** An INDIENEXT notable for May **

“Blackwell’s prose works like a symphony… the book is ultimately an orchestra of its own, beautifully composed and richly textured.” - NewPages.com

“You can read Elise Blackwell’s An Unfinished Score as if you were listening to a great string quartet: there’s a harmony that exists between her characters, and a complexity that allows for unexpected - intriguing - results.  Blackwell faultlessly connects classical music to her exploration of loss and relationships, and she’s an excellent storyteller, combining tension and thoughtfulness.  Not since Vikram Seth’s An Equal Music have I read such appealing music fiction.”—Laura Kuechenmeister Bookworks Bookstore, Albuquerque

“I pushed to sign Elise Blackwell to the Alabama Book Festival because she’s just the sort of writer these events are designed to introduce audiences to: literary and yet accessible, challenging but not alienating, uplifting without pandering. A lot of readers crave sophisticated, complex characters instead of stereotypes. They want fictional people whose actions offer a way of assessing the way we live now, and for me that’s what Elise’s novels do. To my thinking, her work has the same broad appeal as Anita Shreve’s and Carol Shields’. Book festivals are great opportunities to bring these sorts of deserving writers onto the radar of audiences who might not otherwise know about them. I have a feeling readers who come out to meet Elise and learn about An Unfinished Score on April 17 will walk away saying, ‘Why am I only now discovering this person?’”— Kirk Curnutt, author of Dixie Noir and Breathing Out the Ghost,  and Fiction Selection Committee, “Alabama Book Festival”

“At once poignant and mesmerizing, “an Unfinished Score” is a must read—especially for those with a musical bent” - Susan Diffenderfer,
Tall Tales Books, Atlanta, GA

“Beautiful….such depth…such emotion…heartwrenching and yet, peaceful….”—Urban Bachelorette

I’m dying to tell you that An Unfinished Score most emphatically did not disappoint me. Certainly the most captivating—and, to be direct, the best—novel I’ve read in many ages! I think Elise Blackwell is right up there. As in, right at the top. I want to read everything else she’s ever written.  Every word was like a perfectly-chosen ingredient in an elaborate and memorable meal, and, as I read, the novel was my world. Could a reader ask for more? I don’t think so.

In other words, I liked it. – Robin Dunn, St. Johns College Bookstore