One thing that Elissa Sussman is fantastic at is writing second chance romance. I am not the biggest fan of second chance, but she does it right everytime. This story was heartwarming and sweet, but had the perfect addition of drama from Kathleen, Cal & Harriett’s past and how it affected their futures.

I didn’t really feel connection with Kathleen, but I enjoyed this story overall. The plot, tropes, and drama made for quite an interesting story. I also really enjoyed that we got an interchanging timeline between Kathleen’s childhood and her adulthood. All the plot points tied together well!

Overview:
- second chance
- childhood friends to lovers to enemies to lovers
- Jewish fmc
- boss/employee
- forced proximity
- celebrity romance

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House, Dell, Ballantine Publishing and Elissa Sussman for the eARC of Once More With Feeling in exchange for an honest review! Available on May 30th!

DNF at 50%. I really loved Funny You Should Ask and was excited for Once More With Feeling. I was also excited when I saw the FMC named Kathleen which is my name and I don’t see it much in romances! Unfortunately, this one was a miss for me.

I was intrigued by the premise but unfortunately I really don’t like Katee/Kathleen much in either timeline. I think she’s very selfish and doesn’t do a good job of thinking about the people she supposedly cares about the most. Eventually I realized I really wasn’t rooting for the romance here and decided it was time for me to stop. I’m also not a big fan of second chance romance so maybe this one just wasn’t for me. I’m still excited to see what Sussman writes next.

Thank you to the publisher, PRH Audio and Netgalley for the advance reading and listening copies.

Elissa Sussman writes deeply flawed characters. I had a big soft spot for Cal but every other character was hard to root for. Kathleen was unnecessarily combative and difficult. Harriet was fine for most of the story, but heavy handed foreshadowing let me know not all was well on that front, and her and Kathleen’s fight did NOT seem like something to just hug and move on from so I found everything about that off-putting. The sweet moments with Kathleen and Cal kept me going, but there just aren’t enough in the story to redeem it. The declaration of love at the ending and the surprise associated with that was maybe my favorite part of the entire book, but it felt a bit rushed. Don’t get me wrong, this was an easy and entertaining book to read. But I found myself feeling anxious and uncomfortable for 99% of it because there weren’t many bright spots and that’s not how I like to feel when I’m reading. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC to review!

Thank you so much to Random House for an advance copy of this!
Thank you so much to PRH Audio for a complimentary copy of the audio!

Elissa Sussman became an auto buy author after I devoured & loved Funny You Should Ask. So when she announced that her next book was going to be another Hollywood/celebrity romance, I was THRILLED!

"You belong up there. You belong where everyone can see you. And hear you."

This book takes place in present time with glimpses of two past timelines - one as teengers at camp, one during the peak of fame. The timelines were not confusing and I was able to following along pretty seamlessly. Had I only done the audio, I think it could have been a little confusing until you got use to the format.

Going into this after reading the very first mixed media blurb, I definitely thought the romance was going to be between Katee Rose (pop stage name) & Ryan her ex boyband boyfriend and not Cal (who she cheated on her boyfriend with). It was pretty clear while reading that Katee Rose and Ryan were not meant to be together and it may have started as a real relationship but turned into more of a PR relationship. Ryan was meant to be a celebrity and craved the attention and in the end it worked for him. Katee didn't need all that and didn't want that.

I love that we got to see the very beginning of the friendship between Cal & Kathleen when they met as teens at camp. What also worked for me is that both Cal and Kathleen knew what each other went through being in their own respected spotlight. Cal knew the pain that Kathleen went through with her fall from the spotlight. Cal was Kathleen's cheerleader then as well as now and knew how to push her. He knows what she is capable of even when she felt like she couldn't do it.

I do not condone cheating on a partner regardless of the situation so that was a bummer BUT this is a fictional world and it went with the storyline so I am going to let it slide. Because guess what, in real life cheating does happen and does happen in the celeb world.

"The show is going to make you a star. If you let it."

