Tuesday, November 9, 2021

Books I've Read: As If On Cue



This was a quick, fun read that I raced through in a single afternoon without a single regret.

Natalie and Reid have been rivals since they were kids and both started taking clarinet lessons with Natalie's music teacher father.  What started out being a way for Natalie to connect with her dad, became a fierce competition once Reid came on the scene.  By middle school, the competitiveness moved beyond just their playing and began wrecking havoc with both their lives.

Now, in their final year of high school, Natalie has given up playing the clarinet in favour of writing plays.  She has a new group of theatre friends and only sees Reid when he shows up for his clarinet lessons.  When the school's administration cancels all but one of the school's arts-based extra-curriculars as a means to save money, Natalie is devastated.  Her dreams are crushed, yet Reid's competition-winning band still gets to play.

To try and get to Reid, Natalie re-starts a years'-old prank war, but the pranks go beyond harmless and to atone for their sins, Reid and Natalie are forced to work together, to rewrite Natalie's play as a musical that will utilise the talents of both the theatre crew and the band.  With the two of them as co-directors.

With no idea how to get along with each other, let alone how to work together, it is inevitable that sparks fly.  Yet they are not the sparks either one of them might have expected and suddenly the pair find themselves trying to navigate new feelings for one another at the same time as they navigate the challenges of staging a musical that will sell out and save the arts programmes they both love so much.

As an ex-theatre and music kid myself, I loved the world of this book and the passion both characters had for their respective arts.  They are both driven and creative and the kid of kids you just know will succeed.  I have to say, I found Natalie a little much at times.  She was so single-minded and certain that her own point of view was the right one that she became quite unlikable at times.  And she does something toward the end of the book that is difficult to forgive her for.  

But despite my reservations about Natalie and her (lack of) personal growth and self-awareness, I still enjoyed this book.  It made me want to do theatre again.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

A pair of fierce foes are forced to work together to save the arts at their school in this swoony YA enemies-to-lovers romance that fans of Jenny Han and Morgan Matson are sure to adore.

Lifelong rivals Natalie and Reid have never been on the same team. So when their school’s art budget faces cutbacks, of course Natalie finds herself up against her nemesis once more. She’s fighting to direct the school’s first ever student-written play, but for her small production to get funding, the school’s award-winning band will have to lose it. Reid’s band. And he’s got no intention of letting the show go on.

But when their rivalry turns into an all-out prank war that goes too far, Natalie and Reid have to face the music, resulting in the worst compromise: writing and directing a musical. Together. At least if they deliver a sold-out show, the school board will reconsider next year’s band and theater budget. Everyone could win.

Except Natalie and Reid.

Because after spending their entire lives in competition, they have absolutely no idea how to be co-anything. And they certainly don’t know how to deal with the feelings that are inexplicably, weirdly, definitely developing between them…

2 comments:

  1. It causes me physical pain to read about a school cutting arts programs.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I was a band and theater kid in school (who played clarinet, of all things). Sounds like a fun read. Except for the part where the school cuts arts programs.

    Curious what Natalie does, too...

    ReplyDelete