Books Under the Blanket (with a flashlight)

Corinne is a theater kid and has been for a very long time. I love attending theater productions. When Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat ran in Chicago, I saw it five times—primarily because a shirtless Donny Osmond played Joseph, but this post is not about that. This post is about Corinne refusing to believe that I was not a theater kid.

I played Dorothy in our grade school performance of The Wizard of Oz. When our church did the same show that year, the director cast me as the Scarecrow. I was very tall and lanky. The fact that I am clumsy probably helped. 😉 I also remember playing the Dormouse in the church production of Alice in Wonderland.

I am pretty sure those were the only shows I ever did. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy performing, but in middle school and high school, my extracurriculars included the yearbook and newspaper. I wanted to try out for the volleyball team (again, tall and lanky), but my mom said she didn’t want my grades to suffer. 🤔 Years later, she admitted that she feared I would get hurt (again, clumsy).

We also were a one-car household. Mom was a stay-at-home-mom, and she didn’t drive. That didn’t provide a lot of opportunities for after-school activities. It didn’t prevent me from attending shows, though, when I could.

I also love anything music-related. A few weeks ago, I wrote about attending concerts in my 20s (Are Today’s Online Queues Better Than Camping Out). I used to have a massive collection of cassettes (thank you, Columbia House) and still have a good-sized collection of CDs…even though I almost exclusively stream music now. Cars don’t even come standard with CD players anymore, do they? Corinne scolds me all the time about my airy whistle because I constantly (quietly) whistle whatever song pops into my head. And even as I write this, I have music on in the background.

And fairly often, I will hear a phrase that I know appears in the lyrics of a song (or rhymes with the lyrics), and I will break into song. It doesn’t matter if we’re at home or in public, which Corinne finds hugely embarrassing…which makes me want to sing louder and longer. 😁 It’s almost always a song Corinne hasn’t heard of.

A few weeks ago, we talked about this very topic, and she said, “and then you pull out a song from the Jurassic period!” I think she’s just jealous that we Gen Xers grew up with the best music. And once again, she expressed her shock that I was not a theater kid. 🤷🏻‍♀️

In the book below, the main character is also not a theater kid, nor was she raised by a theater kid, but she and her mom definitely have similar conversations.

“ ‘Mom, just tell me, okay? Tell me what to do. How do I plan for a trip when my life is in shambles? Where do I begin?’ I pause. Oh crap, I set her up. She’s going to start singing a Julie Andrews song. I cannot handle The Sound of Music right now. I have to nip this in the bud. ‘And yes, I know I start at the very beginning. Please don’t sing.’ ”

That’s definitely Corinne and me…not her life in shambles, but definitely her begging me not to sing. 😂

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Book Review

⭐⭐⭐⭐
4 Stars for New Attitude by Kathryn R. Biel

261 pages
Publisher: Kathryn R. Biel
Publication Date: March 5, 2017
Purchased directly from the author.

Publisher’s Description

I thought not winning Made for Me was tough, but arriving home to find a one-word note that my ten-year marriage is over is a lot worse. So here I am, a suddenly single mother in my mid-thirties, doing what everyone advises me to do—have a fling.

If only it was that easy.

I’m not your typical PTA mom, but then again Tony doesn’t seem to be the typical meaningless fling. He’s too young for me and much too cute and funny and too sexy.

I’m going to need a new attitude if I’m ever going to figure this out.

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Main Characters:

• Kira – 35 years old, fashion designer who works at a retail craft store, recent contestant on the design competition reality show Made for Me, helped Michele with her winning designs, her husband Stan left as soon as she came home from the competition, lives in Columbus
• Fleur – Kira and Stan’s five-year-old daughter
• Michele – 30 years old, won the Made for Me competition, under contract for a year as the personal designer of the new Princess of Montabago, lives in New York, started her company New Michele Designs after winning the competition and still has an Etsy shop
• Tony – 25 years old, Michele’s cousin, works as an actuary for an insurance company in New York
• Jani and Morris – Kira’s 20-something co-workers who encourage her to go out and start dating after Stan left

Oh my goodness, Kira needs serious therapy…and a new attitude. 😉

After helping Michele with the designs for the royal wedding of the Crown Prince of Montabago and his new princess Maryn, Kira returns to an empty house in Columbus. Her husband cleaned out everything except their daughter’s bedroom and left a post-it note that just read “Done.” Kira and Fleur move in with Kira’s mom, and Kira’s already-not-great self-esteem takes one hit after the next.

An embarrassing encounter with Michele’s cousin Tony and a couple of meet-cutes that turn into men just trying to hook up make Kira want to stay off the market completely. And when one of the moms at Fleur’s school comments that Kira’s always-changing bright hair colors seem to put off some of the other moms, Kira decides to go back to her natural color. She really seems to lose herself and her sense of purpose, seeing only a middle-aged, overweight, soon-to-be-divorced single mom who no one could possibly be attracted to.

Enter Michele, winner of the Made for Me competition who suffers from serious ADHD and needs Kira’s help making and shipping orders for her Etsy shop because she forgot to take it down. She also desperately wants Kira to give things with Tony a shot.

There is a lot of back and forth with Kira and Tony, and he really has to work to make things happen. Kira is the classic definition of “hurt people hurt people.” She has a lot of hurt to work through, and she causes quite a bit of hurt in the process. She also misinterprets a lot, but Tony is so incredibly sweet and understanding. He and Michele come from a big Italian family, so he’s used to dealing with a lot of chaos.

I am so glad I decided to finally start diving into some of Biel’s back catalog. She has become one of my favorites for fun romances with witty banter that are so easy to read. She creates great characters who if they could just get out of their own way a little bit…things could happen.

“So, tonight, our mission is to find you a man.”
“I don’t want a man.” I can’t help but shudder at the thought of how that went last time I was on a mission to find a man.
“A woman?”
“No, and please stop asking. I don’t want anyone right now.”
“Awww, come on. You’ve got to get back on the horse someday.”
How do I tell her that I already tried and fell off? And that after I fell off, the horse pooped on me. No, thanks, I’m good.”

“Does that mean you want it to be a thing? Are you interested in him?”
Gosh, she’s blunt.
“Michele, he’s twenty-five. I’m thirty-five, almost thirty-six. I have a daughter. I’m at a different place in my life right now.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, all that. But are you interested in him?”
“He’s hot, he’s funny, he’s smart, and the most delectable kisser. Of course I’m interested in him.”
“Good.” And with that Michele disconnects without saying another word.
Oh no, what did I just get myself into?

This story is a quick-read romance, the second in Biel’s New Beginnings series, with a guaranteed happily ever after. I always say the joy is in the journey, and Kira’s is quite the journey. 😉

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