Title: Overly Dramatic
Series: Treading the Boards 01
Author: Rebecca Cohen
Genre: Contemporary, Arts
Length: Novella (131 pages)
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (19th August 2015)
Heat Level: Moderate
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥ 3.5 Hearts
Blurb: Andy Marshall moves to London looking for a fresh start after breaking up with his long-term boyfriend. To stave off boredom from his day job as an accountant and to meet new people, Andy joins a local amateur dramatics society called the Sarky Players based in Greenwich, South London. Despite his best efforts to avoid it, Andy is cast as one of the leads in a truly dreadful play called Whoops, Vicar, There Goes My Trousers, written by a local playwright.
The play might be bad, but the Sarky Players are a friendly bunch. Andy quickly makes new friends and finds himself attracted to Phil Cormack, a local artist helping with the props. But life doesn’t run to a script, so Andy and Phil will have to work hard to improvise their own happy ending.
ISBN: 9781634764551
Product Link: Dreamspinner Press | Amazon US | Amazon UK
Reviewer: Prime
Review: This is a bit of a fun novella which was thoroughly enjoyable and good when you just want to read and relax.
It’s a bit of a usual story – main character moves town/city to get away from a bad relationship and a fresh start. Andy has done exactly that after a long-term relationship breaks down and takes up a job in London where he works as an accountant. After talking to one of his co-workers he winds up joining a small amateur theatre group called the Sarky Players.
This is a funny story, helped particularly by the fact that Andy finds himself cast in the horrendously named Whoops, Vicar, There Goes My Trousers. It’s especially funny when Andy encounters the play right and her reaction that the play she wrote as a bet was being put on by the local am-dram company. It’s through the Sarky Players that he meets one of the props managers, Phil, and instantly there are sparks between the guys. Sometimes it felt like the romance was a bit slow in coming along but I love the chemistry between Andy and Phil, nonetheless.
I liked the very human and relatable feel of the other characters in the Sarky Players, including the woman and her husband that had introduced Andy back into the world of theatre. It’s a lot of fun and nothing to take more seriously than the words on the page.