SYNOPSIS

Zoe owns a plus-size lingerie award-winning shop called Something Cheeky, where she creates all the designs. She’s visiting her favorite boba shop that her friend, TJ, works at when TJ points out the attractive man about to walk in. Zoe realizes she knows him and attempts to hide. When the mystery man walks in, he coincidentally asks TJ for directions to her boutique.

What could happen?

RECAP AND REVIEW

Thank you NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyage for an arc in exchange for an honest review. This review and its opinions are mine.

Out now!

This is a romance book told from Zoe and Derek’s perspective. They used to be best friends in college, but became strangers when Zoe altered her post graduation plans and ghosted him, from my understanding.

The book follows their journey reconnecting and working on the musical theatre they used to dream about in college. (Because of this, I think the title’s a little misleading).

They were in theatre together, and Derek found success post graduation working in musicals. He is in D.C., where Zoe lives, to bring a Vietnamese Rock Opera called Tâm Cám, which is akin to Cinderella, to the stage at his mentor’s theatre.

Zoe, our plus size, fmc, is demisexual. She doesn’t date much and enjoys the life she created in D.C. I appreciate that the author wrote her in a body neutral way. We know she’s plus size and she’s unashamed of it. She wants to help other plus size women feel confident and beautiful through her brand.

She is skeptical about joining Derek’s team for the musical even though she used to dream of doing with him. She is haunted by her last year of senior year, where she was asked by her director at the time to do something offensive. She misses designing costumes, but she also doesn’t want to water down her work or lean into stereotypes, like she’s been asked to in the past.

Derek, our mmc, has found success and is well-known throughout the theatre community. Derek becomes overwhelmed with his first time role as director in his first all Asian musical. He wants to showcase a different part of Asian culture, and be as authentic as possible, but faces pressure from his mentor to change “a little” here and there to make it “palatable.”

Derek’s storyline, which Zoe is weaved into, was the most interesting part to me. Seeing him navigate making his artistic director, who is white, happy while wanting to be authentic was real. We see him decide if he’s going to play the game or not and face challenges that back him into a corner. At times he annoyed me when he came to the situation with his cowriter.

The romance between the two of them develops pretty quickly, which I usually enjoy, but in this case it made me feel a little disconnected from them. They reminisce a lot, and though I get that reconnecting uncovered old feelings, I would’ve liked seeing them connect more in the present, especially with the time that passed and them not being on the best terms.

The third act break up annoyed me because it was a miscommunication. Although I understand where the crew was coming from in the end, I think it was a little disrespectful to not have a conversation with Derek prior to doing what they did.

All’s well that ends well, I guess.

OVERALL

Overall, I give this a 3.5 out of 5 stars. I liked the conversation about whitewashing and the musical theatre setting. Some of the banter was cute. If you want to read a book about the leads working on a musical and the mmc deciding if he wants to play the game or not, then I’d recommend it.