A Midsummer’s Night Fling was a good start for new author Eliza Walker and she shows promise of great things to come. ~ Slick, Guilty Pleasures
Description:
The show must go on, but the price of admission could be her heart.
Sick of her vagabond life in a Broadway touring company, Nicola is ready to settle down. She wants nothing more than to park her suitcase in California, put out feelers for local auditions, and leave her past firmly behind her.
Too bad her past comes knocking on her door her first day home. All six-foot-three, beautiful man of her past named Max. Stupid Max. The mistake Nicola just can’t seem to stop making.
Even before Nicola—fiery, quick-witted, beautiful Nicola—slams the door in his face, Max is in trouble. She will always be the one who got away. Three times. Which makes convincing her to play Titania to his Oberon a bit…awkward.
Though she has zero desire to re-re-rekindle an old flame, Nicola can’t turn down the chance Max is offering: a lead role with the West Coast’s premiere Shakespeare company. But when their first rehearsal kiss disintegrates into a passionate liplock, she’s questioning her sanity and tempted to jump ship—before Max can break her heart again.
Now it’s up to Max to convince her that the torch he’s been carrying is actually an eternal flame.
Review copy provided for an honest review
As someone who spent her high school years as a member of the school’s thespian group, I forgot how overly dramatic, back stabbing, hateful and “close” theater people could be but A Midsummer’s Night Fling reminded me right away. While I liked this book, I didn’t love it; so much of it was dealing with hurt feelings from the past and jealousy and not enough was spent focusing on the here and now. As this was the first book in the series a lot of characters were introduced along with a whole lot of drama all of which overshadowed the redevelopment of a relationship between the hero and heroine.
Nicola Charles is back in Los Angeles after touring with shows for the last 5 years and the very last person she expects on her doorstep is her ex-boyfriend Max Fiesengerke offering her a job in a summer theater production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She also doesn’t expect the old feelings that surface or the fact that she wants to accept the job so she can spend more time with him after he tore her heart apart not once, but twice.
Right away I appreciated the banter between Nicci and Max and it was evident there was a lot of past hurt and anger towards one another, but it was also evident there was still attraction. The biggest problem for me was I never really connected to either one of these characters; they seemed very one dimensional and some of the secondary characters stood out way more than these two.
The supporting cast was filled with some intriguing characters and a couple that you just loved to hate and while they all added something to the story they also took away from the romance between Nicci and Max. I was far more interested in the costume maven Tierney, the British stage actor Lachlan and even Pete, Max’s brother. For Nicci and Max it seemed to be an ever ending loop of the same issues rehashed over and over and over and to be honest they kept saying they needed to “talk” about what was going on with them, but never seemed to have that very critical conversation, just a lot of anger, hurt and arguing with some sex thrown in for good measure.
There were several lively scenes, some of which really added a lot of interest to the story and gave readers great insight into the rigors of putting on a stage production. Those were also paramount for show casing all of the characters and their vibrant personalities.
A Midsummer’s Night Fling was a good start for new author Eliza Walker and she shows promise of great things to come.
Thanks for the review Slick