Romeo and What’s Her Name
Shani Petroff
Published by: Swoon Reads
Publication date: February 7th 2017
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult

Understudies never get to perform

. . . which is why being Juliet’s understudy in the school’s yearly “Evening with Shakespeare” is the perfect role for Emily. She can earn some much-needed extra credit while pursuing her main goal of spending time with Wes, aka Romeo, aka the hottest, nicest guy in school (in her completely unbiased opinion). And she meant to learn her lines, really, it’s just:
a) Shakespeare is HARD,
b) Amanda, aka the “real” Juliet, makes her run errands instead of lines, and
c) there’s no point because Amanda would never miss the chance to be the star of the show.

Then, Amanda ends up in the hospital and Emily, as the (completely unprepared!) understudy, has to star opposite the guy of her dreams. Oops?

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EXCERPT:

 

I stood there like a lump, waiting for my line. Finally, I turned toward Kayla and repeated, “I said, LOUDER-ETH.”

 

She fed me the line again. Supercrazy loud this time. “I would not for the world.”

It was so loud, the crowd heard it and started to laugh. Not the snickers from before, but those evil, full belly laughs people get when watching home videos of someone getting kicked in the groin. Wes was going to hate me for putting him through this. This torture needed to end.

 

“Methinks,” I said, “I could use-eth a book-eth.” Come on, Kayla. Take the hint. “You know-eth. A BOOK-ETH where-est I can recite-eth beauteous words to thee . . . thou . . . whatever. I NEED THE BOOK-ETH.”

 

As I was shouting that last book-eth, I got my wish. The script came sailing from off stage left and hit me in the back of the head. “Ow,” I unintentionally yelled, to the delight of the crowd. It weighed a ton.

 

“Sorry,” Kayla whispered. “My bad.”

 

I didn’t care. I’d get over the pain faster than the embarrassment I was suffering. I was just happy to have the script. At least I was until I realized Kayla hadn’t bookmarked the page I needed. It was the complete works of Shakespeare. There was no way I would find the right page. Not to mention that since the book was with me, Kayla couldn’t even feed me lines anymore. R&J wasn’t a tragedy. My life was.

 

I was so flunking English.

 

“Would thou like some help, my sweet Juliet?”

 

Did Wes just call me sweet? I swung around to face him, but I wasn’t paying attention to where I was stepping and my foot went right off the balcony. Wes lunged forward to catch me, but why would anything go right for me? So instead of Wes stopping me from hitting the floor, I took him down with me.

 

I was lying on top of Wes Rosenthal. Only, this was not like any of my daydreams. This was mortifying. I rolled off him and jumped up. “Are you okay?” I was visibly shaking.

Wes stood up, too. “Don’t worry-eth, Juliet,” he said without any anger in his voice. He even smiled at me. For a second I thought that meant he didn’t hate me for the craziness I was causing. But then I remembered he was acting. He actually took what he was doing seriously, and right now his part called for him to be in love with Juliet.

Wes said some line I assumed was to get us back on track. But I had no response. I couldn’t take it anymore. The laughter of the audience. The panic coursing through my body. The thought of making Wes suffer more. It needed to end.

 

So I did the only thing I could think of—something super Elizabethan. I put the back of my and to my forehead, pretended to swoon, and let my whole body fall back to the ground with a loud thump.

 

“I am so sorry-eth, Romeo.”

 

“It’s okay.” He sat down on the ground next to me and took my hand. I felt little sparks fly through me.

 

I shook my head. I couldn’t let him go through this anymore. “No, I know how-eth this play end-eth. I think I shall stab-eth myself now to save-eth us both.”

 

“Finally,” someone in the audience yelled out.

 

I picked up an imaginary dagger and began to plunge it into my heart.

 

“No,” Wes said, stopping me before I committed imaginary suicide. “Our story is not over yet. So let’s just say, ‘Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night ‘til it be morrow.’”

 

I was pretty sure that was supposed to be my line. But I decided I probably shouldn’t point that out. Then he stood up and walked off the stage.

 

After a moment, someone finally took mercy on me and brought the stage lights down.

The scene was over. But I knew all too well that my embarrassment was just beginning.

 

 

Author Bio:

 

Shani Petroff is a writer living in New York City. She's the author of the “Bedeviled” series, which includes Daddy’s Little Angel, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Dress, Careful What You Wish For, and Love Struck, and is the co-author of the "Destined" series which includes Ash and Ultraviolet. She also writes for television news programs and several other venues. When she’s not locked in her apartment typing away, she spends a whole lot of time on books, boys, TV, daydreaming, and shopping online.

 

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Just started my third David Nicholls and I'm already enjoying it. It's based on Stephen C McQueen, a struggling actor. I love this author's conversational tone and how he makes the mundane funny and interesting.

