Set the Stage by Karis Walsh

Set the Stage by Karis Walsh

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Received this ARC from Netgalley and Bold Stroke Books for an honest review

I cannot claim that this is a book that I’ve been waiting a long time to read, as I’ve occasionally mentioned for other books, but it is one I knew about and had on my to-read list. And I’m quite happy the book popped up when it did and I was able to read it.

This is the story of Emilie Danvers (hmm, Danvers, wonder if she’s related to Kara and Alex), and Arden Philips. Specifically the story of how the two first meet, and had a slow burn romance against the backdrop of an acting festival. Both have their chance to be the point of view, and both get their chance to be known by the reader.

The book opens with Emilie finishing a shift at a fast food restaurant. She’s greasy, and smells like fries. She’s made a few bad choices with her life to get to this point, but this is her last shift. Before she gives her two week notice. So there’ll be two more weeks of shifts. She’s moving on, getting a second chance at her first career choice – acting. She’s signed a contract to act in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival – a multi-month festival (many months, I forget now how many). There are many reasons for how she came about making some of the mistakes she made, but one of her solutions for not allowing herself to fall into that place again, is to focus on her acting – excluding all possible romantic entanglements from her life.

Meanwhile we have Arden Philips. Arden has spent her life in Ashland, both a small town near where Emilie has been working fast food, and the town that happens to hold the Oregon festival previously mentioned. She’s spent her life following her grandfather around a specific park, watching as he worked, learning, and helping. Grandfather’s gone now, but his impact on the park remains. As does his granddaughter – now working there after getting a college degree in landscaping. She has a tendency to fall into relationships almost exclusively (maybe exclusively) with actresses who she knows will be in the town for only a brief period of time. She’s gotten used to people leaving her life. Not how she planned her life, but she’s used to it now (something ‘forced’ upon her when her own parents left her with her grandparents in Ashland to pursue their own careers when Arden was something like 4 years old).

Arden and Emilie meet for the first time when Arden ‘stumbles’ across Emilie standing in the park practicing one of her acting roles (part of the acting job consists of acting in multiple plays at the same time). They both like what they see in the other, but Emilie stresses, immediately, that all they could be is friends. So that’s what they become, friends. Though both have these feelings and stuff.

I’m not certain about either main character’s actual age, though evidence seemed to suggest that both are somewhere around mid-to-late twenties. Probably closer to late twenties.

I quite enjoyed the story. And really want to go live in Ashland myself. Though I’ve no clue what I’d do there, job-wise. Sounds like a lovely place, though. Town and park.

Rating: 5.00

Expected Publication Date: November 1 (publisher website), 14 (everywhere) 2017

October 6 2017



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