Broadway musical meets contemporary novel in, “Once More with Feeling” by Elissa Sussman.
At one time, Katee Rose was America’s number-one pop star. She was caught in a whirlwind of sold-out concerts, adoring fans and constant media coverage. Everyone wanted to know everything about her and her boyfriend, Ryan LaNeve.
Like most pop stars, Katee is tired of the constant demands of stardom but loves her job. Maybe that is why she is attracted to another member from her boyfriend’s boyband CrushZone, Cal Kirby. Cal is quiet, serious and a good friend of Katee’s.
One unforgettable night with Cal is all it takes to blow up Katee’s relationships, life and career.
Years later, now going by her actual name, Kathleen Rosenberg is ok with her ordinary existence without her pop star persona, Katee. Everything is going alright until Cal shows up with the opportunity, she cannot refuse – the chance to star in a Broadway show. The only problem, he is directing said show.
The book alternates between the past and the present. The audience gets to know Cal and Kathleen and watch their relationship rebuild after years, as well as meet them when they were kids.
Each flashback was a puzzle piece that helped the audience put together Kathleen and Cal’s complicated dynamic and how everything fell apart.
Many authors can struggle to align the story with its characters, especially if they have a substantial difference in who they were in the past and who they are in the present. Sussman balances this thread delicately.
The novel was emotionally charged, messy at times and belly-laugh funny. Sussman writes a flawed protagonist in Kathleen. At first, readers might have a hard time rooting for Kathleen but slowly as she lets down her guards in the book, readers get to know and like her.
Even though the readers only get to read Kathleen’s perspective, how Cal is perceived changes throughout the novel. Cal has many layers to his character and each chapter shows the readers another side of who he is, making him an adorable yet infuriating love interest.
Kathleen and Cal are different people when the audience meets them in the past than who they are in the present. Notably, the difference in their characters is met with the difference in the trope. This is a friends-to-lovers novel meeting enemies to lovers.
Kathleen and Cal’s chemistry is undeniable throughout the novel. They both make mistakes, they both say ugly things to one another and they both show love in their own way. For them, one thing is true: in the past and present they keep coming back to one another, like magnets.
An enjoyable aspect of the novel was the incorporation of a Broadway show in the book. Readers get a look into the behind-the-scenes of how a Broadway show is put together. Rehearsals, directors’ work and the technical aspects of what we see on stage were pieced together in every chapter.
Some trigger warnings include: cheating, infidelity, body shaming, fat-shaming, explicit scenes, cursing, absentee parents
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