So honestly, I kinda expected this to be totally cute and fluffy - all about the romance kinda book.
But Understudy wasn't really what I'd expected.
As I started,  I wasn't really impressed with two things: Wren the protagonist, the entire story is told from her POV and also the writing style - it seemed kinda simplistic.
BUT the story line kept me going. While it is angsty, a wee bit predictable (ok quite a lot predictable) it also was funny, entertaining and captivating. So much so that when I got to the end of the book, I was a bit well, disappointed, cause I wanted more.
I am really glad I kept going, despite the fact that I wanted to throw something at Wren for probably the first third of the book, then just screamed at her in fury for the second third, She grew on me and I totally routed for her in the last third. I think my reactions mirror Young's surprisingly well thought out character building. And let me tell you, the characters ALL evolved and changed, Wren grew so much that, after reading the book, I not only liked her, I also remembered doing stupid stuff when I was her age. She seriously came bound and heaps from being Miss opinionated judgment to just trying to be herself, find herself and trying to see others for who they are.
So I really didn't care for Wren. But I cared even less for her friends. Gosh, I just couldn't believe she would actually call people like that her friends. Everything they did, was judge others and make sure they looked good in front of others.
Then there was Derek. Seriously, I totally fell for him from the word go. Totally cute, mysterious- a tad bit bad and more importantly really nice, loyal and fun.

He scoops up a handful of Skittles, drops the green and yellow ones in the small pile and puts the rest in his mouth. “Why are you doing that?” I ask. “I don’t like those colors.”

See what I mean? I mean, who doesn't love a hot, easy going dude that knows what he likes?
I wish there were more scenes with him, since those were my favorite.  But often Young just referenced that Wren and Derek had spent time together- so I got not enough fun flirting or witty banter from them for my taste. While I wish I would have had more romance more cute more fluffy, I think if I wouldn't have expected that, I would have been ok with how things are now. Then again, this is pretty short, so it wouldn't have hurt to have more cute and fluffy - especially since Derek is just fabulous.

At first I was not very sure about the writing style. It is to a degree quite straight forward and it felt a bit simple, especially since the MC was actually quite on the bitchy side.
as example:


The only other stagehand is absent today. And I probably wouldn’t have asked him anyhow, because he breathes loudly and always stares down my shirt.


But then Young slowly changed Wren's perceptions and with that her voice and suddenly there were sentences that hit home, suddenly I could relate to Wren.

Why is it that when the perfect guy for me comes along, he’s riddled with imperfections?

I’m not even sure what my point is, but I hope Derek got it anyhow.

The writing style is straight forward. Simply the voice of Wren: snarky, funny, angsty and straight forward.  I think it actually worked well with the entire setting up of the book.

Probably the most surprising thing about this book was how well thought out it actually is. After reading it, letting it sink in for a bit, taking a step back of it all... I realised that Young crafted this rather cleverly. It's a deceivingly simple story at first glance. But as one reads, totally side tracked by the humor in it, suddenly one gets drawn in, subtly pointing at deeper issues. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a deep thought provoking book, no. But also while I thought at first glance this is a bit of a "TV series" book it offers more than what one sees at first glance.
My biggest issue- it was too short for my opinion. I think that if Young would have fleshed out a few more scenes- rather than just mentioning that they had happened- this would have been a really great book.
Still a fun read, great character building, fabulous snarky humor and more to it then one would think at first glance. I am definitely looking forward to reading more from Young.

Early drivel from the man who will evntually pen the excellent One DayThe Understudy by David Nicholls Read By Tristan LaytonSource CDDuration 9 Hours 30 Minutesblurberoonies - Steve C. McQueen’s only screen credits are playing dead bodies on cop and doctor shows, and now he's paying the rent by understudying movie sex symbol Josh Harper, who’s trying to gain dramatic credibility in a West End play. If only Josh would miss a performance, Stephen could get his big break, prove his talent, and redeem himself in the eyes of his disapproving ex-wife and their precocious seven-year-old daughter. Stephen gets his chance when he stumbles on a secret that puts Josh in his debt. It's an extremely sticky situation, made all the stickier by Stephen’s growing relationship with Josh’s wife. Stephen is about to discover how good an actor he really is.The authorDavid Nicholls's TV credits include the third series of Cold Feet, Rescue Me, and I Saw You. He was co-writer for the film adaptation of Simpatico, which starred Nick Nolte, Jeff Bridges and Sharon Stone. STARTER FOR TEN was a Richard and Judy Book Club bestseller in 2004, and David has written the screenplays for forthcoming film versions of both STARTER FOR TEN and THE UNDERSTUDY. Most recently, David wrote a modern version of Much Ado About Nothing for BBC TV, as part of a Shakespeare season which screened in 2005.The NarratorTRISTAN LAYTON has performed in plays in London and New York and served as a television host. He's done voice work for documentaries as well as for television and radio commercials. Tristan's audiobook credits include reading Ross King’s The Judgment of Paris, Sebastian Faulks's Devil May Care, and David Nicholls's The Understudy. Known as “The Master of Accents,” Tristan currently lives in New York.

Although Stephen is older than Brian, the main char­ac­ter in Nicholls’ pre­vi­ous book Starter for ten, the theme is the same: not really know­ing your­self and what you want out of life, then going through a rough and decid­ing time and com­ing out a bet­ter per­son.
And that is pre­cisely what I didn’t like about the book: a typ­i­cal com­ing of age novel shouldn’t be about a man in his thir­ties. You know how it is — the intox­i­cat­ing aphro­disiac that is fail­ure.’ ‘It’s not fail­ure. It’s post­poned suc­cess. We’re just late devel­op­ers, you and me. Well, that may be, but still, a man that just went with his life as it came with no ques­tions about this world and him­self I can believe when he is just out on his own (like Brian), with Stephen I had a hard time not to declare him a loser and lost case.
That said, it was a fun read, lots of humor and weird situations.