Title: When Stars Align
Author: Mia Augustine
Genre: Contemporary Hot Romance
Book Blurb:
Theater isn't just a play, it's a passion, and the sparks fly between these two co-stars.
Aiden Harrison is stunned by the change in his co-star. In college, she’d been the worst. A stalker he’d actually feared. Now, however, she is so hot, he could hardly keep his hands from grabbing her and dragging her to the nearest dark corner.
Maylis Smith has no idea what to make of the man playing opposite her in this small production. He blows cold, then hot, then colder. But she’s a professional, and her goals go farther than a small theater in BFE. All her dreams are about to come true, and she is holding on for everything she’s worth.
Excerpt:
Aiden Harrison forced himself to breathe through a few measured intakes. This director was not one of his favorites. Unfortunately, Aiden had only himself to blame for this entire debacle. He hated Tamera Smith with every bone in his body. The woman was psycho. He couldn’t believe they’d ended up in the same play in a small-town play. Other men had followed her as if she played a flute and danced her way through the countryside. Once she had them running after her towards the cliff, she stepped aside and laughed as each one tumbled over and crashed onto the protruding rocks below. He was not one of them. Nor would he ever be.
And that stage name she’d chosen was ridiculous. It was as old fashioned as this damned play he was in. But he’d needed the work to prove he had what it took to make it to the big time.
The director went on a rampage. “I’d had it on good authority that you were an actor. In fact, I caught you in a traveling rendition of Phantom in St. Louis a few years ago. You did a fantastic Raoul. What the hell happened?”
It had been the role of a lifetime, and at the age of twenty-five. Aiden’s goal to revise the role on 44th Street were sinking to new depths. Even while attempting work on a new script of his own.
He took in the man’s wiry, tense stance. “I am good,” Aiden told him just as frustrated with himself. He could damn sure beat Tamera at her own game. Back in college, she’d been a terrible actor. She’d even quit school, for God’s sake. The last he’d heard she’d gone into modeling. Catalogs and such. He certainly hadn’t heard much about her in the past few years.
“Then show it,” the director snapped, jarring his wandering thoughts. “Broadway scouts are due in town opening night. You’ve got two days. If you don’t measure up, then your understudy goes on in your place. And, just so you know I mean business, I’ll be working him just as hard and often as I work you. You’re fighting for your career here, Harrison. You’re only as good as your last role. You might keep that in mind.” The man turned away, but threw over his shoulder, “Take the rest of the night off. Get some rest, damn you. You’ll need it.”
Aiden banked his fury and stormed out the back door of the small theater, gulping in a dose of cold bracing air. Christmas lights twinkled in the distance. Come New Year’s he would be thirty. A terrible age for an actor still working to build his career. He fell back against the brick, planting one foot flat against it, and waited.
There was something different about Tamera, he decided, something besides her name. She seemed… softer somehow. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to find out exactly who or what he was up against. But distance was paramount. She’d been so freaking crazy in college, he’d almost quit the theater program himself, if she hadn’t already beaten him to it. Right now, however, he had a beef to pick with her and she would not escape unscathed.
Her acting skills were the biggest improvement. Witness that little performance in the wings. That cold haughtiness. She’d gone from stalker to performer. But then Tamera was expert at going from hot to cold at the flip of a switch. That much hadn’t changed over the years. He just hated that this time around he found himself wanting her flat on her back.
The door crashed back, and his nemesis appeared in jeans, dirty sneakers, and a warm cardigan over a tee he bet molded her body like hot wax. Her purse was a small leather orange thing with a skinny strap that crossed her body.
“Oh! I didn’t see you there. The director let us go early. See you tomorrow, Beauregard.”
“My name’s Aiden. Not Beauregard,” he bit out. Not once since they’d been cast had she called him by his name. That grated the most. He took her by the arm. “How about dinner.” It wasn’t a question. They were going to hash this out if it took all blasted night.
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What makes your featured book a must-read?
A small theater production that brings two people together makes this tale different. In the sense that she is acting strangely than from the time he’d known her years before. It’s a fun twist.
Giveaway –
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Runs April 11 – April 18, 2023.
Winner will be drawn on April 19, 2023.
Author Biography:
Mia Augustine (aka Kathy L Wheeler) loves rainy days, hot chocolate, her dog, and movies with happy endings. Her contemporary stories are edgy, passionate, sometimes dark, but always compelling.
Social Media Links:
Instagram: https://instagram.com/miaaugustineauthor