Something Cheeky
A Novel
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- £1.99
Publisher Description
A steamy new rom-com from the popular author of Happy Endings and Full Exposure, where two friends get the opportunity to work together on their dream project—a Cinderella rock musical with an all-Asian cast—and discover that falling in love was the easy part…
“Lam is... the queen of sex-positive multiracial romance.” —Booklist
Zoe Tran is living her best life, designing plus-size lingerie at her own award-winning clothing boutique, when suddenly her college best friend reenters her life. Derek Bui is offering a tantalizing chance to recapture a forgotten dream: designing costumes for the musical they created together years ago.
Derek has loved Zoe since freshman year but never had the guts to confess his true feelings. Now he’s directing the Vietnamese Cinderella rock musical they dreamed up in college. The stakes are high: it’s the first production with an all-Asian cast and creative team at Washington, D.C.’s largest theatre and if they can make it work, they’ll head to Broadway. But his real goal: get Zoe back in his life.
A proud demisexual, Zoe only ever saw Derek as her best friend, but working on their dream production together brings them closer than ever. Sparks ignite under the hot spotlights. But when the theatre’s artistic director pressures Derek to make the musical “less Asian,” he and Zoe clash on whether to stay true to their vision or compromise to keep the production alive.
Will Zoe and Derek finally let love take center stage or will their creative differences close the curtains on them forever?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lam (Full Exposure) impresses in this bighearted and inclusive take on the friends-to-lovers trope. In college, Zoe Tran and Derek Bui were inseparable. They dreamed of taking the theatrical world by storm and increasing AAPI representation as a costume designer and a director, respectively. Together, they conceived of a musical adaptation of a traditional Vietnamese fairy tale—but then their friendship fell apart. Six years later, Zoe is the successful owner of a plus-size lingerie boutique, Something Cheeky, and Derek is a rising director. When he's offered the chance to debut the musical he initially dreamed of with Zoe, he refuses to do it without her. Despite lingering hurt on both sides, Zoe agrees to join his all-Asian production—but reentering the theater world brings back memories of the racist microaggressions and misogyny that made her walk away in the first place. Meanwhile, as they work together closely, demisexual Zoe's long-standing feelings for Derek become impossible to deny. But when a white artistic director pressures Derek to make the production "more palatable" to white audiences, he and Zoe clash over how to respond, and their new love may fizzle before it can fully flame. Lam moves the plot along at a rapid clip while balancing fun behind-the-scenes drama; sparky, sex-positive romance; and nuanced social commentary. This is a treat.
