The Easthampton Civic Orchestra is in dire straits, with decreasing concert attendance and the loss of sponsors threatening to shutter its doors and force the already-struggling musicians out of a job, and a sneaky first violin sabotaging specific chairs. His current target: principal flutist (and one-time date) Melody Mires. The Board of Directors’ plan to save the orchestra is to bring in the rising German maestro Wolfgang (Wolf) Braun, who’s all too willing to leave Europe and escape the toxic model ex-girlfriend who ruined his credit and almost his career. Between first violin Blake’s machinations to sabotage Melody and the fact that Melody looks like Wolf’s ex-girlfriend’s doppelgänger, their first meeting does not go well. And each is ridiculously attracted to the other but fears that any sort of relationship would ruin their respective careers. Melody has devoted her life to her flute and to proving her naysaying parents wrong about making it as a concert flutist—and let’s not forget the fact that she’s sworn off dating male musicians forever. Wolf is devoted to sharing his love of classical music and inspiring young minds to take up and preserve the dying artform—and the last thing he wants is to be duped by a woman again. How can they possibly make it work, even if they both really want to? That’s about the extent of the drama—there’s no angst, there are no irreparably broken characters to heal, and save for the moment the scheming ex crashes the party and throws a wrench in the budding romance, it’s all about the cuteness of Wolf and Melody falling for each other. And it is cute—almost tooth-achingly so. I really liked Melody: she’s a sweetheart through and through and loves her sister and niece, but she also has the strength to call Wolf out on his behaviour. And walking the streets of Boston in her shoes as she’s out on the perfect date with Wolf was a treat.
Now Wolf… he’s perfect, on paper: he’s passionate about music without the self-involvement characteristic of male musicians; he donates his time (and, given his Mozart get-up, some of his self-respect) to entertain and inspire sick children at the hospital; he’s once bitten twice shy but still incredibly adept at romance (and he definitely knows the way to Melody’s heart!); and he’s European. A superfecta of romance hero awesomeness! And yet he didn’t quite work for me. Being European myself, I felt that Ms. Dionne tried too hard with his Europeanness and it felt disingenuous—in fact, I found him entirely too American for someone supposedly just off a plane from Berlin.
Overall, PLAYING THE MAESTRO was an entirely predictable but heartwarming read. It’s well written, well paced, super short, and adorably cute, so if you like a little music and heap of sugar in your romance, give this one a try.
**ARC provided by Publisher**
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