Book Review for WAITING IN THE WINGS BY TARA FREJAS (e-ARC)

I had the honor of receiving an ebook of Tara Frejas’s new book, Waiting In The Wings! I absolutely loved it. But, before you read my review, you should check out my other post where I share some cool excerpts from the novel!

No Spoiler Section:

Maybe I’m slightly biased, since I love almost all contemporary novels, but this was so cute! I’d give it a 4 out of 5 stars 🙂 The main character, Erin, is an actress on stage and loves to play the lady in love, but decides she wants to find some love of her own. She thinks she’s found it in the arms of a famous movie actor, Pio. But, the heart is a fickle thing, and she starts to wonder if it’s him who she really loves. This book has such a relatable lead character, and has excellent use of dramatic irony (one of my favorite literary devices!) (no one ever uses it anymore so this made me really happy). One of the coolest parts about this book is that they create a musical, and that Tara wrote some of the songs! She has them up on Spotify right now! just search “Tara Frejas” and it should come up. The title is #WaitingInTheWings Mood Music. For more of my thoughts with minimal spoilers check out my twitter thread on it.

This is the official synopsis (as given to me by the author):

At twenty-three, theatre actress Erin Javier has yet to fall in love or kiss a boy offstage, away from the klieg lights. She is the perfect leading lady—whose heart men would fight for, win, and protect—unfortunately, only until the curtains fall and the lights go down. In real life, Erin is a certified NBSB whose heart has been hoping for a song to dance to for quite some time.

But when two (two!) men enter from stage left and right, Erin is confused. Who deserves to take center stage in her heart—Mr. Theatre Royalty whose attention and displays of affection make her pulse race, or a good friend whose steady support has helped steer her to success and fulfill her dream?

Interested? Pre-order here and add it to your GoodReads shevles 🙂

WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW

 

 

This book was honestly so cute! Immediately, you’re sucked in to this amazing group of friends, all of them working at the theatre. The squad feels more like a family. Each character has such a different personality, making it easy to spot at least one character’s traits in one of your friends. Ate H and Jericho and Mark and Kai make the story really special. Whenever Ate H would fuss over Erin’s love life, I couldn’t help but smile, thinking of all the times I’ve done that. She genuinely wanted Erin to be happy, and I’m always a sucker for a good female friendship. Another thing to love about the book! The overused “mean girl” trope was nowhere to be found! All of the girls at the theatre supported each other, and wanted each other to be happy. There was no backstabbing, no gossiping, no lies, nothing. All of the things that went wrong in Erin’s life were Erin’s fault, not some jealous character’s. And yea, some things went wrong. I mean, she was going out with Pio but even on dates with him thought about Ramon. She would build up Ramon’s confidence, just to accidentally shatter it. Asking Pio to let Ramon perform was probably the worst thing she could’ve done to him. She owed him nothing other than support, and she messed that up too. I think my heart actually broke for Ramon in that scene. It also broke for him when the cast list came out. I was rooting so hard for him to get that top spot, knowing it would just go to Pio. As a band kid, I know what it’s like to be the underdog performer trying out for the lead. It worked the first time for me (though I wasn’t so lucky the second), and I was hoping it would work for him. When he got to perform in the end, I was thrilled, because he at least got one chance to shine on the stage and show the crowd that he was brilliant as well. I was rooting for him the whole way through, on stage and off. Not gonna lie, at first I wasn’t quite sure who Tara wanted the audience to ship. There was a whole big build up about Ramon and his crush on Erin, and how he’d been in love with her for years, but was too scared to ask her out (he also gets bonus points for not feeling entitled to anything more than friendship. Where are these guys in real life, am I right, ladies?). But then, Pio swoops in and asks her out. He takes her on a lavish date and is so romantic he makes the reader practically swoon while reading about it. At that point, I was already attached to Ramon, but was starting to think that she would end up with Pio despite all that buildup. Thankfully, I was wrong, and she ends up with Ramon, who truly believed in her from day one.

 

Waiting In The Wings by Tara Frejas ARC TOUR!

