A sweet, queer rom-com about the head of the high school stage crew and the show’s lead actress, perfect for fans of Becky Albertalli and Nina LaCour.
THE LOVE CURSE OF MELODY MCINTYRE
by Robin Talley
HarperCollins Teen, December 2020
Credit: Courtney Rae Rawls
Melody McIntyre, stage manager extraordinaire, has a plan for everything. Lead actor need a breath mint? She’s on it. Understudy bust a seam? Mel’s sewing kit is at the ready. Not only is her Plan A foolproof, she’s got a Plan B, and a Plan C, because actors can be total fools. 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.
Robin Talley is a queer author who grew up in southwest Virginia and now lives in Washington, D.C., with her wife and their daughter. She worked in digital communications for LGBTQ rights, women’s rights, educational equity, and other progressive causes for fifteen years before she turned to writing full-time, and is now the New York Times-bestselling author of five novels for teen readers: Pulp, Our Own Private Universe, As I Descended, What We Left Behind, and Lies We Tell Ourselves.
Also Available: Robin Talley’s upcoming novel, MUSIC FROM ANOTHER WORLD, will be published by Inkyard Press on March 31st, 2020. Set in the 1970s to a soundtrack of Bowie, Blondie and a whole lot of Patti Smith, two teenage girls’ worlds converge in ways they could never have imagined. With a fierce sense of rebellion and a feminist attitude to boot, they soon discover what it means to be their true selves, and one thing’s for sure: they’re both sick of blending in.