Review: L.H Cosway's "Still Life with Strings."

5 Hearts Review: L.H Cosway's "Still Life with Strings."

Amazon UK:   http://amzn.to/1pajk9s

Amazon.com:  http://amzn.to/1iw5dZt

Synopsis:

My name is Jade Lennon and I stand still for money.

The night I saw Shane Arthur watching me everything changed. A man in a suit always catches my eye, but it was the way he looked at me that was different. Like he knew me or something. He didn’t know me, especially not in my costume. My sobriety rests on staying away from men, but there was something about him that made me throw caution to the wind.

After all, I was never going to see him again, right?

Wrong.

Standing still isn’t the only way I make my money. I also bartend at a concert hall. Never in my wildest dreams did I think Shane was going to show up there. Not only that, but he’s the most recent addition to the orchestra. So now on a daily basis I have to resist one of the most beautiful men I’ve ever met and he plays the violin. For me that’s one hell of a deadly cocktail.

He wants me to teach him how to live. I’m not sure how much a twenty-six year old recovering alcoholic who works in a bar and moonlights as a living statue can teach a world class concert violinist, but I’m sure going to try.

Still Life with Strings is a story of music, art, sex, magical realism, and romance that you will never forget.

Goodreads:      http://bit.ly/1izqmCp

Review: Kirsty Lander

These days it is so rare for a book to take me on an actual journey and away from my 'real life' but that is exactly what happened with Still Life with Strings. Not only was I reading a story, I felt like I was right there with the characters, living it too. 

"Healing a broken body is easier than healing a broken heart."

I don't recall every reading another book like this. It just felt so magical. I loved Jade's character, she was just so different and interesting. Life has dealt her awful pain and devastation but she has fought the odds and come out the other side. Jade is the eldest of four siblings, caring for them by herself after their mum tragically passed away. Jade gets by bar-tending at the local opera house, as well as transforming in to a character as a street performer. 

"I'm a statue in a museum full of priceless art. 

A mythical creature turned to stone in the White Witch's courtyard in Narnia. 

A marble angel wrought by the hands of Michelangelo in a church somewhere in Italy. 

Or just a girl on a box who finds comfort in the anonymity of white paint and fake hair."

Shane is another one who has been through his own fair share of hell and is working his way out of it (I love a story about two broken souls coming together). A very talented violinist who has recently left a popular string quartet, he is now playing a part in the orchestra where Jade works. Without knowing it, Jade and Shane's lives are so entwined in the craziest of ways and I love how the author worked it. I felt like I had a new shock and surprise at every corner and if certainly kept me on my toes whilst I was reading. 

”You live in the real world Jade, and you don’t know how desperate I am to join you.”

One thing in particular that I loved about this book was Jade and her incredible imagination. To deal with the pain and heartache that life has dealt her, Jade not only transforms in to a whole new character and performs for the public, she imagines herself in a whole new world. Surrounded by clouds, rain storms full of diamonds and happy places, Jade's imagination made me wish I was there too! I'm sure to some it could have all been a little far fetched, but for me it was perfect and fit in with the story so well. 

"You're like a salve to all the crap I've been through. I sit and have a conversation with you,

 and poof, all the pain is gone. "

I have only ever read one other book by L.H. Cosway, Painted Faces, and I can't help thinking that I need to change that as soon as possible. Both this book and Painted Faces are two of the best books I have ever read. This author has the ability to take you on an incredible, magical journey and have you forgetting about everything else. I am fully immersed in her stories and I have enjoyed every second. If you want something with a little bit of difference, I can't recommend this one enough.

I rated "Still Life with Strings" 5 Hearts