by Jen Calonita
First published 2011
Kaitlin Burke has spent her life in front of cameras, but this summer she trades the Hollywood lot for a Broadway stage. She lands in New York City with her whole circus in tow: her showbiz family, her friends, her assistant, and her publicist. Her boyfriend Austin stays behind, and that gap starts to widen almost immediately. Kaitlin gets the full New York treatment. She hits the city's most exclusive clubs, lines up at Magnolia Bakery, and lands a guest hosting spot on Saturday Night Live. The debut goes well. The attention is intoxicating. But Broadway has its own ecosystem of competition and ego, and the divas Kaitlin meets there make Hollywood starlets look easygoing by comparison. A charming new costar keeps showing up at exactly the wrong moments. Austin is far away and getting harder to reach. Kaitlin has to figure out whether she can hold her relationship together across the distance, survive the backstage politics of a Broadway production, and still perform eight shows a week. The city rewards her with everything she wanted and then asks what she is willing to give up to keep it.
Genres: fiction, drama, contemporary, comedy, contemporary-romance, new-adult
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, glamorous, introspective, witty
Tropes: career-vs-love, fish-out-of-water, long-distance-romance, love-triangle
Setting: New York City, Broadway, Hollywood, Magnolia Bakery
Period: Summer, 21st-century
353 pages · Paperback · Poppy