I flew through this book because I was just so invested in Kathleen & Cal's relationship. I wanted to see them figured things out as adults as opposed to when they were teenagers and young adults in the spotlight. I also was really invested in Kathleen's "comeback" as a Broadway performer and wanted her to win. To show that she always has been talented & that no time away from the spotlight could change that.

I thought Kathleen's relationship with her best friend Harriet was also interesting. There is a conflict at towards the end where points were made and I was proud of both of them for sticking up for themselves and work things out. I am going to try to be as vague as I can about something that does happen at the end and once you read, it may make more sense. I do wish that Harriet reached out to Cal and apologize for meddling. One thing that Sussman wrote into the story is something that I have heard time and time again from solo pop acts vs those in a group, Katee didn't have someone to go through the fame where as the boy band members had each other. Katee had Harriet to be there with her.

"People really don't forgive, do they?"
"When you cheat on your beloved boy band boyfriend? No, they really don't."

Kathleen Rose is the future I wished for Britney Spears compared to the reality. The media continues to treat female performers horribly and unfortunately Britney took a lot of the brunt of it and continues to take the hits. I love pop culture and love the celebrity world but I would never want to be in the spotlight. It takes a very strong individual to have your life under a microscope & to have everything about you picked apart. No, thank you.

I did primarily of the reading on my ebook but I did also have access to the audio and listen to sections of it. I thought narrator Jaime Lamchick did a wonderful job with Kathleen and all the other characters in the book.

You'll love this book if you were a fan of the Britney/Justin drama of the early aughts, second chance romance, musical theater, past & present timeline.

PS - The happiness I felt inside me when Grease 2 was mention!

PSS - I apologize if this review is disjointed & rambly. I just have so many thoughts and very passionate about the pop star world especially being a tween during the peak time of boy bands & female pop stars where they were my life.

4.5

This one is for my fellow theatre kids!

Once More with Feeling follows Kathleen, former pop icon known for her sex appeal and for breaking the heart of her boyband boyfriend by cheating on him with Cal ,his bandmate and her longtime friend and teenage crush. Of course there is so much more to the story than what the tabloids report on. Now years after being forced out of the spotlight, Kathleen is ready to perform again and follow her original dream of being on Broadway with her best friend as the composer of a new original musical. The only problem is Cal is the director. Now the two of them have to learn how to work together while healing their relationship a their own personal traumas of being in the spotlight starting at such a young age.

I absolutely fell in love with this story and these characters. Both Kathleen and Cal are so messy and so real. Told in duel timeline, single pov we see how their relationship has developed starting as teenagers in a summer camp together to their peak fame as pop icons to present time of them as adults. The tension between the two of them had me literally holding my breath at times and while the spice scenes are light they are so well written to the point where one line made me almost fall out of my chair. I also appreciated the discussion around the difference of how female vs male celebrities are treated by the media and how being exposed to the public at such a young age and so frequently really affects their mental health. Not only do we see Kathleen deal with that media attention but she also has to deal with a record label that forces her into a certain image that totally erases who she is and especially her Jewishness. It was honestly so refreshing to read a book that addresses that pressure and the trauma it causes while still having such a believable and complex romance romance as the central plot.

I am thrilled to fall in love with another Elissa Sussman book and I cannot wait to see what she comes out with next.

I had high hopes when I saw this on NetGalley and I thought "Funny You Shoulder Ask' was great. But there's just something lacking in this story... maybe I couldn't get over the cheating storyline, but I wasn't invested in Kathleen and Cal.

I would have LOVED more of Harriet and Kathleen's friendship though!

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This sophomore novel by Elissa Sussman was exactly what I needed to get me out of a reading slump. This one is for theater and musical nerds. Told in a similar set up as Funny You Should Ask, we follow Kathleen and Cal who are clearly smitten with each other, but something in the past has kept them separate.

Kathleen and Cal are former teen pop stars who toured together. Something pushes them together that then pulls them apart in their past. Now, Kathleen is asked to star in a musical directed by Cal and obviously (this is a romance novel) their love comes back.

