Twenty-four years ago, I took a chance and married a man the fourth time we met in person after meeting in a chat room.
He loved to tell people I married him on the fourth date.
He and I had 18 years together before we lost him.
Happy anniversary, honey. 💜
Story for the Week
As Corinne’s fall semester of college approaches, I need to evaluate how many friends I pay off to keep her happy. Obviously, I’m kidding! I don’t really pay off her “friends” 😉😉, but it has been a long-running joke…probably since she was in middle school.
Corinne has always been a social butterfly. In grade school, it started with birthday parties. If you have kids, you know the drill. If you want to pass out birthday party invites in class, you have to invite the whole class. That was not a problem when she first started school. Her social circle was isolated to the 25 or so kids in her class and our immediate family and neighbors.
As she got older, however, and the classmates shifted around, she continued to invite all of the kids in her class…in addition to the kids she stayed friends with in other classes. Let’s just say we’re lucky that positive RSVPs averaged only half the invite list.
By the time she reached middle school, we had about 35 kids for her twelfth birthday. We have a pretty big back yard, and her birthday falls in mid-October, so we usually didn’t have to worry. But that year…it rained that year…and the theme was Survivor (What’s Your Birthday Theme This Year?), complete with immunity challenges that we ended up running in our living room. We had a blast despite the cramped quarters, and the next year we rented out the covered pavilion at the park. 😉
Corinne doesn’t have birthday parties like that anymore, but she does surround herself with a select group of friends who I have met and get along with…some of them really well. And when we’re feeling sassy, more than one of them have joked with me that they’re only friends with Corinne because I pay them. I don’t remember how long ago it started, but I can think of three off the top of my head. And just recently, we added a fourth.
Corinne called me one day while sharing her AirPods with a classmate while she walked to her car after class. Her classmate was preparing to head back to Greece for the summer, and I don’t know how we got on the topic of her spending time with Corinne. But I dropped the comment that she only hangs out with Corinne because I pay her. And with excellent response time, she replied that we were going to have to discuss the payments “because tuition is going up.” I laughed and told her I would be in touch over the summer to negotiate.
I’m thinking this is a common joke because the book below released in 2020. When talking with his best friend, the main male character, jokes with his best friend: “Yo man, I thought I was your best friend,” Kyle says, knocking into Grayson. Grayson shakes his head. “No, your mom just pays me to hang out with you.” 🤷♀️
Book Review
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
5 Stars for Take a Chance on Me by Kathryn R. Biel
402 pages
Publisher: Kathryn R. Biel
Publication Date: May 21, 2020
Purchased directly from the author.
Publisher’s Description
Nobody relishes the idea of uprooting their life and settling in a small town like Hicklam, least of all someone who’s spent the last decade battling debilitating panic attacks, all thanks to a toxic ex.
But that was in the past.
Now, in Hicklam, Gloria Benedetti dares to dream again. Maybe the town’s therapist can help her finally conquer the PTSD that’s lingered too long. She might never set foot on a stage again, even though performing was once her life’s passion. These days, even singing along to the radio feels like a memory from another life.
And then there’s Grayson Keene—the man with a knack for renovations and a perpetual song in his heart. His melodies, oddly enough, don’t irritate her. Instead, they brighten her days. Maybe it’s his infectious smile. Or maybe it’s the startling fact that he’s counting on her to help save his family’s business.
************
Main Characters:
- Gloria Benedetti – 32 years old, goes by Ria, a former musical theater major with a dream of being on stage, experienced a devastating incident in college that caused her to drop out and suffer from debilitating panic attacks for the last 10 years, temporarily moved to Hicklam for concentrated therapy for PTSD, anxiety, and depression
- Grayson Keene – 35 years old, co-executive producer of his family’s small-town theater The Edison, was headed for his big theater break when his father was diagnosed with cancer so he returned home to Hicklam, working to get the theater renovated for the upcoming season
- Malachi Andrews – a therapist who specializes in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), he and his siblings own several buildings in Hicklam, the cost of Gloria’s therapy includes an apartment in one of the buildings for the duration of her treatment, people in the town don’t know that Malachi is a therapist
- Linda Keene – Grayson’s mother, her grandparents opened The Edison in the early 1900s, she is suspicious of Malachi’s business in town and becomes equally suspicious of Ria because she lives in one of the Andrews’ buildings
Trigger warning: cyber assault, PTSD, anxiety, depression, cancer death
When you think about a romantic comedy, you don’t think about the trigger warnings this book requires. I mean, no one goes looking for a book that can:
- Educate people on EMDR psychotherapy (yes, it’s a real thing),
- Talk about cyber assault and anxiety triggers,
- Touch on families being financially wiped out by medical bills,
- AND still feature a happily ever after….
