4.5 stars 
 Dark Notes is a forbidden love story between student Ivory Westbrook, 17 and Emeric Marceaux, acclaimed pianist and heir to a fortune. Emeric is new to LeMoyne Academy when he meets Ivory Westbrook. She's a talented pianist and he's her teacher, and they find they have more in common than just the piano. There's a synergy between them that just won't be denied. 
 Ivory doesn't exactly fit in with her rich classmates, but she's got the fight to continue her education despite everything she's been through. She makes a very sympathetic character and it's easy to like her for her motivation. Emeric isn't so easy. Pam writes great alpha-males, and Emeric is no exception. He's intimidating in many ways at least at first, until the reader begins to understand his deep feelings of protection toward Ivory. 
 Pam Godwin does a great job with building the sexual tension between these two characters, which helps to straddle the forbidden teacher-student aspects of this story. Pam is a master at character development and she didn't disappoint me with this story. Her characters are deeply faceted which makes it hard to label them and I love that about Pam Godwin's creations. How Ivory and Emeric find their common ground through the darkness kept me turning the pages. 
 Some of this was a bit predictable, but that didn't detract from the story for me. I liked the dual POV and I thought it was a necessary element to this story because it helped to understand each of the characters motivation when it came to the forbidden elements of this story. There's quite a bit of suspense to add to the sexual tension and it all just kept me turning the pages.