Story for the Week
I have a confession to make. I love Shakespeare.
When asked what one item (not person) I would want on a desert island with no power or Internet, my response has always been The Riverside Shakespeare. At 1,197 very thin pages of teeny tiny print, it contains the complete works of The Bard, so I would have plenty to read. I purchased it for a Shakespeare class I (voluntarily) took in college some 30 (but closer to 40) years ago, and I still have it. It’s also on my Kindle, but that wouldn’t work on a desert island for very long.
I know, I know…you and any teenager you know probably think I’m a crazy person.🤪
When Corinne read Hamlet in middle school, she was horrified to discover that I chose to take a class focused solely on Shakespeare. It was taught by one of my favorite professors, and he actually gave us the option as a class to spend a lot of time on just a few pieces or less time covering more pieces. The final exam was three questions, which he gave to us ahead of time. Why, you might ask, would he give us the questions? Because he expected us to be able to quote the material—three quotes per question, and each quote had to be from a different piece.
Even after the final, I still loved Shakespeare. It probably helped that I went with a group of students and the same professor to the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario, Canada. (Thank you, Dr. Bowers.😊) I asked Corinne if she would be interested in going one of these days, and she responded that she really wasn’t crazy about Shakespeare.😬(And she calls herself a theater person.🤦🏻♀️) One of these days, I’ll get her there because they don’t perform only Shakespeare. And then maybe if she can see a performance of Shakespeare, she’ll learn to love it as much as I do.
In the meantime, I’ll have to be satisfied with the fact that Corinne loves live theater. She has been involved with drama at school since 6th grade, and she wants to study performing arts in college. This coming summer, Corinne has the opportunity to attend a nine-day theater program at a university in New York. She’s going to be involved in creating a stage production from start to finish. Students will meet with New York theater directors, actors, crew. They will attend live theater productions both on and off Broadway. To say she’s beyond excited is an understatement.
Maybe she’ll get the chance to see Shakespeare performed live and understand how much there is to love about his plays.
I finished a book recently centered around the theater. It is this author’s second book, and I am definitely looking forward to more.
Book Review
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
4.5 Stars for Here for the Drama by Kate Bromley
352 pages
Publisher: Graydon House
Publication Date: June 21, 2022
I received an advance copy of this title from NetGalley and Graydon House in exchange for an honest review.
Publisher’s Description
It wouldn’t be the theater without a few theatrics….
Becoming a famous playwright is all Winnie ever dreamed about. For now, though, she’ll have to settle for assisting the celebrated, sharp-witted feminist playwright Juliette Brassard. When an experimental theater company in London, England, decides to stage Juliette’s most renowned play, The Lights of Trafalgar, Winnie and Juliette pack their bags and hop across the pond.
But the trip goes sideways faster than you can say “tea and crumpets.” Juliette stubbornly butts heads with the play’s director and Winnie is left stage-managing their relationship. Meanwhile, Winnie’s own work seems to have stalled, and though Juliette keeps promising to read it, she always has some vague reason why she can’t. Then, Juliette’s nephew, Liam, enters stage left. He’s handsome, he’s smart, he is devastatingly British…and his family ties to Juliette pose a serious problem, forcing Winnie to keep their burgeoning relationship on the down-low. What could go wrong?
Balancing a production seemingly headed for disaster, a secret romance and the sweetest, most rambunctious rescue dog, will Winnie save the play, make her own dreams come true and find love along the way—or will the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune get the best of her?
************
Main Characters:
- Winnie – personal assistant to Juliette Brassard for the past five years, former theater student, currently putting the finishing touches on her own play to submit to a contest, sees Juliette as a friend and sometimes a mother figure more than just a boss
- Juliette – celebrated New York playwright, heiress, feels like she is being forgotten
- Roshni – Juliette’s second assistant, working with her as a summer job before going to pharmacy school, Winnie’s roommate and best friend in New York
- Liam – Juliette’s nephew who lives in London and recently sold his tech company
- Isabelle – Juliette’s estranged sister, Liam’s mother, lives in London with her husband
Kate Bromley’s second novel, Here for the Drama, made me immediately go buy her first (Talk Bookish to Me). Categorized as both romance and women’s fiction, this book majors in women’s fiction and minors in romance. While the romance between Winnie and Liam is a key focus, the more critical relationship here is the one between Winnie and Juliette.
Winnie would like to be a playwright, so she logically became the assistant to celebrated New York playwright Juliette Brassard. For five years, she has spent every day more concerned with Juliette’s life than her own. When we meet Winnie, she is looking forward to having three weeks off, while Juliette and Roshni are in London, to finalize the edits on her own play, which she plans to submit for a playwriting contest in 17 days.
She has been tweaking the script for the last four years, always asking Juliette to critique it for her to no avail. (We find out toward the end of the book why Juliette makes up excuses not to read it.) The time that Juliette will be in London supervising a pop-up performance of her most well-known play, The Lights of Trafalgar, is all the time Winnie has to finish. But Juliette and Roshni convince her to go to London because in Winnie’s life, what Juliette wants, Juliette gets.
Winnie can’t stand up to Juliette, who has been a mentor and pseudo-mother to her. Roshni loves the theater even though she’s destined to be a pharmacist. Juliette is manipulative but not so unlikeable that we hate her. She clearly loves Winnie, but she definitely uses guilt to get what she wants. We get the impression that something is wrong with her, but we don’t know really until later in the book whether it’s emotional or physical. Regardless, being back in London where she had some of her best times in her 20s takes a toll on her.
Then there’s Liam. We see the chemistry between him and Winnie just in a simple phone call, even before they’ve met in person. We know from the very beginning that there will be a romance and it will be complicated. I definitely enjoyed how it all played out.
What I loved most about this book was the banter between Winnie and Liam. All the dialog is good, and I like Winnie’s individual voice throughout. But Winnie and Liam have a chemistry and an ease that puts their interactions over the top.
Winnie: “I’m just kidding. Don’t hate me.”
Liam: “You are a wretched human being. I’m fairly confident you’ve just traumatized me for life.”
Winnie: “Does that mean you don’t want to hang out after all?”
Liam: “No, for whatever reason, I still do. I must be a glutton for punishment.”
Winnie: “In all seriousness, I am sorry. That was quite mean on my part. For future reference, I’m terrified of sharks. If we’re ever out deep-sea fishing and you see an opportunity for payback, I’ll understand.”
Liam: “I’m pretty sure you being savagely eaten alive by sharks isn’t a fair tradeoff in this scenario.”
Winnie: “You’re such a softie.”
Liam: “And you really are a strange woman.”
Winnie: “So I’ve been told.”
The reason I dropped this to 4.5 stars is that the realizations Winnie makes about her life at the end of the book feel a little preachy and sappy. The final chapter of the book before the Epilogue is “one year later,” and I loved that chapter. It brings everything together, but then I saw some other reviews expressing that the Epilogue feels forced. I can see that point and I kind of agree, but I also enjoyed seeing where everyone ends up five years later. I don’t know that there’s a good way to end the book without one year later and an Epilogue.
Order this one. I’ll definitely be reading Kate Bromley in the future.
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