There is something extremely moving – as a queer woman – to sit with a Mills and Boon/Harlequin historical romance involving two women in my hand. A Liaison with Her Leading Lady is romantic and touched with theatrical warmth. It’s not wholly perfect but it reigns as Lotte R. James’ best book yet. Actress Ruth…
Set in the crucible of Spring 2020, as the pandemic’s grip tightened, Ann Patchett’s Tom Lake is a marvel. The narrative takes place over a few weeks on a family farm–echoes of Chekhov’s cherry orchard–in Michigan, where Lara Kenison, her husband, and their three adult daughters labor amidst the lockdown’s restraint. As the book begins,…
Virginia Heath has done it again. I could end my review of the delightful How Not to Chaperon a Lady there, but I won’t. Just know that it absolutely suffices for me to say that much and let you read the whole book by yourself. Go read it, you’ll be doing yourself quite the favor,…
Jessica S. Olson’s well-written and impassioned Sing Me Forgotten will definitely amuse musical theater fans – if only because the book definitely reads like a gender-swapped, fantasy-tinged take on The Phantom of the Opera. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad book – quite the contrary – but it’s a delightful twist. Isda has spent her…
Acting Up is a good, old-fashioned friends-to-lovers romance about two people falling in love after years of friendship and work partnership, against the appealing backdrop of a theater production. Cath is a stage manager, and while she can manage the heck out of cast and crew, her relationships are far from perfect. She has close…
Sarah Bernhardt’s life was destined to grab headlines. The first actress of international acclaim, she drew eyes and plaudits – and controversy and criticism – wherever she trod the boards. But Bernhardt’s life was also no picnic. Given to a stranger to be raised, she was the daughter of a high-class courtesan, her biological father…
For this month’s Kicking it Old School prompt, I went back to Mary Burchell’s Warrender Saga, a series of thirteen novels set in the world of classical music that were originally published by Mills & Boon in the 1960s and 70s. I read the first book, A Song Begins for a TBR Challenge prompt last…
Sometimes you finish a book and all you can do is sit collapsed in your chair until your brain and body return from the place where the author transported you. Kora Oliver, Tony-winning actress turned director, and Tariq Evans, NFL star turned financial advisor, have known each other for over two decades. They are each…
In this brand-new love letter to New York City, the follies of youth and the joys of the theater, Eat Pray Love author Elizabeth Gilbert brings us the uneven story of a woman named Vivian Morris. Morris comes to New York for a summer vacation in 1940 and never really leaves – and tells us…
The Austen Playbook, the fourth in Lucy Parker’s London Celebrities series, is one of the most eagerly anticipated new releases of 2019 – and I’m here to tell you your patience will most definitely be rewarded when it comes out. It’s got all Ms. Parker’s trademarks; the two principals are wonderfully appealing, the secondary cast…
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