I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Melody McIntyre, stage manager extraordinaire, has a plan for everything.

What she doesn’t have? Success with love. Every time she falls for someone during a school performance, both the romance and the show end in catastrophe. So, Mel swears off any entanglements until their upcoming production of Les Mis is over.

Of course, Mel didn’t count on Odile Rose, rising star in the acting world, auditioning for the spring performance. And she definitely didn’t expect Odile to be sweet and funny, and care as much about the play’s success as Mel.

Which means that Melody McIntyre’s only plan now is trying desperately not to fall in love.

Short and Sweet

Melody is the stage manager for her high school. Melody is great at being a stage manager, what she’s not so great at is finding love. When her crew comes to her and suggest she puts off dating for the next show she’s willing to try it, what she didn’t expect was to fall for actress Odile Rose.

Characters

Melody: Melody is our main character and she’s the stage manager. Melody is on it as stage manager she’s organized she has a plan for everything. Things start to get more challenging for Melody during this play and she doesn’t know if its just a coincidence or if it’s because of the curse.

Odile: Odile is an actress and she’s not at school much because she’s off filming but when she is at school she usually lands the lead role in the plays. Odile is actually really nice people assume that she’s stuck up but she’s willing to help everyone and really get to know them.

Dom: Dom is one of Melody’s friends, he’s been a stage tech but this year he decided to try his hand at acting. Dom usually takes Melody’s side but this year there was a bit of tension between the two.

Gabby: Gabby is Melody’s assistant stage manager. Gabby is good at her job and is Melody’s right hand woman. Gabby looks up to Melody and considers her a close friend.

Romance

Melody and Odile: Melody and Odile haven’t had many interactions but this year changes everything. Melody meets Odile during the auditions for Odile and they have a few more encounters where things between them start to heat up. Melody keeps her romance with Odile a secret because she’s afraid that the crew will blame her for things going wrong on set because of the curse. Odile eventually gets tired of hiding their relationship and is hurt when Melody doesn’t tell everyone the truth.

My Thoughts

This years play: Les Mis. Every year the crew comes up with a curse and this years curse means that Melody can’t fall in love otherwise the show will be ruined. Melody is okay with agreeing but that’s before she met Odile. Odile and Melody hit it off and end up spending a lot of time together. Most of the book is just talking about the play and the romance between Melody and Odile. There are some incidents that happen to cast members and at the theater and the cast and crew think it’s the curse. While these things are happening Melody has been seeing Odile behind everyones backs, so is it really Melody’s fault that these things are happening or is it a coincidence? I liked the book and thought it was cool that they would show the cast list and the tasks the crew had to complete. The one thing that put me off was how everyone reacted to Melody and Odile being together. The crew would give Melody dirty looks and it went too far when they started to blame her for everything. I get that Melody was hiding her relationship from them but they were supposed to be her friends and they made her feel bad. I agreed with Odile when she said that the crew crossed the line with this curse.

Overall

This was a fun book to read. I don’t think I’ve read a book revolving around a stage crew getting ready to put on a play. I liked the format a lot and was looking forward to seeing what was at the end of the chapters. The ending was cute but I was still upset with everyone’s behavior.