Blog Tour, Review & Giveaway:
Blue Notes by Carrie Lofty

BookCrushin is excited to be a part of the Blue Notes by Carrie Lofty blog tour hosted by Xpresso Book Tours! In today’s post you will find all the book information, my rating & spoiler-free review and 2 cool giveaways!

 Blue Notes by Carrie Lofty

Category: New Adult, Contemporary Romance
Publication: May 6, 2014; Gallery Books
Purchase: Amazon, B&N
[book rating=4.0/5.0]

For fans of Jamie McGuire and S.C. Stephens, a sizzling new adult novel featuring the tumultuous relationship between a young piano prodigy and a reluctant billionaire playboy—set against the vibrant backdrop of a New Orleans college campus.

 

After being bounced from foster family to foster family, Keeley, a talented pianist, is ready to start over as a junior at Tulane. But when she plays a small concert that attracts the attention of Jude, a brooding playboy and heir to an enormous fortune in the wake of his parents’ tragic death, suddenly Keeley’s life is thrown off balance once again.

 

Jude is the first person to confront her about the pain behind her music, and she struggles with whether or not to let him into her life, or to keep protecting herself from the hurt that relationships have caused her in the past. But Keeley’s about to learn that the melancholy young billionaire who appears to have everything can open her eyes to exactly what she needs…

 

Spoiler-free Review:

[book rating=4.0/5.0]

Blue Notes is a great addition to my steadily growing love for the New Adult genre. I haven’t read many up to this point, but I thought Blue Notes was unique, emotional and it definitely stood out for me. Oh and it has it’s fair share of crazy fun sexual tension & it delivers! It has everything I have come to expect from a new adult read; self-sufficiency, major personal growth and of course plenty of sexy.

Keeping my reviews spoiler-free is very important to me, so I will tell you more about what I felt without giving too much away. For starters, I loved the setting, Tulane University, in New Orleans. What a town, but it doesn’t overpower or rule the story. It does however lend for a perfect place for a love of music and for musicians to be revered. Keeley Chambers is our protagonist who transferred to Tulane to start her junior year and she has this pure raw talent when it comes to the piano. She loves to compose and lose herself in her music. I personally have no musical talent so I was surprised by how moved I was by the musical descriptions and how I connected emotionally to the musical aspects that I read. Honestly, I was worried I wouldn’t understand the technical musical parts but I never felt lost, only filled with pure appreciation and a little jealousy that I couldn’t put that kind of emotion into anything I create. Carrie Lofty takes all the credit for writing these scenes beautifully, as they are so important to this story and could have been easily glossed over by a less experienced writer. It was kinda magical for me.

Keeley creates music from her heart; she pours all of her emotion into the notes she plays and then she’ll put those feelings onto paper. Keeley also has a lot of hidden issues, secrets, and fears; she keeps herself very guarded. However, she is quickly rattled by Jude, a young, intriguing, gorgeous (of course!) local businessman. Jude kind of irked me at first but as time passed I was totally on board and definitely engaged in their growing relationship. He made me laugh and swoon! Knowing about his past and his young age helped make his actions and non-actions really believable and forgivable. By the end I was jumping up and down for Keeley and Jude! They truly complimented each other.

I have to say there are some really hard scenes in this book. Do not read that as bad in anyway at all, but it can dredge up a range of emotions, especially with themes of abuse. They are written without exploitation and I was really excited about the strength as well as support voiced within the book. I also cannot help but state that some of the sexual tension in this book is a little intense at first, but then it is clear that these two know exactly what each other needs in life as well as the bedroom. *wink wink*

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed Blue Notes! It was a tremendously emotional yet satisfying romance. Carrie Lofty’s writing is so descriptive, I felt like I was watching a movie in my head. I would recommend for anyone who enjoys a well crafted new adult, contemporary romance.

Author Bio: Carrie Lofty

Since 2008, RITA-nominated and RT Reviewers’ Choice-winning author Carrie Lofty has over twenty books to her name–or four names, to be precise. Her paranormal (as Lindsey Piper) and historical romances from Pocket have been described as “nuanced and superbly realized” (The Chicago Tribune) and “sexy, brutal and somehow innocent” (All About Romance). Now Carrie is celebrating her first New Adult romance, Blue Notes, featuring a shy piano prodigy and a New Orleans playboy shouldering his family’s crumbling empire.

With Lorelie Brown, the Katie Porter co-writing team has been honored with a Reviewers’ Choice award for Best Erotic Ebook, and the first m/m nomination for RT’s Book of the Year. Back-to-back releases of their La Femme Nakita-inspired “Command Force Alpha” series will begin in August from Samhain.

During her junior year abroad, Carrie lured an unsuspecting Englishman to the Midwest, where she’s kept him a happy ex-pat for sixteen years. With two pre-teen daughters and a master’s degree specializing in the Old West, Carrie is a movie buff, a former ballroom and bellydancer, and a woman in desperate need of a maid service.

Author Links:

Website    |    Goodreads    |    Facebook     |    Twitter

Giveaway:

eBook of Blue Notes by Carrie Lofty (open Intl)

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Tour-Wide (open Intl)

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