Night Music by Jenn Marie Thorne
undefined

Get a free gift with your first book.

Join for just $9.99.

We’ll make this quick.

First, enter your email. Then choose your move.

By pressing "Pick a book now" or "Pick a book later", you agree to Book of the Month’s Terms of use and Privacy policy.

Get a free gift with your first book.

Join for just $9.99.

You did it!

Your account is now up to date.

get the app

Our app is where it’s at.

Unlock our Reading Challenge, earn prizes, and get notified of new books on our app.

Our app is where it’s at.

Unlock our Reading Challenge, earn prizes, and get notified of new books on our app.

Download on the App Store
Get it on Google Play

Already have the app? Explore here.

birthday coupon modal image

A birthday treat.

Celebrate your birthday with a free add-on in your July box. It's our way of saying happy birthday, BFF.

Choose your free hat.

Add one to your first box.

Unreliable Narrator hat
Unreliable Narrator hat
Book Person hat
Book Person hat
Checkout without a hat

Please confirm your age.

Are you 0 years old?

Night Music by Jenn Marie Thorne

Young adult

Night Music

by Jenn Marie Thorne

Excellent choice

Just enter your email to add this book to your box.

By pressing "Add to box", you agree to Book of the Month’s Terms of use and Privacy policy.

The gates are closed.

You’re on the waitlist. We’ll email you once you can enroll.

Quick take

Two musicians fall for each other during one steamy New York City summer.

Good to know

  • Illustrated icon, Romance

    Romance

  • Illustrated icon, Emotional

    Emotional

  • Illustrated icon, 400

    400+ pages

  • Illustrated icon, Light_Read

    Light read

Synopsis

Ruby has always been Ruby Chertok future classical pianist, heir to the Chertok family legacy, daughter of renowned composer Martin Chertok. But after bungling her audition for the prestigious Amberley School of Music—where her father is on faculty—Ruby is suddenly just ... Ruby. And who is that again? All she knows is that she wants out of the orbit of her relentlessly impressive family, and away from the world of classical music for good. Yes? Yes.

Oscar is a wunderkind, a musical genius. Just ask any of the 1.8 million people who've watched him conduct his own compositions on YouTube--or hey, just ask Oscar. But while he might be the type who'd name himself when asked about his favorite composer and somehow make you love him more for it, Oscar is not the type to jeopardize his chance to study under the great Martin Chertok--not for a crush. He's all too aware of how the ultra-privileged, ultra-white world of classical music might interpret a black guy like him falling for his benefactor's white daughter. Right? Right.

But as the New York City summer heats up, so does the spark between Ruby and Oscar. Soon their connection crackles with the same alive, uncontainable energy as the city itself. But can two people still figuring themselves out figure out how to be together? Or will the world make the choice for them?

Read a sample

Check out a preview of Night Music.

Night Music

1.

A stranger was playing my piano. My piano, untouched for months, purring under his fingers like a stray cat. More than purring . . . singing, leaping, laughing, dying, all in the time it took me to stumble-run downstairs.

I stared into the dusty living room from the bottom step, not trusting my eyes—my ears even less. But there he was, half standing while he played, one knee on the bench, like this was a quick errand he’d needed to run.

A boy. Tall, lean, angular, skin rich brown, hair a supernova of spirals backlit by afternoon sun.

I couldn’t see his fingers, but I could feel them skipping over the keys, tiny pings in my chest, arms, spine. So many notes. It was contrapuntal, insanely complex, cogs and gears—which piece? I couldn’t pick out the key, let alone the composer, but here he was, commanding my piano, smiling at some private joke. He wasn’t even looking at the keyboard as he played.

He was staring at me.

“Do you like it?” he called.

Was this a hallucination? A musical one?

“You play really well,” I got out.

Nobody was supposed to touch my piano. Not me, not anybody. Not anymore.

Not a stranger in my house.

Create a free account!

Sign up to see book details, our quick takes, and more.

By pressing "Sign up", you agree to Book of the Month’s Terms of use and Privacy policy.

