Librarian's note: Alternate cover edition of ASIN B0082ODD5A.
Christine Daaé travels with her widowed father to Los Angeles where he hopes to enroll her in a music conservatory. Homeless and destitute, they work as street performers to earn money for food.
Raoul Chagny hears Christine singing on the Santa Monica Pier and is instantly smitten by the beautiful young girl with an angelic voice. He helps get them off the street, Christine into his private school, and is soon taking violin lessons from her father.
Christine is happier than she has been in years, but after tragedy strikes, she has only hours, assisted by Raoul, to prepare for the most important audition of her life. All seems lost until she is visited by The Angel of Music.
The Angel of Music series is a current-day retelling of the novel The Phantom of the Opera, by Gaston Leroux.
Previously published as The Angel of Music, Part I: The Enchanted Violin.
I just can't do it. The story telling reads like a middle school kid wrote it. The dialogue is non existent. The changes in point of view are jarring at best. No character development. No real plot so far.
I'm 30% in and Christine is still 12 years old. This is supposed to be a retelling of Phantom of the Opera? No. This is nowhere close besides the names and the fact that the girl can sing (which is an error unto itself). If you are a Phantom lover, skip this one.
It feels like a campfire story that got written down for some unfathomable reason.
I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. I enjoyed the way they wrote. I liked that this was kind of a retelling of The Phantom of the Opera. I didn’t like the characters a lot. They were too nice, polite, and kind. They were too perfect in a way. I loved how Raoul found Christine and how they began to form a relationship. I like that Christine was so happy. Overall I’d rate this book a 3/5 stars.
Perhaps I'm a bit too old fashioned for this version, but the incessant references to partially clad teens and their sex lives wore thin to the point of being uncomfortable with the book and almost not finishing it.
Christine is beautiful with an amazing voice that makes people weep. Erik is a horn dog (no, really, it's in the text) in therapy for his issues with some stalker tendencies. Raoul is... well, he's there, then not, and rich, spoiled and smitten with Christine.
Like the first in the series, this book is ripe with repetition. An abridged version of all three books together may have a better flow as this can be tedious to read at times.
I beleive it's a book for young-adults. I'm giving it 5 stars, mostly because it's the less painful The Phantom of the Opera related book.
First of all, it's well-written. Accurate, with good language, nice descriptions, etc. It can be interesting to read not only for Phantom's fans, but for anybody, who's interested in young-adult romance books. It's the first book in the series.
It's a modern retelling of the Leroux's novel, and it starts with Christine Daae's childhood. Here we don't meet the Phantom himself (not face to face, I mean), but we meet Daae family, Raoul's family and Valerius family. What I liked the most, here we actually have Professor Valerius. (I hope, we'll meet Persian later.)
Characters are well-developed, with strong background. Here we can found some additional stories about Christine grandparents, or Raoul's parents, there are several "stories within the story", it's very interesting to pick up all the pieces and make the whole picture.
What I dislike: too much sweetness, and everyone in the book is understanding and polite, too much sugarsweet. Well, I can bear with it, hey, it's a book about young for young, let it be sweet instead of dirty and full of violence.
Mr. Stephens did a good job, and I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series.
An interesting story. The author's style of writing reminded me of children's chapter books that I have read and enjoyed. It will be interesting to read the following books in the Enchanted Violin series.
When you read as often as i, you don't get moved to tear easy. Two pages it I had tears running down my face. I the end I again had this happen. I hope others read this and see life happens and good can still come out of it.
I didn't know what to expect, but I loved this story, I loved these people! I smiled and I cried with Christine and her father. I will continue reading this story since I most have an ending.
coming-of-age(42) romance(42) tween(42) young adult(42) angels(41) music(41) classical music(40) phantom of the opera(40) jackie evancho(36) music lovers(25)
This book was a tear jerker! Beautifully written story about a family's love of music & one gifted.little girl & their struggle to see a.dream realized.