Once more with feeling A novel

Review by Booklist Review

Kathleen Rosenberg once sold out arenas as pop star Katee Rose, until her very public breakup with her fiancé, boybander Ryan. Years later, her best friend, Harriet, has written a musical, Riveted!, about Rosie the Riveter, and she wants Kathleen to star. She also wants Ryan's former bandmate Calvin Tyler Kirby to direct. But Kathleen hasn't spoken to Calvin since she and Ryan broke up--in fact, he's the reason they split. But her past with Calvin goes deeper, back to their teenage years at theater camp in Rhode Island. Kathleen and Calvin agree to work together, and it's tense at first, but things slowly begin to thaw as the show comes together, going into previews at their old theater in Rhode Island. Harriet sees that the chemistry is still there, but Kathleen promises nothing will happen, until it does, making everything even messier. Sussman's latest (after Funny You Should Ask, 2022) explores romance in the public eye while offering satisfyingly specific details about the process of mounting a Broadway show. Theater nerds, pop culture fanatics, and hopeless romantics will dig this one.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

---

Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Sussman (Funny You Should Ask) dazzles in this smart second-chance romance. The artist formerly known as Katee Rose--now Kathleen Rosenberg--gets a second chance at her Broadway dreams 10 years after her music career was torpedoed by her vengeful ex-boyfriend, Ryan. Her best friend, songwriter Harriet Watson, has written a part specifically for Kathleen in her new 1940s-set musical. There's just one problem: the director is Cal Kirby, who was in a popular boy band with Ryan and whom Kathleen has been crushing on since their theater camp days. The press has painted Kathleen as a man-eating "slut" ever since Ryan leaked news that Kathleen cheated on him--but no one knows that she cheated with Cal. In the fallout, Cal stayed far away, and Kathleen struggled to rebuild her life. But when they're forced to work together, old feelings reignite. Sussman skillfully toggles between flashbacks and the present, teasing out her characters' fraught backstories. Her leads are complex, appealing, and multilayered, and the perfectly paced plot offers real insight into celebrity culture and media slut-shaming. Sussman's first-rate latest will please her existing fans and win her many new ones. Agent: Elizabeth Bewley, Sterling Lord Literistic. (May)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

---

Review by Library Journal Review

A decade ago, Kathleen Rosenberg was Katee Rose, a pop megastar known for her breathy vocals, blonde hair, and buxom figure, beloved until she was caught cheating on her fellow pop star boyfriend, Ryan LaNeve, with his bandmate Cal Kirby. Now after all this time and healing, Kathleen must decide if she's willing to put herself back in the spotlight for the comeback of a decade with Cal Kirby at the helm of a new musical that her best friend Harriet wrote with Kathleen as the star. Both Cal and Kathleen blame the other for the pitfalls of their former lives, but they must work together to ensure the show must go on, even when the feelings they've both harbored for each other threaten once more to ruin all of their hard work. VERDICT The novel drags out the mysterious past events between Kathleen and Cal and focuses far more on musical theater, boy-band references, and Jewish summer camp nostalgia than the romance. Recommended for purchase where the author's previous book Funny You Should Ask circulates well.--Elizabeth Gabriel

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

---

Review by Kirkus Book Review

When two former pop stars reunite for a Broadway show, the drama spills offstage and into their personal lives. Kathleen Rosenberg always knew she wanted to be on stage--she just never imagined it would involve reinventing herself as Katee Rose, a pop star who was more famous for her contrived nasal singing voice and famous boyfriend than she was for her talent. Together with Ryan LaNeve, one-fifth of the boy band CrushZone, she made up one-half of America's favorite couple. That is, until things went awry and she found herself falling for another, more sensitive CrushZone member: Calvin Kirby. When her relationship imploded, so did her career. More than 10 years later, Kathleen has mostly moved on from her Katee Rose days--until she gets the chance to star in a Broadway show written by Harriet Watson, her best friend and songwriter, and directed by none other than Cal Kirby. Kathleen hasn't forgotten how he abandoned her when her career went up in flames, and she doesn't trust him. But the opportunity to live out her dream and show off her natural talent is too great to resist, and soon she's working side by side with the man she hates. Through long hours and lots of dance practice, though, Kathleen discovers that their chemistry never went away--in fact, it's stronger than ever. Would a relationship with Cal destroy everything Kathleen has worked so hard to build? As she did in her adult debut, Funny You Should Ask (2022), Sussman creates a dual-timeline story, simultaneously showing Kathleen and Cal's past as pop stars and their current lives as they attempt to move on and reinvent themselves. The chemistry between Kathleen and Cal is smoldering, and the stakes feel high--Kathleen doesn't want a dramatic romance to take attention away from her best friend's writing or to fall back into the same mistakes she made when she was younger. Fans of 2000s pop music will eat up the details of Kathleen's early singing career--and her downfall, which mirrors the media's treatment of female pop stars at the time. A winning second-chance romance that's fun, steamy, and full of crackling chemistry. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

