Love on Cue by Catherine Hapka

The only place Maggie Tannery isn’t shy is on the stage, and thanks to years to working her way up the theater system, she is the most likely candidate for the lead in Romeo and Juliet. She’s psyched for a little Shakespeare to let her shine, especially when she finds out that her crust Derek might also be auditioning for the school play. But a switch from performing a play to a musical catches Maggie off guard. How is she supposed to land the lead opposite Derek when she can’t sing? To remedy this predicament, Maggie begs musical genius Nico for singing lessons. But as opening night approaches, Maggie has to ask herself, is it really Derek she’s trying to impress, or Nico?

As always, Hapka creates a sweet, innocent, and satisfying romance in Love on Cue. The majority of the characters are realistic, each with their own issues and insecurities that make them generally pretty easy to relate to. Maggie, particularly, is cute, funny, and just an all around adorable heroine. Her near complete inability to communicate with guys wile off the stage, the complete opposite of stage fright (life fright, perhaps?), may be a little exaggerated but certainly is amusing, as are Maggie’s commentaries on her overall social ineptness in the vicinity of hot guys. The only character that really got on my nerves was Derek, because his supposed perfection felt unreal throughout the story. The plot is never too exciting and is quite predictable, but I nonetheless enjoyed this lighthearted PG-13 romance.

Readers who enjoyed Something Borrowed and The Twelve Dates of Christmas, also by Catherine Hapka, or any other Simon Pulse Romantic Comedies may also enjoy Love on Cue.

Rating: 3.5

Review copy from Amazon Vine