Showmance

Chad Beguelin is a successful playwright and lyricist (Prom, Elf: the Musical) who grew up in the small town of Centralia, Illinois. Noah Adams, the MC of Beguelin's debut novel is a failed playwright and lyricist hailing from Plainview, Illinois. So it's not a surprise that Showmance is a mostly successful if predictable romance between the wisecracking Noah and local hunky farmer Luke Carter. As quickly as you can click your heels together three times and say “There's no place like home,” Noah's Big City boyfriend is dispensed with, along with Noah's lingering anger at the bullying he endured in high school, allegedly at Luke's hands (the retconning of Noah's experiences to make Luke an innocent bystander who was responsible for stopping the torment is an authorial decision that made me more than a tad uncomfortable).

Luke is a little too good to be true, while Noah's sassy black gal pal and laconic Midwestern father are both walking cliches. But even with its flaws, Showmance is lively and entertaining, and such a perfect match for my current need for fluff that I read it all in one afternoon. Extra points for Noah's mom pointing out that his welcome home reception is unmissable because they brought in toasted ravioli “all the way from St. Louis.”* If you've eaten toasted ravioli, you're either nodding your head in agreement or making violent retching noises, depending on how you view one of my hometown's greatest culinary achievements.

*Less than an hour away from Centralia, especially if you speed