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The Love Curse of Melody McIntyre: a hilarious and uplifting new LGBT romantic comedy from the bestselling Robin Talley (202 JEUNESSE)
£4.30
The brilliant new romcom from 2020 CILIP Carnegie medal nominee and New York Times bestseller, Robin Talley.
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It’s easy not to fall in love, right?
Melody McIntyre, stage manager extraordinaire, has a plan for everything. What she doesn’t have? Success with love. Every time she falls for someone during a school performance, both the romance and the show end in catastrophe. So, Mel swears off love until their upcoming production of Les Mis is over.
Of course, Mel didn’t count on Odile Rose, rising star in the acting world, auditioning for the spring performance. And she definitely didn’t expect Odile to be sweet, and funny and care as much about the play’s success as Mel. Which means that Melody McIntyre’s only plan now is trying desperately not to fall in love.
A hilarious, heartwarming and empowering read, perfect for fans of Pitch Perfect, Love Simon and To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.
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Praise for Robin Talley’s previous novels:
‘The main characters are terrific in what is a moving novel. And an important one.’ The Telegraph
‘absolutely loved it – romantic and funny and gripping and just generally excellent!’ Tom Ellen, author of Freshers and All About Us
‘touching, clever and absolutely hilarious’ The Herald
‘I really loved the book… it was just a lovely, refreshing read for me, and I’m so glad there are authors like Robin Talley out there.’ Bookseller review
‘One of the most interesting and informative LGBT books I’ve read recently!’ Reader review
‘I read it in one sitting!’ NetGalley reviewer
‘a must-read for anyone interested in LGBTQ+ history’ NetGalley reviewer
‘a very timely novel’ NetGalley reviewer
Read more
Additional information
| Publisher | First edition (12 Nov. 2020), HQ Young Adult |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| File size | 3171 KB |
| Text-to-Speech | Enabled |
| Screen Reader | Supported |
| Enhanced typesetting | Enabled |
| X-Ray | Not Enabled |
| Word Wise | Not Enabled |
| Sticky notes | On Kindle Scribe |
| Print length | 384 pages |
by LJBentley
Aspiring stage manager Melody McIntyre promises her crew that she won’t fall in love during their upcoming performance of Les Miserables because they are worried that it is bringing on a theatre curse. However, when popular student Odile Rose starts showing interest in Melody McIntyre her resolve begins to crumble. However, when strange and unusual things begin to happen during the performance rehearsals Melody starts to believe that the curse is real.
The Love Curse of Melody McIntyre is a great read. It doesn’t try to be anything other than it is. A fun theatre romp that looks at the love lives of teenagers. One aspect of the novel that I really appreciated is that LGBTQIA+ relationships are central to the plot however Robin Talley does not emphasise this as an issue. I think more YA novels need to have non-heteronormative relationships at the heart of their stories without it being the main point. It shows that LGBTQIA+ relationships are the norm. By taking away what she my see as an issue Robin Talley has moved the goalposts to where they should be for other authors writing fiction with LGBTQIA+ relationships at the heart of it.
A fantastic read. Be warned though, you will be singing the soundtrack to Les Miserables for days afterwards – I don’t see how that is a bad thing.
The Love Curse of Melody McIntyre by Robin Talley is available now.
by S
This is very different in terms of style than the books I’m usually reading, but I really enjoyed it nonetheless. I found the writing to be refreshing and perhaps that’s due to it being YA, but it’s definitely also down to the writer.
Melody is the stage manager for the performing arts productions at her high school. She’s known as a serial monogamist, even as a junior. Like most people involved in theatre she follows a number of superstitions and her crew manages to convince her that for the sake of their productions she needs to be single or the curse will strike again.
Odile is the school success story. She’s already been to Broadway, featured on some TV shows and is up for a movie. She returns to school for her senior year, adding a certain star quality to the school musical.
The majority of the book explores the things that take place in order to put on a musical – in this case Les Miserables. I love musicals, did perform in them at school, but have managed to not somehow not see Les Mis, so some of the references went over my head a little bit – but it didn’t hinder my enjoyment of the narrative.
Both the narrative surrounding Mel and Odile falling for each other, and the storyline of the curse and the production itself work really well, especially when they intertwine. Naturally as the book centres on a group of teenagers there are some moments of drama but none of it feels out of place or overblown.
All of the characters, even the bit part ones, fit in the narrative and despite the large ensemble I was able to keep track of who was who – which is an achievement on Talley’s part as far as I’m concerned.
It’s a longer book than I was expecting, but I still read it one sitting as it became quite the page turner and was very disappointed when it finished.
I received an e-ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
by Katy
The Love Curse of Melody McIntyre is a YA queer novel by Robin Talley. I do not read a large amount of YA, but as a big fan of Musical Theatre I was keen to read this!
The story follows high school stage manager, 16 year old Melody, who has been in love more times than you can count. Big on theatre superstitions, the crew believe that Melody’s love-life is causing a curse on the theatre and consequently she cannot fall in love before or during the Spring musical- Les Mis. Enter Odile Rose, the Senior who has starred on Broadway. . .
I won’t go into too many details about the plot itself as it is readily available, but if you’re a fan of Theatre/Musical Theatre this could well be for you!
I will be honest and admit that I have mixed feelings about this book. My main issue was that Melody wasn’t very likeable to me and quite annoying. I appreciated her confidence in her bisexuality and role as stage manager, but she was a poor friend and lied to everyone throughout and never seemed to grow from that. I felt sorry for her though as she seemed to shoulder a lot of blame for things that weren’t her fault and some of her friends were also not great- I guess that makes it more realistic! Mel and Odile’s relationship was sweet, but I do wish that we had seen more of them.
There was a lot that I loved about this book though. Talley referred to the MT fandom a lot as well as cast recordings and many other musicals and I loved that it was so focussed on theatre. Naturally as Les Mis was the Spring musical this was the focus and there was a *lot* of detail around the characters, stage direction, costuming and songs which I really appreciated but if you aren’t especially interested in MT then I imagine that the terminology could be more difficult to follow at times. I also loved the format of the book and how it was split into Acts, Intermission and included a cast list! I also thought that there was great queer rep throughout (including Mel having two dads) and that the off-stage drama wasn’t homophobic.
I’d give this 3.5-4*.
Many thanks to HQ for providing me an advanced copy and including me on their blog tour.