About The Book:
Title: A Midsummer Night’s Fling
Series: Stage Kiss Series #1
Author: Beth Matthews
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Release Date: June 2014
After dating her childhood sweetheart Max on and off for years, aspiring actress Nicola Charles is finally ready to move on. It’s time for her to focus on her stage career and stay away from Max–before he can break her heart again.Max regrets hurting Nicola, but he wants another chance. So when his play loses its leading lady, giving Nicola the part seems like the perfect opportunity to win back his old flame.
But the course of true love—and a theater production—never do run smooth. As Max fights to reignite Nicola’s love, the onstage antics can’t rival the bedlam backstage: a neurotic cast, a prickly crew, and an evil diva of a director who’s got designs on Max.
As Nicola and Max battle to keep the drama onstage, Max can’t help wondering if their romance will end with the last performance. Or have the two of them finally captured what they’ve dreamed of all their lives? True Love.
A contemporary romance that should appeal to fans of the wry humor and playful sexiness in the works of Julie James and Victoria Dahl.
Excerpt:
Nicola leaned against Max, that big body radiating warmth. Something was poking at her back-brain. A thing she had to talk to him about. "I wanted to talk to you," she told him.
"Me too."
"They kept buying me drinks, though."
"I saw that." He clicked his key ring, unlocking his SUV, then he popped the door open for her. When she hesitated, he put his hands on her waist and hoisted her up onto the front seat.
Her stomach swooped and she clasped his wrists, keeping his hands pinned to her waist.
Romeo & Juliet kept running through her head. Ridiculously. Incessantly. Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night . . . Romeo leap to these arms, untalk'd of and unseen . . . "Max."
The line of his jaw stood out strong beneath the scruff of his beard. She traced the muscles, there, the bone. An insistent thrumming had started inside her, like a guitar string vibrating after it's been plucked. Each heartbeat seemed to come slowly, and too far apart. "Max?"
He covered her hand, holding it against his skin, but he was shaking his head. "You're drunk, honey. We'll talk in the morning."
He pulled away and slammed the car door shut, closing her in, shutting himself out. Max waited outside, his hands shoved in his pockets, shoulders stiff as he faced the pub, as if he couldn't even look at Nicola.
She sat in the car and watched him, trying to lift her brain out of its boozy lethargy.
Her breath fogged the window glass, and she sketched her fingers through it, making nonsense shapes. Her heart was still pounding, blood popping through her veins with little fireworks of feeling. Max. Max. Max.
Yes, she was drunk tonight, and confused, and suddenly very scared. But, like her finger streaking against the cool glass, cutting clear lines through the fog, she sensed a new clarity within herself. A truth. She wanted Max. Wanted to touch him, be with him.
She'd wanted that for weeks, ever since she'd opened the door and saw him on her doorstep again. Nobody else caused this riot inside her. Nobody else would do.
Nicola hunched into her seat, hugging herself, and tried to swallow the lump in her throat. What am I going to do?
"Me too."
"They kept buying me drinks, though."
"I saw that." He clicked his key ring, unlocking his SUV, then he popped the door open for her. When she hesitated, he put his hands on her waist and hoisted her up onto the front seat.
Her stomach swooped and she clasped his wrists, keeping his hands pinned to her waist.
Romeo & Juliet kept running through her head. Ridiculously. Incessantly. Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night . . . Romeo leap to these arms, untalk'd of and unseen . . . "Max."
The line of his jaw stood out strong beneath the scruff of his beard. She traced the muscles, there, the bone. An insistent thrumming had started inside her, like a guitar string vibrating after it's been plucked. Each heartbeat seemed to come slowly, and too far apart. "Max?"
He covered her hand, holding it against his skin, but he was shaking his head. "You're drunk, honey. We'll talk in the morning."
He pulled away and slammed the car door shut, closing her in, shutting himself out. Max waited outside, his hands shoved in his pockets, shoulders stiff as he faced the pub, as if he couldn't even look at Nicola.
She sat in the car and watched him, trying to lift her brain out of its boozy lethargy.
Her breath fogged the window glass, and she sketched her fingers through it, making nonsense shapes. Her heart was still pounding, blood popping through her veins with little fireworks of feeling. Max. Max. Max.
Yes, she was drunk tonight, and confused, and suddenly very scared. But, like her finger streaking against the cool glass, cutting clear lines through the fog, she sensed a new clarity within herself. A truth. She wanted Max. Wanted to touch him, be with him.
She'd wanted that for weeks, ever since she'd opened the door and saw him on her doorstep again. Nobody else caused this riot inside her. Nobody else would do.
Nicola hunched into her seat, hugging herself, and tried to swallow the lump in her throat. What am I going to do?
Top 5 Reunited Lovers
Since my book A Midsummer Night's Fling is about a pair of reunited lovers (they were sweethearts in high school and college), I thought it would be fun to talk about my Top 5 Reunited Lovers of All Time.
5. Fred and Lily from Kiss Me Kate
"Deceive me, desert me, I'm yours 'til I die…so in love with you am I."
My favorite musical and my favorite feuding lovers. I grew up watching the 1950s version with Howard Keel. These two are immature, tempestuous, spoiled, and perfect for each other. You certainly wouldn't wish them on anyone else.
4. Navarre and Isabeau from Ladyhawke
"Do you know that hawks and wolves mate for life? The Bishop didn't even leave us that... not even that."
One of my favorite movies as a teenager. The curse on these two is so poignant: "always together, eternally apart." She's cursed to be a hawk during the day; he's cursed to be a wolf during the night. When they're finally together again as humans in the end it makes me cry. Every. Time.
3. Captain Wentworth & Anne Elliot from Persuasion by Jane Austen
"You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone forever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago."
The classic example of lovers reunited. The yardstick, perhaps, by which we measure all other reunion stories? I know it's pretty darn hard to top Wentworth's love letter to Anne quoted above.
2. Logan and Veronica (LoVe) from the Veronica Mars TV show and movie
"I thought our story was epic, you know, you and me…Spanning years and continents. Lives ruined, bloodshed. EPIC."
These guys are probably so near the top because I love them so much together, and I ended up waiting for their reunion in real time. Seven years! When the TV show was cancelled they were still broken up. I gnashed my teeth at that injustice but, luckily, **SPOILER ALERT** earlier this year LoVe got the reunion they deserved in a super romantic scene from the Veronica Mars movie. Yay! No more waiting!
1. Westley & Buttercup from The Princess Bride
"Death cannot stop True Love; all it can do is delay it for a little while."
Can anything top this line? Really? Westley braves pirates, kidnappers, evil princes, and all the dangers of the Fire Swamp to reunite with his true love. And, once they finally are back together, their kiss is certified as the Best Kiss Ever. And that's one of many reasons why this is my favorite reunited lovers story of all time.
Honorable Mentions:
*Allie and Noah from The Notebook (the kissing in the rain scene!)
*Charming and Snow from Once Upon a Time TV show ("I will find you. I will always find you.")
Well, I listed mine, your turn now. Who are some of your favorite reunited lovers? Who do you think should have made the list? :)
About The Author:
Beth Matthews is a California girl, born and raised. She’s a total geek, a movie buff, and a mediocre swing dancer. She lives in sunny SoCal with her boyfriend and two of the neediest housecats on the planet.
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