This starts in Tanglewood. Amazing. I mean, it's the perfect way to start for the book, but, just, personally, I loved the descriptions of Tanglewood and that it started there in the first place. Nerdy fun!

The novel isn't technically about Tanglewood though, but, Ava and Bianca. Ava is a world class violinist. Her manger has hired a writer to write Ava's bio (but didn't tell Ava). Bianca is that writer. Except, that's not the first time that they meet in the book (which was awesome, loved that part/scene).

It's bumpy at the beginning and then they seem to go all in with each other really fast, and then it's even bumpier for the two of them near the end too.

It was definitely a ride of a story. I liked most of the characters (glad we didn't have to see much of Hank and I wish there'd been more of Lara) I did also feel like at a couple of places in the book I missed some story connective tissue or something, and I had to go back and read a couple of passages again to make sure I hadn't inadvertently skimmed paragraphs or something (I hadn't).

It was a fun story though, and a fast read too. And I really really loved the violin parts (I remember playing a 1/16th, a 1/8th, and a quarter sized violin in my youth. And then graduating to the full size and being so damn proud, so, that hit a chord).

I received this book via Netgalley thanks to Bold Strokes Books. ( )

2.5 stars

This book has amongst the most interesting acknowledgements ever. The author shares a little bit of the genesis of the book, the selected locale and something of the character development with us before getting into the usual round of mentioning and thanking everyone associated with the book and with their lives.

Read the full review @https://www.bestlesficreviews.com/2019/02/without-pretense-by-tj-thomas.html ( )