Once More with Feeling by Elissa Sussman was fun, upbeat, very quick moving, and easy to read. I loved the concept of this book. Having the two lead characters connect in both the past and the present in the way she explained throughout this book. The background of both of them is so fun. This book really speaks to all the theater kids turned book girlies out there… let’s jump into a quick summary.
Jumping between the past and present, Once More with Feeling follows Kathleen Rosenburg who in her youth blew up as an international pop star. Cal Kirby, the main love interest, was also an international star in a boy band. After she falls from fame in a not so flattering way, she goes into a sort of hiding. Later, she and Cal reconnect in order to work together on a Broadway show, which was the original dream for both of them. Throughout their time working together, they work through past issues and future possibilities.
This book, as I mentioned, was very fast paced. The story flies by, almost too fast. There will be jumps of weeks in between scenes, and I was never quite sure what was happening between during these big breaks in content. This alone really pulled me out of the story at times. I would be very invested in a scene, and then all of the sudden weeks would have gone by with no further development in Cal and Kathleen’s relationship. It didn’t add up to me.
Another point of contention with this book is the lack of separation between young Kathleen and older Kathleen. Older Kathleen is constantly pointing out how “squishy” she is. When older female characters are self-depreciating, I immediately get the ick. I know authors often do this in order to make ethe character relatable, as this is the way many older women feel about their changing bodies, but it is mentioned so many times that I feel like it fear mongers aging. As a younger reader, I want to read about women aging and loving their bodies, not constantly calling them squishy and flabby.
Likewise, I found myself reading younger Kathleen in the same body as older Kathleen, the only description to separate the two is explaining how hot young Kathleen is, which further separates older Kathleen from being hot and sexy in her older age, as she could be! I would have loved younger Kathleen to be as developed as older Kathleen, since we spend just as much with her as we do with present. The underdevelopment of young Kathleen also takes away from the story a bit.
Cal Kirby, however, is just developed enough. He isn’t the most loveable male character I’ve interacted with in the pages, but he is captivating. I love the long lost lovers trope, and you can tell pretty early on that Cal’s love for Kathleen never went away through multiple years of absence. He is sweet, protective, and snarky, and he matches Kathleen’s energy very well. We don’t learn enough about Cal to completely fall in love with him, but he is likeable, and you are definitely rooting for them to end up together as you are reading.
I also have to comment on the last scene, which was alluded to the entire book. In my opinion, it lived up to the hype. It wasn’t what I was expecting by any means, but the innocent little scene that played out at the end of the book was worth the wait and better than what I was expecting. That was the most real scene in the book, and I loved the emotion shown in such a little action.
Overall, Once More With Feeling was entertaining and worthy of three stars. I think there were a lot of things in the book that held it back from higher, but it was a good, steady, three star read!