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Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Virtuosity by Jessica Martinez

by:  Jessica Martinez
published by:  Simon Pulse
publish date:  October 18, 2011

Now is not the time for Carmen to fall in love. And Jeremy is hands-down the wrong guy for her to fall for. He is infuriating, arrogant, and the only person who can stand in the way of Carmen getting the one thing she wants most: to win the prestigious Guarneri competition. Carmen's whole life is violin, and until she met Jeremy, her whole focus was winning. But what if Jeremy isn't just hot...what if Jeremy is better?

Carmen knows that kissing Jeremy can't end well, but she just can't stay away. Nobody else understands her--and riles her up--like he does. Still, she can't trust him with her biggest secret: She is so desperate to win she takes anti-anxiety drugs to perform, and what started as an easy fix has become a hungry addiction. Carmen is sick of not feeling anything on stage and even more sick of always doing what she’s told, doing what's expected.

Sometimes, being on top just means you have a long way to fall....

Mainly I picked this book, because I really liked the cover.  That's an awesome cover right?  Contemporary romance isn't generally my cup of tea.  That's Kari's scene.  However, I did like this story.  I found it particularly impressive for a debut author.

I don't play an instrument so I can't comment as to the musical aspect of it.  I've seen some of the comments about this book are a little negative about that part.  From an outsiders point of view it all worked fine for me.  I think pretty much everyone can relate to the idea of performance anxiety and understand the pressure that the kids would be under to succeed.

The relationship between Jeremy and Carmen at first seemed a little convenient I guess.  I agreed with Carmen's mother that he was just trying to get to her to make her lose the competition.  After that it seemed like the progression their relationship took felt realistic.  The ending was a surprise and a detour I wasn't expecting and I liked where they were in the end.

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