Still Life With Strings Tour Stop!

Title: Still Life with Strings
Author: L.H. Cosway
Publisher: L.H. Cosway
Pages: 350
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Format: Kindle
Purchase at AMAZON

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.

I am an official LH Cosway fan girl.  Every single book I have had the pleasure of reading by this author is so refreshingly original, sexy and quirky, I just can’t help but love them.  “Still Life With Strings” may possible me my favorite yet.

Jade is a former alcoholic who is now a bartender.  And a living statue.  As her version of performance art, she is a living statue to entertain tourists.  One night, she meets a young man who changes everything for her.  Jade has a complicated life, as the guardian for her younger brother and sister; she is expected to be a mother, sister, provider and rock for her family.  Does she have room for this man who has the power to turn it all upside down? 

Any book that begins sexy up against a wall in an alleyway is automatically going to garner at least 3 stars from me.  That’s just the way I roll.  Especially hot standing sex with a very sexy, and talented, man.  Shane is friggin’ awesome.  He is the perfect counterpart to Jade.  He opens up the whole world for her, in many ways that I found as the reader to be very unexpected.  This wasn’t just a boy meets girl from the wrong side of town story.  This is a story about someone who unexpectedly comes into your life and teaches you how to really live.  What’s great about it is that Jade does the same for Shane.  Also, the bit of the twist near the end was totally unexpected.  As a reader of so many contemporary romance books, I’m always pleasantly surprised when a twist actually surprises me. 

This book is also beautifully written.  It is flawless, in my opinion.  I really fell in love with the characters as well as the quirky and original voice in which this is written.  If you haven’t read one of LH Cosway’s books yet, you simply must.  Perfection.  5 stars. 

What a beautifully written novel. I was first introduced to Ms. Cosway’s writing when I read Painted Faces, a book that I absolutely adore and have read several times. Still Life with Strings shows that her skill of creating a wonderful story filled with moving characters has gotten even better – a feat I did not know was possible.

Jade has suffered much in her life – many of which are spoiler-like, so they won’t be detailed. She has so many reasons to be bitter, depressed, and hopeless, yet rather than wallowing in her loss, she uses it to face the world head on. I was impressed with the way that Jade’s imagination – especially when sparked by music – allows her to live in the world and see the beauty of it rather than retreat from it and escape in her imagination. Even more impressive is that Ms. Cosway was able to create such a character and make Jade seem so real.

Shane has dealt with his own blows from life, yet his vulnerability lies in being a child prodigy and the limited social interactions he had as a child that have resulted in him being slightly socially awkward and shy. Fortunately for Jade (and the reader), his shyness disappears in the bedroom and makes for some scorching hot sex scenes.

Jade and Shane are contrasting characters who complement one another so well that you cannot help but hope that they are able to get pass their past hurts and move forward together. At one point, Jade wonders to herself “Is it even possible for a girl this scarred to fix a broken boy?” And that is the crux of the story. Can these two become whole again? Don’t mistake this for the ever popular angst-driven new adult novel. Still Life with Strings is a romance, a beautifully written romance with characters that seem so real you want to go to Dublin in hopes of meeting them, or at least I did.

“To be a muse is to be a wonder in someone else’s eyes, flaws and all.” Such an emotional, thought-provoking line. I can only thank whoever it is that serves as Ms. Cosway’s muse and hope that they continue to do so, so that she can continue to grace us with such beautifully written books. In the meantime, I can take comfort in rereading Painted Faces and Still Life with Strings and discovering The Nature of Cruelty – the release of which I somehow missed. 

They call me the Blue Lady.

The more poetic would say a dark angel, or an unexpected, fantastical surprise standing upon the mundane street. I wear a long midnight blue dress, a matching wig, white paint on my hands and face, and glorious, feathery blue wings affixed to my back.

I feel like a gap in reality, a moment where people can pause mid-stride and say in a breathy, wonder-filled voice, wow, look at that. For the more cynical, wow, look at that nutjob.