I’m lucky enough to be a part of the ARC TOUR for Waiting In The Wings by Tara Frejas! I received an eARC of the book (watch for the review coming VERY SOON) and a bunch of cool excerpts and quotes from the book that I can release to you! If the book sounds like something you’d like, you can pre-order on Amazon and add it to your Goodreads shelves.

First, here is the official synopsis (as given to me by the author):

At twenty-three, theatre actress Erin Javier has yet to fall in love or kiss a boy offstage, away from the klieg lights. She is the perfect leading lady—whose heart men would fight for, win, and protect—unfortunately, only until the curtains fall and the lights go down. In real life, Erin is a certified NBSB whose heart has been hoping for a song to dance to for quite some time.

But when two (two!) men enter from stage left and right, Erin is confused. Who deserves to take center stage in her heart—Mr. Theatre Royalty whose attention and displays of affection make her pulse race, or a good friend whose steady support has helped steer her to success and fulfill her dream?

Not interested yet? Maybe these amazing quotes can convince you!

If you’re saying you’re not interested still, then you’re lying to yourself. Read this excerpt to help stop the denial.

EXCERPT A

Erin’s first kiss was a guy named Timothy Matias.

She and Timothy—christened Mots by Kai—were both Teatro Lakambini rookies three years ago, and Chronicles of a Breakup was their baptism of fire. Even so, he wasn’t new to kissing.

Thankfully, Mots was considerate. He noticed her apprehension about the stage kiss and offered to fake it instead. But the scene had to be staged in a way that a fake kiss would have been so painfully obvious, and Erin just went “oh what the heck” and decided to go for gold. Mots obliged, and was nice enough to “mentor” her without being all judgey.

“Don’t pucker your lips” was his first tip. “Loosen your jaw” was his second. There were more, and they came in unexpected moments, like when they waited in the wings and he told her to “Press your lips against mine a bit harder before I push you away.”

It was an Act Two breakup kiss, what they shared. Erin’s character was desperate to keep his, but his just wasn’t into hers any longer. As they went through the scene five times a week for eight straight weeks, Erin felt as if her heart wasted away every single time she kissed Mots goodbye.

The feeling stayed with her for weeks after the show had closed that she had to ask him to sit down and talk about it one afternoon.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “Sometimes I look at you and I can’t think straight.”

The look on his face prompted her to clarify. “I’m not in love with you, Mots. It’s just that I’ve been this character for a while and it’s difficult to get her out of my system.”

He got it, he said. They hugged it out, and that was that.

Five months later, she was kissing Andres San Vicente under a dim streetlight in Sa Kanto ng Kaimito at Santol. It was a more innocent kind of kiss, one that would reduce the females in the audience to squeals and giggles. Erin liked their once-a-show kisses better because they were hopeful and held the promise of a blossoming new love. And at the back of her mind, she allowed herself to fantasize over that kind of love too—until Andres brought his boyfriend to the cast party and crushed her dreams.

The distinction of sharing the most number of kisses with Erin goes to Brian Castro and Johann Rivera. Alternating as Erin’s long-distance boyfriends in Minsan Tayo, the average number of kisses she received per show was twenty, not including the ones that didn’t land on her lips. But even if Brian and Johann played the same character, their kisses were completely different.

Brian’s was playful and tentative half the time and tasted like Tic Tac. Johann’s was more intense and tended to linger a little more. They didn’t taste like anything remarkable, but Erin recalled the one time his lips tasted like ginger tea.

By the time she got to act alongside Nathan Zalameda for Karaoke Queen, the tables were turned: He was the novice, and she was the pro. Recalling every relevant moment in her kissing resume, Erin taught Nathan everything he needed to know.

And he was a fast learner. So fast, Erin actually found herself feeling flustered more than once.

Thinking about all those kisses made Erin feel a little dizzy. There were okay kisses, and there were kisses that, whether she liked to admit or not, completely rocked her world.

Is anyone going to measure up? she wondered. More importantly, is there anyone out there willing to?

Don’t forget to pre-order from Amazon using the link above! The book comes out February 21st, 2017! Trust me, you won’t want to miss this new release.