Snark and Stage Fright
Publisher: Swoon Romance
Release Date: 10/14/14
Synopsis:
Happily-ever-after isn’t as happy or forever as Jane Austen makes it look. Just something Georgia Barrett learns when her sharp tongue costs her the only guy she’s ever really cared about: Michael Endicott.
Determined to move on, Georgia lands the lead role in the school’s fall musical. But to survive on stage, she’ll need to learn to express herself without her protective shield of snark. She soon discovers being honest with others means being honest with herself, and the truth is she’s still in love with Michael.
But from the looks of Michael’s new girlfriend, Georgia isn’t the only one who tried to move on. Apparently, some people are just better at it than others. And when Michael and his girlfriend join the cast of the fall musical, Georgia finds out that snark and stage fright are the least of her worries…
You would think
that on a cloudless, picture-postcard-perfect summer day, lying on a raft
beside my boyfriend in his pool, I would be incapable of worry.
But I am good at
what I do.
Michael’s pool
is one of my favorite places in the world, because it looks like it was carved
out of the woods by nature herself, like a little lagoon accidentally popped up
in a New England backyard about a century ago. It’s very rocky and ferny and
surrounded by beautiful exotic plants, lush green and fuchsia and
orange-colored plants that shouldn’t thrive in Massachusetts but grow here like
the happiest transplants ever.
And a month ago,
on the night of the school prom, when I was one of the least happy transplants
to New England ever, Michael and I met here and finally admitted that we
actually really liked each other. It’s where he kissed me for the very first
time. So I should be luxuriating here on the raft with him, basking in the sun
and the enticing smells of chlorine and sunscreen, but I’m not.
I’m too busy
panicking because in a few days I am going to be spending a week at Michael’s
family’s summerhouse. Before I’d moved here to Longbourne a year ago, I’d never
even met someone who has a different house for different seasons. I don’t even
know what you wear at a summerhouse, but I tried to sound casual as I tugged at
my Target tankini and asked Michael, “So it’s your dad’s sister’s house, right?
And it’s on the beach?”
Michael nodded
and stirred the water with his fingers, making his own personal tiny tidal wave
and watching it crash against the side of the raft. One of the reasons I love
him is because he seems so serious on the outside but in private he does these
silly boyish things like making private tsunamis in the pool. And I have to
admit he looks really good wet, with his dark curls plastered to his head like
one of those statues of Apollo at a Greek temple, only with a tan, since he’s
been teaching little kids to swim every day at the YMCA in Netherfield.
“Are people going to be, like, walking around
in straw hats and white linen dresses all day, sipping smart cocktails and
playing croquet?” I asked.
Michael lifted
his sunglasses, revealing his now squinting dark eyes as a familiar smirk
tugged at the corner of his mouth.
“We’re going to
my aunt’s house on Cape Cod, George, not into a deleted scene from The Great
Gatsby.” He laughed. “We’ll drive there, and traffic might be a pain, but we
don’t require a time machine.”
I could tell he
was amused but a little of weary of my pre-travel angst. But summer family
get-togethers at my house involve rickety metal grills, inflatable pools for
the kids, and lots of potato salad. I’m not sure Michael understands I feel
about as comfortable walking into a weeklong celebration for his cousin Rose’s
wedding as I would be to crash-land on an island overrun by cannibals.
Cannibals wouldn’t care if I wore last season’s sandals or sipped out of the
finger bowl. They wouldn’t even have finger bowls.
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Stephanie Wardrop grew up in Reading, Pennsylvania, a town mostly famous for being a railroad card in Monopoly. After giving up on her childhood goal of becoming a pirate, she decided to become a writer but took a detour through lots of college and grad school and ended up teaching writing and British and American literature. She's the author of the Swoon Romance e-novella series Snark and Circumstance, based on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, and lives in western New England with her husband, kids, cats, and gecko.
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