Perhaps for a moment someone will think that they’ve stepped into a world where normal is not the rule anymore, that the extraordinary is. That my wings aren’t false but real, that my skin is really this white, my hair really this blue.

Unfortunately, none of it is real.

But it’s nice, isn’t it, for a brief moment to imagine that it is?

In reality I’m a twenty-six-year-old woman with a stack of bills I’m struggling to pay and two younger siblings who are reliant on me to keep a roof over their heads, clothes on their backs, and food in their bellies.

I do this living statue act whenever I have the free time. It gives me an artistic outlet, while also making me some much-needed cash on the side. Admittedly, I don’t normally do it at one o’clock in the morning in the middle of Grafton Street, but it’s a Saturday. That means there’ll be lots of tourists. More to the point, lots of drunk tourists with loose pockets and even looser inhibitions about who they hand over their cash to – such as women who stand very still while dressed like a Manga fairy.

I stare directly ahead, unblinking, controlling my breathing using a qigong method, just as I hear the recognisable loutish shouting and laughter of a stag party up ahead. When they come into my line of sight, I see that they’re all wearing black T-shirts with their nicknames written across the back and Jack’s Stag Weekend across the front.

No shit.

I am an island, an inanimate object among the to and fro of humanity. I brace myself for the possibility that the stag party is going to be trouble. Moments later, one guy stands in front of me, waving his hand in my face and trying to get me to blink. How original.

Sometimes I feel like those guards who stand outside Buckingham Palace. And like those long-suffering buggers, I have also perfected the art of remaining still and giving no reaction at all.

“Are you blue all over?” he slurs with a drunken sideways grin.

As a street performer, you have to take the rough with the smooth. When you put yourself out there, you’re going to encounter every facet of society: the good, the bad, and the drunk off their arses. Kids are the best. They haven’t yet lost the sense of wonder that makes them stare up at you and truly believe you’re some sort of blue-fairy-bird-woman-thing.

“That’s a real nice rack,” says another of the stag partiers.

Yeah, you try carrying it around all day and dealing with the back problems, and then tell me how nice it is, I think. Soon they lose interest and continue on their way. A half an hour passes, and several more pedestrians throw some coins into my hat.

The moon is full tonight, a round white orb perched amid the stars. I want to go up there and see what everything looks like from on high. I flutter my wings and prepare for flight, flapping them through the air and then leaping into the sky. My ascent is an easy one. I pluck a star out of the blackness and stick it in my blue hair as an adornment. When I reach the moon, I find a comfortable spot and sit. Leaning my chin on my hand, I gaze back down at the street. The people look like tiny black ants, the buildings like less brightly coloured blocks of Lego.

I blink, and I’m back on my box, back on the street. I was never really on the moon. My wings are a pretty accessory, but they’re useless for flying. Sometimes I can imagine things so hard that I feel like they’re really happening.

My eyes catch on a group of people I recognise. They all play in the symphony orchestra at the concert hall where I work as a ticket attendant and bartender. I don’t talk to most of them, but I’m friends with a couple of the ladies. I know that one of the violinists is leaving to move to Australia with his family, so tonight must be his big send-off.

Often on my breaks I’ll sit at the back of the hall and watch their rehearsals, allowing myself to be swept away with the music. My favourite sound is at the very beginning of their performances, when all the instruments clamour together to get in tune. It builds up this addictive sense of anticipation.

I envy their lives as musicians, travelling the world and playing for amazing audiences in historic venues. It’s so much more beautiful than the life I live. I think a lot about the fact that I’m constantly near these people, and yet my reality is so far removed from theirs.

None of them even know that the woman with the painted skin dressed all in blue is the same inner-city girl who sells tickets for their concerts and serves them drinks at the bar after their practices.

In a way it’s quite a wonderful feeling. For a moment I am unchained from my own humdrum identity.

By the time I withdraw from these thoughts, the orchestra musicians are gone. Slowly, I turn my head slightly to the left and find a new position. I stand in the same pose for fifteen minutes at a time, and then I’ll make an almost imperceptible move to ease some of the strain. It takes willpower and the patience of a saint to do this. Fortunately, I’ve had years of practice being responsible for my younger siblings.

