Reviewed by Carissa

TITLE: The Stars That Tremble
AUTHOR: Kate McMurray
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 200 pages
BLURB: Giovanni Boca was destined to go down in history as an opera legend until a vocal chord injury abruptly ended his career. Now he teaches voice lessons at a prestigious New York City music school. During auditions for his summer opera workshop, he finds his protégé in fourteen-year-old Emma McPhee. Just as intriguing to Gio is Emma’s father Mike, a blue-collar guy who runs a business renovating the kitchens and bathrooms of New York’s elite to finance his daughter’s dream.

Mike’s partner was killed when Emma was a toddler, and Gio mourns the beautiful voice he will never have again, so coping with loss is something they have in common. Their initial physical attraction quickly grows to something more as each hopes to fill the gap that loss and grief has left in his life. Although Mike wonders if he can truly fit into Gio’s upperclass world, their bond grows stronger. Then, trouble strikes from outside when the machinations of an unscrupulous stage mother threaten to tear Gio and Mike apart—and ruin Emma’s bright future.

REVIEW:

Giovanni Boca was a star.  His voice brought the house down and the people to their feet.  Then his voice failed him.  Now he’s a teacher, spending his time molding the next round of operatic stars.

Mike McPhee was loved.  Together with his husband, Evan, Mike adopted the beautiful baby girl, Emma.  Then an act of heroics cost Evan his life and Mike his husband, and a future that they had planned together.  Now Mike’s whole world is his daughter, whose voice is catching the attention of a certain Italian operatic teacher.

Gio and Mike have experienced the highs of life, and its lowest depths.  Having already once grasped the stars, and plummeted back to earth, do they dare to reach again?  Can they find the sweetest of music in the whisper of skin and the sigh inside the other’s lips?   And will they be willing to fight so that they can keep the stars they find trembling within their hands?

This book was a pure pleasure to read.  There was a wonderful sense of rhythm in this story.  A subtle lyrical quality that fits perfectly with the plot and the stars that stud it.  Gio, in all his sexy Italian glory, lends the story an exotic flair with all that beautiful Italian language and mannerisms.  I may only remember a few words from my semester of Italian, way way back, but I’ve always found the language beautiful–even if sound down-right ridiculous when I try to speak it.  I love it when authors are capable of giving voice to a foreign language but not have those words interrupt the flow of the story.  Here, you get the feel of the Italian, of the power and simple beauty, without having to scramble over to google-translate.  Most times we are given hints as to what has been said, and even when it is left undisclosed you can guess at the meaning.  But no matter, the feeling and the intent is clear.

It is clear from the beginning that Mike and Geo are going to be unable to keep their hands off each other.  Even when they try.  Even when they know that it could come back to bite them in the ass.  But there was real chemistry between these two.  Not just because they found the other attractive, but because they could see in the other the same sense of loss, of darkness and pain, that they have within themselves.  It is this knowing, though the flavor of pain experienced was different, that made them perfect together.  And god, those sex scenes where both incredibly hot and extremely beautiful.  I love the use of music, and music theory, as a background to describe what was going on between them.  Loved that it made the sex into something unique to the story, and not just another kiss-this, lick-that, put-that-there formulaic bedroom scene.

I might not know a lot (or anything) about Opera, but this story worked with that lack of knowledge very well.  I felt both challenged to learn, to gain something from the musical background of the story, but also felt that if I didn’t know the exact meaning of every term, or phrase, it wasn’t the end of the world.  You could clearly tell that the author knew what she was writing about–or could at least fool me into believing it.  It made this story more real, this feeling that Gio knows intimately the things that he is talking about.  And it made Mike’s struggle to find a place in Gio and Emma’s world, relatable.

I honestly can’t find too much to criticize in this book.  The characters actually talk when they have issues.  They don’t keep secrets.  They strive to find a way to make this relationship work–but are fully aware of just how badly it could go.  This isn’t a story full of fluff, but neither is it covered in angst.  Everything is balanced out, so that the tension is there, but it never feels too rough, or too cliché.  You honestly don’t know if there is going to be a happy-ever-after, but you sure do hope so.  This is what I crave from stories, but so rarely find.  That rare balance of hope and heartbreak, of sweet music and beats of discord–mixed together to create something worth reading.  And something worth remembering.

Carissa rates it – 

BUY LINKS: Dreamspinner Press :: Amazon :: All Romance eBooks

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Carissa is one of the official reviewers on The Blog of Sid Love.

To read all her reviews, click the link: CARISSA’S REVIEWS
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