---

Chapter 1 I'd made a terrible mistake. Well, two terrible mistakes. The first was agreeing to the lunch. The second was not insisting that Harriet and I arrive together. We would have been late, because Harriet was always late, but it would have been better than being early, which I was because I was always early. Cal too, apparently. He was already seated when the waitress escorted me back. He glanced up as I approached. Three mistakes. The grainy headshot that the trades used whenever he was mentioned was at least five years old, and now that he was here, eyes locked with mine, it was clear that photo hardly did him justice. He stood and seemed to go up and up and up. Had he always been this tall? His clothes fit well. He had a five o'clock shadow that had arrived just in time. His hair was artfully tousled. I imagined him driving through Brooklyn in a convertible with mirrored sunglasses, causing everyone to stop and stare. "Kathleen Rosenberg," he said. And then there was his voice. I'd forgotten--worked hard to forget--just how f***ing good it was. How deep and resonant. God. I felt it in my toes and my fingertips. "Well, well, well," I said. "If it isn't Calvin Tyler Kirby." His cheek twitched, but his polite--fake--smile didn't falter. He hated being referred to by all three names. Which was exactly the point. Cal should consider himself lucky that I wasn't using his even more loathed nickname. In fact, he should consider himself lucky that I showed up here in the first place. The last time we'd seen each other, he'd called me a "mistake" and I'd told him to get the f*** out of my life. He'd obliged. My feelings about him hadn't changed, but circumstances had. And I'd promised Harriet I'd hear him out. "It's good to see you," he lied, holding out a hand. "Come now," I said. Placing my hands on his shoulders, I leaned up and gave him two loud, obnoxious air kisses. His muscles tensed beneath my palms. His cologne--like an orange grove--wrapped around me. I ignored how good all of it felt, let go, and stepped back. "Shall we?" He gestured toward the table. We sat. It was like being in a sauna of awkwardness. I could feel it in my pores. "It's been a while," I said. Understatement of the century. Cal raised an eyebrow but said nothing. His menu was apparently fascinating. I was fairly certain, despite his unruffled exterior, that Cal was doing exactly what I was doing--which was recalling the last time we'd been in a room together, exchanging barbs. We'd both said some unkind things. How long had it been? Ten years? Fifteen? It didn't really matter. I could still remember the disgust and disappointment in his eyes. How he'd turned away, not looking back as he left me alone to deal with the consequences of our shared actions. I wondered if he felt bad about it now, or if he still thought I'd deserved what happened. The complete lack of apology seemed to indicate he had no regrets. Well, that was fine. F***ing fine. Because it wasn't like I was about to accept an apology, even if he had offered one. Sorry wasn't enough to repair what had been broken. My career. My spirit. I knew I was being dramatic, but I was quite certain Calvin Tyler Kirby wouldn't expect anything less. "Harriet's always late," I said, even though I was certain he knew that. "I'm in no rush," he said, still examining his menu. I wanted to reach across the table, rip it out of his hands, tear it into a million tiny pieces, and force him to look at me. "Fantastic," I said through clenched teeth. I should have turned my attention to my own menu but found myself staring at him instead. At all the ways time had changed him. I tried imagining his younger self juxtaposed over this one, contrasting the gray in his hair and the lines around his eyes with my memory of him with frosted tips and eyeliner. Had he done the same to me when I walked in? I would deny it if pressed, but I'd put extra effort into my appearance today. My hair hadn't been blond since my Katee Rose days, but I'd taken the time to tame and style it, resisting the urge to dye my own multiplying grays. The weather was that charming in-between of winter and spring, when days had an equal chance of being floral and bright or chilled and slushy. It had been nice when I left my apartment, but there was no guarantee that it would stay that way. I'd worn jeans and a lightweight sweater, but I knew for a fact that Cal had noticed the fit of both since his gaze had darted downward--just for a moment--when he first saw me. It was gratifying to know that the boobs that had earned me the moniker "Titty Rose" from the tabloids continued to maintain their stage presence after all these years. "Is there something on my face?" Cal asked. He hadn't even looked up. "Just your eyes, nose, and mouth," I said sweetly. If he was trying to catch me off guard, he was going to have to try a lot harder. I was ready for him. Crouched, with tail twitching, just ready for an opportunity to attack. I might have gotten softer and rounder since he last saw me, but I'd sharpened my claws. Donned some armor. If he thought he was dealing with the person I'd been back then, he was going to be sorely disappointed. Katee had trusted him. Kathleen knew better. "I've heard the grilled octopus is good," he said. "It is," I said. He finally lifted his eyes to meet mine. "How good?" he asked. He was asking about the octopus, but also, he wasn't. "Best you've ever had," I said. He smiled at that. I'd forgotten about his stupid f***ing dimples. "Sorry I'm late," Harriet said. We both started at that. I hadn't even seen Harriet approach. In fact, for a moment, I'd completely forgotten that she was the reason I was here in the first place. I wanted to blame the dimples. Cal rose to greet Harriet, giving her a hug. I did the same. "Give him a chance," she said in my ear. I sat, and the smile I offered was all teeth. Sharklike. "Kathleen was just telling me how great the grilled octopus is," Cal said. "Life changing," I said. That earned me a sharp kick from Harriet under the table. It stung, but not as bad as learning that my best friend had been cavorting with my archenemy for months behind my back. Okay. Cavorting wasn't quite the right word. Plotting. Collaborating. Scheming. We ordered--Cal got the octopus--and once the server had gone, Harriet's gaze bounced between the two of us as if she were waiting for a bell to go off and one of us to take the first swing. It wasn't going to be me. "I appreciate you taking the time to meet with me," Cal said. "Thank you." I hated how polite and formal he sounded. I'd thought it would be awkward enough seeing him again after everything we'd been through, but it was somehow worse to sit here and pretend that none of it had happened. To playact that we were strangers. Professional strangers. Well. If that's how he wanted to play it. Excerpted from Once More with Feeling: A Novel by Elissa Sussman All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

---