I’m all about the willpower, especially since I’m a recovering alcoholic who works in a bar. Most people say that to properly get over an addiction, you have to purge all presence of the drug from your life. I take a different approach. The fact that I can be around alcohol and not drink it, well, I like to think that makes me stronger. It’s been five years, and I haven’t touched a drop.

Anyway, what with jobs being so thin on the ground these days, I can’t exactly afford to be picky. You’ll be amazed by what you can achieve when necessity sets in.

Once I settle in my new position, I notice a man standing by the shuttered window of a shop on the other side of the street. He’s got brown hair in what my mother would have called a “gentleman’s haircut” when she was alive. It’s all neatly combed and swept to the side. His facial features are exotic yet not, giving the impression that he was born of a white father and an Asian mother — or vice versa.

He’s just standing there staring at me, looking fascinated and a small bit lost. I sometimes encounter people like this. Adults who see me and are touched by whatever emotion my appearance has managed to evoke in them.

These are the things I live for. Aside from the money, it’s the main reason why I do this.

Up until this moment, though, I’ve never had someone I’m attracted to show a similar sort of wonder. His eyes crinkle in a smile. I think he knows that I’ve noticed him. A couple who have also been watching me for several minutes finally drop some money in my hat, and I give them a small bow for their generosity.

My legs are starting to get a little too stiff, so I decide it’s time to call it a night. Stretching my arms up over my head and stepping down off my box, I pick up my money hat, fold it in half, and shove it into the box.

The beautiful man across the street stands up straight when he sees me move. I pull off my wig and stick that in the box, too, loosening my real hair out of the tight bun I’d had it in under the wig. Making sure not to damage the feathers, I shrug out of the wings and place them inside as well.

When I glance up, the man is standing before me, too close almost. His eyes are a deep golden brown, like a glass of fine brandy, and his features have a delicate masculinity. Strong yet vulnerable.

“Hello there,” I say with a hint of amusement, pulling my long cardigan from the box and shuffling out of my blue dress. I always wear a light slip underneath.

“Hey,” the man replies, watching as I fold the dress neatly and place it in the box before ducking into my cardigan. “You’re blonde,” he says then, eyes on my hair.

I’d expected him to be foreign, given his semi-exotic appearance, but his accent is middle-class Dublin through and through.

“That I am,” I answer, giving him a look as if to say, are we done here?

It’s almost two in the morning, but the street still has quite a few people on it, so I don’t really feel on edge about this stranger standing near enough that we’re practically touching.

His gaze travels down to my feet, a wry smile shaping his lips when he takes in my black biker-style boots. As he scans my bare legs, I feel a shiver run down my back, lingering erotically at the base of my spine.

Hmm, it has been a while, and this man is utterly gorgeous. He’s wearing a dark suit with a white shirt, no tie. He hovers over me, standing only a couple of inches taller. His breath whispers across my skin, smelling faintly of gin.

“Would you like to have a drink with me?” he asks, reaching out to run a hand through the waves at the end of my long hair.

Despite his forwardness, it feels good to be touched. Sometimes it seems like no one ever touches me like this — just for the sake of it. I had a really stressful day with my younger brother Pete acting the brat; a little relief would be nice. A bit of physical interaction. Some skin on skin.

Something thickens in the air between us as we make eye contact. The man sucks in a quick breath, his gaze flickering back and forth over my features.

Once I have everything put away, I close my box, pulling it along on its wheels.

“How about a quick shag instead?” I ask back, uncharacteristically brazen.

L.H. Cosway has a BA in English Literature and Greek and Roman Civilisation, and an MA in Postcolonial Literature. She lives in Dublin city. Her inspiration to write comes from music. Her favourite things in life include writing stories, vintage clothing, dark cabaret music, food, musical comedy, and of course, books. 

Her latest book is the contemporary romance, Still Life with Strings.

Visit her website at www.lhcosway.com.

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