400+ pages
Ruinous Ends
The Winged Game
Games: A Love Story
The Shrouded Queen
The Last Contract of Isako
Seek the Traitor’s Son
Dissection of a Murder
Blood Bound
Into the Blue
This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me
We Who Will Die
Silver Elite
And Now, Back to You
Dawn of the North
This Book Made Me Think of You
Stolen Midnights
Sunk in Love
Skylark
Rings of Fate
Crux
The Rebel and the Rose
Buckeye
Good Spirits
Red City
The Academy
Wild Reverence
To the Moon and Back
The Lost Baker of Vienna
The River Is Waiting
This Princess Kills Monsters
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil
My Friends
Home of the American Circus
Gifted & Talented
Enchantra
We All Live Here
First-Time Caller
Babylonia
The Favorites
The Thirteenth Child
Most Wonderful
The Courting of Bristol Keats
Pictures of You
PS: I Hate You
The Road of Bones
Intermezzo
The Dagger and the Flame
The Wild Huntress
The Crimson Crown
Here One Moment
Phantasma
The Pairing
All the Colors of the Dark
The God of the Woods
Same As It Ever Was
The Demon of Unrest
Five Broken Blades
Real Americans
Table for Two
The Familiar
A Short Walk Through a Wide World
Just for the Summer
The Wives
A Fate Inked in Blood
The Disappearance of Astrid Bricard
The Fox Wife
The Mayor of Maxwell Street
Ready or Not
Heartless Hunter
The Women
Family Family
Ruthless Vows
Gwen & Art Are Not in Love
The Frozen River
The Future
What We Kept to Ourselves
Wellness
Happiness Falls
Shark Heart
Love, Theoretically
The Only One Left
The First Ladies
Warrior Girl Unearthed
The True Love Experiment
Did You Hear About Kitty Karr?
Yours Truly
Hello Beautiful
I Have Some Questions for You
The Last Russian Doll
The Shards
Hell Bent
Age of Vice
A Wilderness of Stars
Before I Let Go
The Last Party
Foul Lady Fortune
Sign Here
Thistlefoot
Bronze Drum
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle
Part of Your World
Lessons in Chemistry
The Good Left Undone
Kaikeyi
True Biz
Booth
Peach Blossom Spring
Black Cake
Will
Still Life
The Keeper of Night
The Book of Magic
The Lincoln Highway
Apples Never Fall
In Every Mirror She's Black
Damnation Spring
One Last Stop
Half Sick of Shadows
The Girl with Stars in Her Eyes
What Comes After
In a Book Club Far Away
The Four Winds
Black Buck
The City We Became
The Prophets
Legendborn
The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
Friends and Strangers
Evicted
The End of October
The Book of Longings
The Great Believers
Yes No Maybe So
Anna K
Red, White & Royal Blue
Ninth House
Frankly in Love
Permanent Record
The Reckless Oath We Made
The Boy and Girl Who Broke the World
The Gifted School
Ask Again, Yes
Night Music
Small Fry
One Day in December
Nine Perfect Strangers
The Clockmaker's Daughter
The Great Alone
The Heart’s Invisible Furies
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
The Nightingale
Behold the Dreamers
A Gentleman in Moscow
Salt to the Sea
400+ pages
View all
Ruinous Ends
The Winged Game
Games: A Love Story
The Shrouded Queen
The Last Contract of Isako
Seek the Traitor’s Son
Dissection of a Murder
Blood Bound
Into the Blue
This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me
We Who Will Die
Silver Elite
And Now, Back to You
Dawn of the North
This Book Made Me Think of You
Stolen Midnights
Sunk in Love
Skylark
Rings of Fate
Crux
The Rebel and the Rose
Buckeye
Good Spirits
Red City
The Academy
Wild Reverence
To the Moon and Back
The Lost Baker of Vienna
The River Is Waiting
This Princess Kills Monsters
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil
My Friends
Home of the American Circus
Gifted & Talented
Enchantra
We All Live Here
First-Time Caller
Babylonia
The Favorites
The Thirteenth Child
Most Wonderful
The Courting of Bristol Keats
Pictures of You
PS: I Hate You
The Road of Bones
Intermezzo
The Dagger and the Flame
The Wild Huntress
The Crimson Crown
Here One Moment
Phantasma
The Pairing
All the Colors of the Dark
The God of the Woods
Same As It Ever Was
The Demon of Unrest
Five Broken Blades
Real Americans
Table for Two
The Familiar
A Short Walk Through a Wide World
Just for the Summer
The Wives
A Fate Inked in Blood
The Disappearance of Astrid Bricard
The Fox Wife
The Mayor of Maxwell Street
Ready or Not
Heartless Hunter
The Women
Family Family
Ruthless Vows
Gwen & Art Are Not in Love
The Frozen River
The Future
What We Kept to Ourselves
Wellness
Happiness Falls
Shark Heart
Love, Theoretically
The Only One Left
The First Ladies
Warrior Girl Unearthed
The True Love Experiment
Did You Hear About Kitty Karr?
Yours Truly
Hello Beautiful
I Have Some Questions for You
The Last Russian Doll
The Shards
Hell Bent
Age of Vice
A Wilderness of Stars
Before I Let Go
The Last Party
Foul Lady Fortune
Sign Here
Thistlefoot
Bronze Drum
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle
Part of Your World
Lessons in Chemistry
The Good Left Undone
Kaikeyi
True Biz
Booth
Peach Blossom Spring
Black Cake
Will
Still Life
The Keeper of Night
The Book of Magic
The Lincoln Highway
Apples Never Fall
In Every Mirror She's Black
Damnation Spring
One Last Stop
Half Sick of Shadows
The Girl with Stars in Her Eyes
What Comes After
In a Book Club Far Away
The Four Winds
Black Buck
The City We Became
The Prophets
Legendborn
The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
Friends and Strangers
Evicted
The End of October
The Book of Longings
The Great Believers
Yes No Maybe So
Anna K
Red, White & Royal Blue
Ninth House
Frankly in Love
Permanent Record
The Reckless Oath We Made
The Boy and Girl Who Broke the World
The Gifted School
Ask Again, Yes
Night Music
Small Fry
One Day in December
Nine Perfect Strangers
The Clockmaker's Daughter
The Great Alone
The Heart’s Invisible Furies
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
The Nightingale
Behold the Dreamers
A Gentleman in Moscow
Salt to the Sea