And I certainly never would have guessed from Kathryn R. Biel’s descriptions on TikTok that this book would go that deep. But it does…and it’s amazing.
Ria Benedetti relocates to the small town of Hicklam, about two hours from New York City, when all of her attempts at traditional therapy have failed. For 10 years, she has suffered from PTSD, anxiety, and depression since an incident in college basically took away everything she loved. She hopes that Malachi Andrews’ EMDR therapy will allow her to at least find some sense of normalcy, even if she can never get back on stage.
After dropping out of college where she studied musical theater, Ria struggled to even leave her parents’ house. She doesn’t own a cell phone or a computer. She never goes online. Meeting new people and trying to form any sort of connection terrifies her. Malachi is her last hope.
Grayson should be working in a theater touring company. After his father’s cancer diagnosis a couple of years ago, he returned home to Hicklam. Since his father’s death, he has worked to renovate The Edison, the theater his family has owned for four generations. The entire town relies on revenue from the theater because of the traffic it brings between the actors, the crew, and the ticket holders. Grayson’s hope is that the upcoming season will earn them enough to pay off the loan they took out for his father’s treatments and put the theater back in the black.
When his mother fires the renovation crew, Grayson needs bodies, and Ria needs a job. Ria doesn’t know The Edison is a theater until it’s too late to back out. And Grayson has no idea why he can make the most random comment and Ria runs away.
Both characters experience a ton of growth in this story, and I love how Grayson understands what Ria needs even before he knows her back story. We all know someone in our lives who everyone adores. Grayson embodies that person for the reader. And the way Ria describes him, Grayson makes the ideal leading man. “I could tell by the voice he has dashing good looks. That’s how I’d describe him. Dashing. Hell, I think Merriam-Webster’s probably has a picture of him. Square jaw. Clear ivory skin with a ruddy undertone. Green eyes that twinkle. A dimple. For the love of God, he has a dimple.”
And Grayson brings out Ria’s playful side…even before she realizes she’s ready to be playful. Biel excels at creating fun personalities who can banter, and it’s my favorite part of her writing style.
“So, I don’t want to make things weird, but I need something from you.”
“A kidney?”
I shake my head quickly, trying not to laugh. “God no.”
“You can’t have any of my other vital organs because I’m pretty sure I’m using them.”
“I don’t want your organs.”
“Blood? Sperm? Saliva?”
“No and yuck.” I wrinkle my nose. “I wanted to know if I can get paid for helping you. I need a job that pays money. Not bodily fluids.”
“Your face!”
I pull my phone out of my pocket and flip the camera on. The top half of my face looks like I wrestled with a bag of flour—and lost.
“You know, I heard this is the next big fashion style coming off the runways in…” I draw a blank. “The European cities where fashion matters.”
Ria raises an eyebrow. “Paris? Milan?”
“Yes, and Hamburg.” I don’t know why I add this.
“Hamburg? Like Germany? Last I checked, the Germans are not known for their fashion.”
“Oh, yes. You add a pair of lederhosen and the half-flour face and voila!” I raise my hands in a flourish. “It’s all the rage.”
“You’ve been holding out on me! Why didn’t you tell me you could sing?”
The shock of my appearance begins to fade from her face. She clears her throat quickly. “Because you sing so much, it’s impossible to get a note in edgewise.”
She may have a point.
“Well, if I’d have known, I’d have restrained myself.”
Ria raises an eyebrow. “Like you just did? The Bangles are an all-girl group. You couldn’t even let me have that.”
“But the harmonies…” I protest.
She shrugs, muttering something that sounds suspiciously like “diva” under her breath.
There’s a tiny bit of spice in this book but nothing that should make you blush. This was a great start to Biel’s interconnected—but stand-alone—Center Stage Love Story series. I’m excited to read the other two (reviews coming soon).
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