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lottens01's review
5.0
I enjoyed this more than words could possibly explain. What a beautiful combination of love and mystery and hurt and comfort and WOW was the smut good!!!
Absolutely beautiful!!
Absolutely beautiful!!
robin_clairvaux's review
5.0
When world-renowned musician Alex Montgomery hires Dr. Morgan Kelly to accompany her on a concert tour, the younger, alluring physician proves an invaluable help for her stress and panic attacks, but she also ignites a long-dormant passion that will either unravel Alex's dreams or fulfill them.
Euphoria is a steamy, emotional, and engaging sapphic romance with two compelling main characters. Alex's ongoing struggle with trauma in conjunction with her musical ambition creates powerful tension, and when Morgan is drawn into her world, the spark that ignites between them is explosive. Their journey to lasting love is a delightful mix of tender and sexy, and the drama and glamor of the concert world creates an entertaining backdrop.
Euphoria is a steamy, emotional, and engaging sapphic romance with two compelling main characters. Alex's ongoing struggle with trauma in conjunction with her musical ambition creates powerful tension, and when Morgan is drawn into her world, the spark that ignites between them is explosive. Their journey to lasting love is a delightful mix of tender and sexy, and the drama and glamor of the concert world creates an entertaining backdrop.
minnaper's review
3.0
2.5-3 stars. I found it really distracting that the POV changes randomly, even paragraph by paragraph. There were even a few short paragraphs with a side character’s POV. The writing felt sloppy and this all over the place POV business made it worse for me. The 421 pages were a struggle for me to go through. I wanted to give the book a chance to prove its 4.5 average rating and finished it. I was disappointed although I did find last 10% the best part of the book regarding the love story. There were more emotions and more than physical attraction there.
The plot/blurb sounded interesting but the actual story was completely ridiculous. Like 100k pounds for 3 weeks’ work? The attraction part was written quite well and especially Alex’s past trauma was supporting the present day events. I missed having proper love story on top of all the physical.
Euphoria was my first book by the author and I’m not eager to explore more in the near future.
The plot/blurb sounded interesting but the actual story was completely ridiculous. Like 100k pounds for 3 weeks’ work? The attraction part was written quite well and especially Alex’s past trauma was supporting the present day events. I missed having proper love story on top of all the physical.
Euphoria was my first book by the author and I’m not eager to explore more in the near future.
willowcat's review
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
vi_for_violence's review
1.0
Somehow I was able to finish this book despite the random and disorienting POV shifts (sometimes mid sentence somehow?) and the really awkward and kinda cringy "Crescendo, allegro" stuff.
The biggest problem with this book is it has no clear direction. It sets up several potential plot lines that should lead to conflict and yet none of them are resolved in a satisfying way. Every single point of interest was never fully fleshed out and has a lackluster ending. At 96%, I actually began to wonder if there was somehow going to be a sequel because there were 4 major points that were not resolved yet. Within a few paragraphs, 1 is forgotten and the other 3 are written off without importance.
It legitimately felt like the author got bored with her own book and just decided to end it in the laziest way possible.
- The weird unkown number she's texting throughout the book... never really explained or resolved.
- The whole thing with Laurel just... ends? Like what? She seems to be the major conflict of the book with the stalking and the half baked threats and it's resolved in the most anti-climactic way ever. Never explain how the heck she's constantly finding them or sneaking around security.
- The whole 'secret plan' with this guy Gormon is just another album before she retires? And she spends all book trying to get this dude's approval for him to just show up in the last few pages and be like "sup bro, wanna collab?" the end.
- Morgan's brother was setup to be a way bigger problem than he ended up being. Morgan's only personal conflict is her brother and the way he affected her relationship with her family but that just gets forgotten completely and the dude is barely mentioned again.
Also, Francine was an absolute nightmare! Hated her character more and more as the story went on and yet she's supposed to be one of the good guys. I struggled to see how Alex could possibly be friends with this person. I also couldn't figure out if she was supposed to have some sort of southern accent or something because sometimes she had it and sometimes she didn't. Just really poorly written in general.
The biggest problem with this book is it has no clear direction. It sets up several potential plot lines that should lead to conflict and yet none of them are resolved in a satisfying way. Every single point of interest was never fully fleshed out and has a lackluster ending. At 96%, I actually began to wonder if there was somehow going to be a sequel because there were 4 major points that were not resolved yet. Within a few paragraphs, 1 is forgotten and the other 3 are written off without importance.
It legitimately felt like the author got bored with her own book and just decided to end it in the laziest way possible.
Spoiler
- The weird unkown number she's texting throughout the book... never really explained or resolved.
- The whole thing with Laurel just... ends? Like what? She seems to be the major conflict of the book with the stalking and the half baked threats and it's resolved in the most anti-climactic way ever. Never explain how the heck she's constantly finding them or sneaking around security.
- The whole 'secret plan' with this guy Gormon is just another album before she retires? And she spends all book trying to get this dude's approval for him to just show up in the last few pages and be like "sup bro, wanna collab?" the end.
- Morgan's brother was setup to be a way bigger problem than he ended up being. Morgan's only personal conflict is her brother and the way he affected her relationship with her family but that just gets forgotten completely and the dude is barely mentioned again.
Also, Francine was an absolute nightmare! Hated her character more and more as the story went on and yet she's supposed to be one of the good guys. I struggled to see how Alex could possibly be friends with this person. I also couldn't figure out if she was supposed to have some sort of southern accent or something because sometimes she had it and sometimes she didn't. Just really poorly written in general.
cairenntarisiu's review
5.0
A Fun Beautiful Story
From the beginning of the novel, it was clear that Alexandra had issues, and once we understood why, it became clear that part of this story was Alex continuing to heal from the past trauma she’d experienced by falling for her doctor. But it was less clear that Morgan had issues of her own to deal with as well.
But this is also a story about art, and about the beauty that love, passion, and desire can give to the artist.
I greatly enjoyed this book and I hope that you will too.
From the beginning of the novel, it was clear that Alexandra had issues, and once we understood why, it became clear that part of this story was Alex continuing to heal from the past trauma she’d experienced by falling for her doctor. But it was less clear that Morgan had issues of her own to deal with as well.
But this is also a story about art, and about the beauty that love, passion, and desire can give to the artist.
I greatly enjoyed this book and I hope that you will too.
codex13's review
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
michelle_arnold's review
5.0
Escape and Freedom is my favorite book by Claire Highton-Stevenson, so I was excited to learn she was coming out with another book featuring a different character from Solar Flare, Lucy's ill-fated band. Alex was another member of the band who survived the crash, but unlike Lucy, she was barely injured and therefore remembers every detail of the crash. While unscathed physically, she suffers from PTSD, survivor's guilt, and panic attacks that leave her still alone and very work-focused two decades later. She still plays music, though she's switched genres. The descriptions of Alex playing classical music in various cathedrals around the UK was beautiful and so well-done, it made me wonder if the author had a secret identity as a classical musician! But of course, the main focus was the romance between Alex and Morgan. Morgan is younger and has her own insecurities, like everyone, but she's definitely got a more optimistic outlook than Alex and is able to nudge her into being more open to possibilities. They fit well together, and you'll definitely find yourself rooting for them as I did!