Book Review and ARC Giveaway- Virtuosity

31 Oct, 2011 by in book review, Simon Pulse, virtuosity, YA contemporary 14 comments

Virtuosity
by Jessica Martinez

Hardcover, 304 pages
Published October 18th 2011

by Simon Pulse
ISBN 1442420529

4 stars

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….

I picked up Virtuosity at the Simon and Schuster blogger event at BEA and it was one of the books I was most excited about reading. The cover threw me off a bit once I got into it because it really doesn’t match the mood or main character of the story. Carmen Bianchi is a 17 year old child prodigy who’s already won a Grammy and is now working toward the most important competition of her career-the Guarneri. If she wins it means a new violin, and touring some of the most prestigious music halls of the world as a soloist. But Carmen has felt her passion and skill slipping away in the grip of performance anxiety and psychological addiction to the drug Inderal. As her mom and violin coach Yuri pour on the pressure, Carmen’s performance continues to deteriorate. She wants to know what she’s up against and finds Jeremy King, who in every way seems to be just like her only he’s British and he looks like he’s a young little boy with curly blond hair and dimples. That is online. When she “bumps”into him in person she’s surprised by what she finds and mortified that he catches her spying. So begins the perfect banter and chemistry between Carmen and Jeremy who both want and need so badly to win.

Virtuosity was a refreshing change of pace for contemporary YA with music as the focal point. I’m not a big fan of prologues that give away future plot points so I kind of wish it would have been left out. I loved that it was clean with only a couple swear words in the entire book and minus sexual content. The characters and the places they visit jumped right off the page for me. I genuinely loved the support Jeremy and Carmen show for each other given that they have every reason to mistrust and even dislike one another. I am a little concerned about the portrayal of an anti anxiety drug as evil because there are many teens who may genuinely battle with anxiety and have to turn to medication for relief. Other than that the only other wish I had is that the ending was more fully fleshed out and not so rushed. I would recommend Virtuosity to readers over 14 as a good clean look into the life of a teen professional musician who is fighting against pressure from a parent. It’s a tale of forbidden love and self-discovery that I genuinely enjoyed!

To enter to win an ARC of Virtuosity courtesy of Fire and Ice and SimonTeen click here and fill out the form.

14 Responses to “Book Review and ARC Giveaway- Virtuosity”

  1. Caitlin

    Thanks for the giveaway I would love to read this book. I really like that it is based upon music and it’s so funny that Carmen practically stalks all her competition. That just makes me laugh. This sounds like such a great read.

    Reply
  2. Gayle

    I was a bit put off by the cover when I initially saw it, but having read more about this book, it sounds great!
    Thanks for the giveaway!

    Reply
  3. brendajean

    Great review. I also am put off by prolgues and even chapter titles. If I find they are ruining what’s about to happen for me, I have my daughter put stickies on all the upcoming ones so I don’t catch a peek!

    bchild5 at aol dot com

    Reply
  4. Lieder Madchen

    Great review! I love finding stories where music is an important and I have heard really good things about Vituosity. The characters sound really interesting, too. 🙂

    Reply
  5. Beth S.

    Awesome giveaway!

    I really enjoyed this book. The only thing I was a bit critical about was why Carmen needed to win this competition if she had already won a Grammy and been accepted to Julliard and played a million dollar Stradivarius. This competition seemed like chump change after everything she’d already accomplished.

    Reply

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