Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Blog Tour: Blue Notes by Carrie Lofty {Top 10 List + Review + Giveaway}


I'm super excited to have the tour for Blue Notes by Carrie Lofty stopping by today! From the first moment I read the synopsis, I knew I just had to read this book, and I was definitely not disappointed. :) So today I've got a lot to share: a top 10 list from Carrie, my review, and TWO giveaways! You'll have a chance to win an ebook copy of Blue Notes so you can enjoy it for yourself or the huge tour-wide prize!

Release date: May 6, 2014
Author info: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
Publisher: Gallery Books
Pages: 352
Format: Egalley
Source: Provided for review for blog tour
Buy the book: Barnes & Noble | Amazon
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…
Blue Notes brings in a lot of elements I love, but it was the mixing of music and New Orleans that drew me into the story and made it a must read. I love a good romance as much as the next girl, but I love the vibrancy and life of New Orleans even more. And as I read farther into the story, past the initial sells of the music and New Orleans, I was soon more absorbed into the romance and the relationship dynamic than anything else.

With the beginning of the romance, I couldn't help but be a bit worried. The dynamic between Keeley and Jude begins to take on a little bit of a note I didn't like, one of too much control from him and her reticence letting him take over. This dynamic quickly righted itself, though, and both recognized quite well that a relationship of that sort would never work--for which I wanted to high five them. From then on, their romance is sweet and much more balanced, a give and take. It certainly doesn't hurt that their chemistry is just ridiculously off the charts.

What I loved about Blue Notes is that Keeley, yes, learns a lot from her relationship with Jude, but she learns so much more from her relationships with her friends, her family, and working on her music. It gives the story much more dimension and makes it much better than just a simple romance. Keeley finds her strength and her voice, along with love and fulfillment in her music. With such a dark past and fear, it's hard for someone like her to open up, to realize that there are people who love her, and it's through all of this that she comes to that realization, and it's lovely.

None of this is even to mention Jude himself. Jude comes off as a player at first, someone who toys with women just for fun--and maybe he starts off the book as somewhat like that, but there's a lot more to him. He proves time and time again his love for Keeley and his dedication to both her and his sister. He quickly becomes quite loveable, and one can totally understand Keeley's attraction--even if the beginning of their relationship is pretty darn quick.

Blue Notes is a new adult romance that delivers more than just romance. It instead gives the readers characters to love who are passionate and loving, making the story all the more appealing.


About 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.
And now I've got Carrie's top 10 strangest things she did in college to share with you! (I have to admit, her time in college sounds much more exciting than mine has proven to be!)
  1. Didn’t drink at my only kegger because the guy I went with was a teetotaler. 
  2. Rode the campus shuttle, repeatedly passing my stop as I mentally wrote romances. 
  3. Spotted a box in the cafeteria labeled “Beef: Grade D, But Edible.”
  4. Was kissed by a complete stranger just as we entered a club. (He was hot.)
  5. Drove toward Windsor, Canada with two friends so we could gamble, but broke down on an interstate in Detroit. We sang “Oh, Canada” as we safely crossed the border…when all the casinos were closed.
  6. Turned twenty-one in England—where the drinking age is eighteen.
  7. Ditched class to surf an X-Files fan site on some new-fangled thing called…the Internet. 
  8. Worked the weekend 8pm-4am closing shift at Burger King.
  9. Adopted a kitten the same day I graduated.
  10. Got married.
Thank you so much to Carrie for stopping by today and sharing some fun college experiences with us! :)

AND, as part of the tour, I get to host a giveaway for one ebook copy of Blue Notes, so one of y'all can read it! Also, the tour-wide is HUGE, with a gift basket from Sephora, Starbucks, or Godiva, plus a $25 gift certificate to the book retailer of the winner's choice! Both giveaways are international!

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