Summer Stock
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4.5 • 29 Ratings
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- $3.99
Publisher Description
Tabloid scandals have driven TV star Ryan Hertzog to North Carolina's Outer Banks, where he's hiding out doing summer stock at his cousin's seaside theater. When a hookup with local handyman Trey Donovan results in Ryan being photographed butt naked, he vows to keep his pants on and his hands off Trey. How was he supposed to know Trey would turn out to be the summer stock set builder?
Trey isn't looking for a relationship; he's still recovering from the emotional fallout of an abusive marriage. But Ryan's laughter draws him in again and again, and he's not about to say no to fooling around.
As the summer heats up, the paparazzi catch Ryan in increasingly compromising situations. Ryan might be too much drama for a summer fling—and Trey might be just an intermission from Ryan's Hollywood life. But if they take their cues from Shakespeare, all's well that ends well.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This novel is lightened by its hometown theater festival setting and grounded by the difficult issues in the protagonists' backgrounds, but marred by a stereotyped superficiality around their ways of coping. Actor Ryan Hertzog, seeking an escape after too much bad press for Hollywood wildness, goes to North Carolina to perform in his cousin's summer stock troupe under an assumed name. Show tech Trey Donovan can't believe his luck in maintaining Ryan's interest after the margaritas wear off. But Trey behaves erratically as he processes the trauma and guilt that come up in his first attempt to date after being abused by a partner, and Ryan has some career decisions to make about coming out, as the paparazzi have a field day after catching the men together. Sweet sex scenes communicate desire and connection, and North (Roller Girl) does well by the community with her portrayal of Ryan, a bisexual man who has a deep nonsexual friendship with a woman and an unapologetic romantic connection to a man. That said, her storytelling style feels targeted to female readers rather than to bi and gay men hoping to see themselves in a romance.
