A Dream Within A Dream: Touching Melody Blog Tour: Review & Giveaway

Welcome to my stop on the Touching Melody blog tour! Today I have my review of the book and don't forget to scroll to the bottom and enter the giveaway!

Touching Melody (Forever First #1)

Author: RaShelle Workman

Genre: New Adult Contemporary

Release Date: June 2013

Buy Links: Amazon

Description:

Sometimes life isn't pretty, but you have to close your eyes and let go...

Maddie Martin's first weekend at college is nothing like she's used to. It's wild, like the wilderness on which the University of Bellam Springs sits. Roped into going to a fraternity party, she literally runs into Kyle Hadley. The boy she's loved since she was nine. The boy she promised all of her firsts to. But that was before his father killed her parents.

Determined to stay away from him, she throws herself into her music. Practicing piano eases her heavy heart, calms the sadness, and pushes away images of Kyle's face.

Until it doesn't.

Her music professor asks her to play a duet for their annual Winter Gala. Doing so means she'll be assured another full ride scholarship. It's an opportunity she can't pass up.

But Kyle is the other half of the duet. And that means hours and hours of practicing.

Weeks of seclusion - just the two of them. And it's more than just music. It's passion like Maddie never believed was possible.

The inevitable happens. She falls in love with him all over again.

But, will loving him be enough to erase all the hate in her heart for his father? Can she look at him, and not see the evil in his family tree?

And maybe it's all a set up. Maybe Kyle is only pretending to care so he can finish what his father started, and kill her too.

Touching Melody is the first book in a New Adult contemporary series that follows our two main characters - Kyle Hadley and Maddie Martin - as their lives bring them together on the college campus of the University of Bellam Springs. Maddie and Kyle were best friends throughout their childhood and even made a pact that they would experience all of their firsts together. All of that changed the night that Maddie's parents are murdered - and Kyle's dad, the chief of police, is the one who killed them. Now after seven years apart - without seeing or hearing from each other - fate has decided to throw them together once more. Maddie's pain and grief over the loss of her parents has left a deep hole inside of her that only Kyle is able to fill. And Maddie seems to be the one thing that helps Kyle feel whole again. Will the secrets and deceit from their past prevent the only true love they've ever known?

This was a really captivating New Adult novel that had me eagerly reading as fast as I could - so much so that I ended up reading the entire book in one sitting. The plot was very intricate and detailed with lots of vivid descriptions and a really fast pace. This novel is a mix of genres as it includes some mystery, thrills, romance, and contemporary issues. Behind the romance that the story centers around are a lot of deep issues like grief, forgiveness, finding yourself, redemption, friendship, and love. The relationship between Maddie and Kyle is really sappy and sweet, although there are some rocky bits thrown in for good measure. Usually I don't like that type of romance in a novel, but I totally ate this up with a spoon. Kyle is such a huge sweetheart (which is my weakness) and the way that the author describes the love between Maddie and him is so beautiful and intense. There are definitely some steamy parts in the book that made it all the more realistic and exciting. The story is told from two different viewpoints - Maddie and Kyle. I think that this style of writing was perfect for the novel because the reader gets a glimpse of what each character is thinking and feeling internally and how they each react to the different situations in the book. The writing itself was fantastic and had an effortless flow to it that just made the pages fly by all too quickly. I'm really excited that this is just the first book in the series and I'm already eagerly awaiting the next installment to see what will happen next. Very highly recommended for fans of New Adult contemporary romance and contemporary mysteries.

RaShelle Workman is the bestselling author of the Dead Roses series ("Sleeping Roses" is being translated into Turkish, and will be available in print wherever Turkish books are sold in 2014), the Immortal Essence series, and the Blood and Snow series. She's sold over two hundred thousand copies of her novels worldwide in the past year, including Japan, Canada, and Europe. You can find RaShelle all over the web, but the best place to start is on her blog: www.rashelleworkman.com.

Author Links:

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