Blue Notes by Shira Anthony

[reviews_and_ramblings]

Quite classical vacation fling plot, on this occasion in a winter Paris, always remaining the city of love, what is probably the most interesting thing of all is Jason’s character and is approach to realizing he is in love with a man.

Jason is a successful lawyer in Philadelphia with a beautiful fiancé and bright future planned ahead. But then he comes home one night to find his fiancé in bed with another man and this opens the drawer of doubts in Jason’s head. Profiting of the empty Paris apartment of his sister Rosalie, he decides to take a two months leave of absence. On the first night in Paris, Jason, a jazz lover, enters a club an meets 22 years old Jules.

At this point it arrives what I said is the most interesting aspect of all: Jason isn’t questioning his attraction to Jules, sure he wonders why he is attracted to a man when he was in love with a woman just days before; but Jason’s questions don’t arise from prejudices and sincerely the fact that Jules is a man isn’t really an issue, more troubling is that he is so younger than Jason. Jason had some homosexual experiences in college with a buddy friend, but nothing important and nothing that left him with regrets. Basically Jason is on the middle of the Kinsey scale, being equally attracted by men and women; gender is not an obstacles, problem is the compatibility of the partner.

Anyway, Jason is in a moment in life where an age difference is not something that will prevent him from enjoying the Paris fling, and from fling to love the step is short.

From Jules’s side, this is a typically Cinderfella story: kicked out from home at 16, Jules lived on the street and then thanks to the help of good friends; now he is a struggling artist who would love to be a jazz artist, but probably he was destined to end as waiter. Jason’s connections will help him to find his path, and if that means that their love will also have a component of gratitude, well, that is right, and coherent with the story.

Amazon: Blue Notes
Amazon Kindle: Blue Notes
Paperback: 230 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (December 30, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1613722729
ISBN-13: 978-1613722725

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Cover Art by Anne Cain