Review: Nocturne

My Synopsis:

Nocturne by Harrison Gradwell Slater

(For review from Ollie Media)

Artemisia Talbot leaves her tumultuous life behind in New York when she is commissioned to photograph Chopin’s Paris. Matthew Pierce, musicologist and Chopin scholar is writing the piece to accompany her photographs. Little does she know, her ex-lover and stalker has followed her to Paris.

Their attraction for each other deepens when Matthew takes Artemisia to Warsaw, to obtain the long lost diary of Mary Wodzinska, the former fiancée of Chopin, for a wealthy friend. The diary holds many parallels to Artemisia and Matthew’s lives.

Will Artemisia find the unconditional love she has always longed for? Or will her ex-lover continue to thwart her at every turn?

My Thoughts:

There were several things that struck me about Nocturne. This book comes with an accompanying CD of Chopin favorites performed by the writer, Harrison Gradwell Slater. Throughout the text of the novel there are notations where the different selections from the CD can be played. It also be played straight through. I liked this idea very much. I had never read a novel of this kind before and I was really interested to see how that was going to work.

One of the things I loved about the novel was how the writer was able to incorporate not only the music of Chopin, but elements from his life into the story. I felt like Chopin was actually a character in the book, instead of just someone in the background. The parallels between Chopin and Matthew are not evident at first, but become more pronounced as the story goes on.

The character of Artemisia is very strong even though she is very frightened of the circumstances of her life. She learns that even though she is beautiful and men seem to flock to her, her choices have lead her to men who are not what she needs. With Matthew she see’s someone who is totally different from what she usually chooses and it is up to her to decide if she can accept his affection for her.

I really liked this book a lot. It is one of my favorites, so far this year. The ending almost scared me, LOL…

I give this one 5 out of 5 apples from my book bag!