This has a fun setting of Broadway. It made me think of the show Bombshell, as most of the present day plot is set in getting this show developed for the stage. The past setting is on a pop tour. I personally pictured an NSYNC, Britney tour from the early 2000s. Seriously, so much fun.

This gets a 3.75 star from me. There were parts that drug and I didn’t totally connect with Kathleen or Cal, but it was a reading slump buster which is enough for me!

I 100% asked for this book because of the cover, which I think is so beautiful I will definitely buy a hardcopy once it's released. I loved the cat, Fish, and wanted more of her, and I think I worried about her during the snow storm scene more than Kathleen did, honestly. I loved the Broadway background of the book and absolutely was about to suspend belief for the timeline of the show going from workshop to Broadway in like a few weeks, and I loved all the Broadway references as well. Kathleen as a character was well written and flawed but relatable because of her fluctuating confidence definitely caused by *trauma* and her various insecurities. I loved Harriet and wished we got a little but more from her, but I absolutely understood where her anger and frustration towards Kathleen came from and loved that they were able to work through it realistically. The relationship with Ryan was also realistic but I don't think it was emphasized enough how much he manipulated and used Katee Rose. I liked Cal but he definitely got away with how he treated Katee Rose too easily, and while I realize that she made mistakes, I feel like she was the only one to atone for them. The book is a little bit of a slow burn with one spicyesque scene, but the romantic tension is to die for. I did find the ending a little unsatisfying because, like I said earlier, Kathleen was the only one to really atone for what happened, Cal apologized once to her and it was considered good enough, when it super was not. Honestly, Cal should have been the one to give an interview about how he helped ruin her career, but we didn't really get that. Overall a great read, but I didn't feel any closure for the past between Kathleen and Cal.

I have had this book on preorder since December, 2022!

What can I say I will read whatever Sussman publishes, as again this a 5-star read. This book fed my obsession, enemies to lovers / second-chance. This love story explodes with pent-up desires and emotions.

Kathleen is a difficult character to love. She's a pop Diva, runs her mouth and is completely unforgiving. Often times throughout the story, she was unbearably cruel just to be cruel. But then her layers begin to peel back, and you see the "why" she's so guarded and afraid.

Kathleen and Cal's love story is years in the making. Its sincere, emotional and heartwarming.

Once More with Feeling is an sddictive read.

Thank you Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Dell for the complimentary e-book copy of this novel.

Enjoyed this a lot more than Sussman's debut! It picked up much faster and the dynamic between the characters was much more interesting. However, there wasn't much character development in either of our main characters by the end of the book. I found the ending a bit unfulfilling and the decisions made, particularly by Kathleen, felt a bit impulsive and self-sabotage-y. Their HEAs is a bit messy, but made sense for the past history.. Wanted just a bit more from this, but I did enjoy it! Quick and fast read.

While I love a book with dueling timelines, I struggled to connect with these characters. Perhaps if I had been a theater kid I might have been drawn into their story a bit more. Ryan certainly comes across as the villain, but I didn't feel that Kathleen, Harriet or Cal had the depth I wanted to see. The build to the romance also felt slow and lacked the cute coming around I normally like in an enemies to lovers trope.

Giving this book three stars because it was a light and entertaining read, and is still a good escape for the summer with a summer camp theme.

This book releases May 30. Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is a fun romance, great for fans of musical theater especially. We see Cal and Kathleen/Katee in three different timelines - as teens at camp, as young adults during the pop careers and tour, and as adults as they work to bring a musical to Broadway. By just a bit, the majority of the book is "now" as adults, but the flashbacks to the other two timelines add depth and understanding to their history with each other and their feelings. This is beyond a second chance, as they start the "now" hating each other over how they hurt each other 10 years before and destroyed her career.

