a bit of a partier in his spare time. Though he at least does it under an assumed name so not to trash his career. But when he gets mugged one night, coming home from being fucked in the dingy bathroom at a local gay bar, Cary’s life takes a rather unexpected turn.
His rescuer, Antonio, is incredibly handsome, incredibly nice, and also very much out of Cary’s league. Not that Cary wouldn’t want to at least have a try out. But Antonio is also the father of a young–precocious–son, and Cary has never been fond of children. Still, he can’t seem to walk away from the man, even if he is sure that one day Antonio is going to look up and see what a fake he is…and walk away from him.
This was pretty low on the angst meter. Which actually made it a pretty good story for me this week. There are certainly moments where the tensions rise (especially with the father issues) but on the whole it was just a nice story. And while huge time-jumps are not my favorite thing, it does work really well here. We get to see the growing relationship in a more realistic time frame, and we get enough time with the characters so it doesn’t feel like we are missing large chunks of the story.
I was a little unsure about the whole ‘melody thief’ aspect of this story. I’m not sure I ever got what this was supposed to mean. Cary didn’t steal anything tangible…so that wasn’t it. Maybe he felt like he stole the fame from some unknown person because he didn’t think he was worthy? I don’t know, and that not knowing was a bit of a mark against the book for me. It kept bringing up the idea that Cary felt like a fraud…but I never really felt like it explained why and the why is pretty damn important.
This was however a small portion of the book, and the rest of it was really good. And I even like the kid. Which is not a normal occurrence for me. Unlike Cary, when I say I don’t like children, and never wish to have one, I don’t think that is going to change. Which is probably a good thing for the poor child who would otherwise get stuck with me.
I really enjoyed this series and will definitely be checking out the other books in the future.
BUY LINKS:
*I previously published my reviews under the name Carissa. As I work to update my profile on Love Bytes, please be aware that posts may be found under either my old name or my new name–depending on when they were originally posted. Hopefully the change-over will not take long and everything will be easier to find at the end of this all.