2 stars

As a theatre kid named Kathleen, this book felt at first glance like it was written for me. The theatre camp flashbacks, the putting together of a Broadway show, and the many references to Broadway shows had my musical loving heart on cloud nine.

It's too bad that I didn't have any emotional connection with the romance.

I don't know if it was the three timelines or the lack of characterization or Sussman's writing style itself, but I truly didn't care about either of these characters getting together. I felt like I was constantly being told that they were meant to be and that they had gone through these insane trials to find their happily ever after, but I never felt like the emotional depths of their story were really fleshed out with the connective tissue necessary to bring all of the disparate aspects of the plot together.

Great concept, but not the best execution for me in the end.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dell for an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review!

This isn't the worst thing I've ever read but it's also not good. I was clearly supposed to be feeling something for the romance but I just didn't feel the chemistry. I also found Kathleen to be a bit annoying. I understood where she was coming from but it was like she never thought out any of her interactions.

I received an arc through netgalley.

Kathleen used to be known as Katie Rose, the pop star that broke her boy band boyfriend's heart by cheating on him with his bandmate, Cal. Now, she's the Broadway hopeful who has to make it through workshop, out of town, and show openings staring in her best friend's musical. The only problem? Cal is the director.

I loved this book! There is honestly so much to love that I've already been gushing about it to anyone who will listen!

Kathleen is deadpan, sarcastic, and openly honest with her opinions. I adored that. Her one-liners had me giggling. But underneath all of that, she has this vulnerability that was great to see on her journey.

Cal is a new book boyfriend, for sure. He is driven and kind. The way he loves Kathleen made my heart swoon!

The best of the rest:
I loved the musical background to this! Seeing how the theater works, with all the ins and outs of getting a show together was super cool.

The past chapters, when you get to see the pop star side of this story, were also really interesting. It made me wonder what people will do to keep fame.

This is definitely one to pick up! The spice is light but you have a pretty good scene to look forward to!

-Second chance
-Past and present chapters

Aaaah, I absolutely loved this book. It was just so good, and I got so incredibly invested in it. I mean, I probably got a bit too invested in it but what are you going to do about it. Anyway, I was so completely hooked by this book from the very first page and it completely did not let it go. I loved how it was told in two timelines. The flashbacks to the past were perfectly included in this book. It had great parallels to the present storyline as well. I really loved the setting of this book as well, the Broadway stuff in the present, as well as the popstar stuff in the past. I have always liked celebrity romances but I really loved how it was executed in this book. It's also friends (to lovers) to enemies to lovers, which is one of my favourite tropes as well and it was fantastically done as well. I also just really liked the characters, and the way the romance was developed as well. Ugh, I just loved everything about this book and I don't know how to put it into words. Just know I'm obsessed.

I really enjoyed this second chance romance for Katee (aka Kathleen) and Cal. We get to see different timelines (both past and present) and that really brought the story home for me. It also allowed us to see both of them and their growth over the years.

My favorite part of this book was its portrayal of female celebrities and the way it affects their mental health specifically. Kathleen’s fall from grace was plastered all over the media and she wasn’t able to just ignore it - it took a lot for her to overcome and I loved where she ended up in her life.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I love that this is similar to the funny you should ask cover...I'm definitely a 'judge a book by its cover' person. Such a cute story!

Reading this novel felt a little like traveling back in time to my youth. It’s got major Britney Spears/Justin Timberlake/NSYNC/Wade Robson vibes and enjoyed every second of it. This was my first Sussman novel (although I own her first I haven’t read it year) and I enjoyed her conversational style of writing. I think she made the characters interesting—flawed, but mostly likable. The familiarity with similar celebrity drama and it’s repercussions I think added to how I felt about the leading characters. Still, I really like how much she delved into the leading lady’s psyche and the ups and downs of the whole experience. Obviously I loved all the little Jewish details. I’ve already recommended to a couple of people who I know will enjoy it as much as I did!

Unfortunately this is one that I DNF. I was disappointed that I could not reqlly get into/invested with this book like I did with the author’s first book.