~ About the Book ~
And this kiss . . .
This kiss is everything I’ve needed to say . . . and longed to hear.
Sixteen-year-old Faith Prescott eagerly awaits the day she will exchange her small Iowa hometown for the bright lights of Broadway, but her success-driven parents want her to pursue a more practical career, labeling “artsy” people—including their daughter—as foolish dreamers worthy of little more than disdain.
When Faith meets nineteen-year-old Noah Spencer she discovers someone who understands her musical theatre dreams . . . because he shares them.
Faith’s mother despises everything about Noah—his age, his upbringing . . . even his religious beliefs—and she grasps at every opportunity to belittle his plans to study theatre and pursue a stage career. When those criticisms shift further toward hostility, resulting in unjust suspicions and baseless accusations, an increasingly fearful stage is set for Faith at home, where severe restrictions and harsh penalties are put in place to remove Noah Spencer from her life.
But Faith has never connected with anyone like she has with Noah, and no matter how tight a stranglehold her mother enforces to keep them apart, Faith will not give him up. Behind the curtain, Faith’s love for Noah continues to grow . . . as does her determination to hold on to her dreams—and him—no matter how high the cost.
Genre: YA Contemporary Christian Romance
Release date: 15 November 2016
Pages: 353
Publisher: Candent Gate LLC
Amazon US // Amazon AU // iBooks // Goodreads
~ Excerpt ~
“He said he would come.”
I repeat the reminder like a mantra as I hit the seek button.
“He said he would come.”
Janey barks a happy sled-dog sort of sound that seems not only out of place on this hot August day but entirely too optimistic, all things considered. I guess she’s forgotten the part that lets Noah off the hook if he—
No, I can’t think like that. Not yet.
But neither can I handle the twangy country station the radio finds. I hit the seek button again. And again. Do they make another kind of music in this part of the world?
After tapping the button five more times, each tap a little more desperate, a little stabbier than the one before, the smooth caramel croon of an old Michael Bublé song saves me from the clutches of a desolate musical landscape.
Saves me . . . and wrecks me, because it floods my mind with the memory of another crooner—Noah—and his spot-on Bublé impression.
Tears threaten above the smile I cannot contain. I blink away the blur, but it doesn’t clear the view in my mind’s eye.
His eyes, a shade of blue so honest they should have a crayon named after them.
His hands, entwined with mine. His fingers, callused from guitar strings and hard work.
The sound of his laugh, genuine and warm.
Each memory is torture . . .
And bliss.
Memories of him. Of us.
Of hikes. A creek. A waterfall.
A stage. A duet.
A frozen pond. That first kiss.
Our song.
My ribs squeeze around each golden moment of a friendship that expanded, overflowed, stretched, and then leaped . . . into a love cut short.
No, not cut. Paused.
Please, let it be a pause.
In its first act, our romance delivered everything a theatre-lover could hope for: star-crossed lovers, a killer songbook, touches of comedy, a cruel villain, and—of course—an emotional cliffhanger leading into the intermission.
A very long intermission.
But tonight, finally, the curtain will rise.
~ Review ~
If I wasn’t already a happily married woman, I would be on my knees right now praying for God to bring me my very own Noah Spencer. As it is, I will be getting on my knees and praying for a Noah Spencer (or three) on behalf of my daughters instead. I love it when authors can create a YA character who is a great role model—and a hero to totally fall in love with—but who still has the kinds of flaws and humanness that prevent them from being unrealistic. In fact, I love that in adult characters, too; it just seems harder to find in YA fiction.
Before I spend the whole review waxing poetic over Noah, let me say there are MANY other reasons to love this novel. First person present tense has been growing on me over recent years, but it’s still not my preferred point-of-view. And yet I barely noticed it in this novel. The writing felt so natural and was so engaging that I didn’t give it a second thought. As a musician and performer, I also loved the ‘musicalness’ of this story. But more than all of this, I loved the way this story dealt with the subject of children honouring their parents in a situation where it is genuinely challenging to do so.
Now, I’ve already said that Noah is the kind of guy I would pray God prepares for my daughters. He’s hard-working, honourable, mature, and strong in his walk with the Lord. However Faith’s mother sees him in a very different light. He’s three years older than Faith (which might not sound like a lot, but is probably worth taking into consideration when you’re sixteen and nineteen), and he’s got his sights set on a musical theatre career. Couple that with the example of her own sister’s life, and that’s all Faith’s mother needs to justify freezing Noah out of Faith’s life.
This whole story totally sucked me in; I didn’t want to put it down. I felt the injustice of Noah and Faith’s situation, how easy it would have been to feel justified in handling things differently than they did. But to a certain extent, I could also understand Faith’s mother’s concerns (even if I didn’t like the way she handled them), which meant that, despite essentially being the ‘villain’ in this piece, she was more than a caricature of the stereotypical ‘evil and overbearing parent’. And because the book opens with Faith on the way to (hopefully) meet with Noah after an intermission of two long years, there is an anticipatory tension all the way through, knowing that something is going to happen, but not sure what the circumstances will be.
And finally, there is the relationship that grows between Noah and Faith. So beautiful—founded on a solid friendship that tested them and brought out the best in them, and yet also brought more than its fair share of heartache. This is definitely a novel not to be missed!
I received a copy of this novel from the publisher. This has not influenced the content of my review, which is my honest and unbiased opinion.
~ About the Author ~
A life-long lover of fairy tales, Serena Chase is the author of the Eyes of E’veria series which includes THE RYN (March 2013) and THE REMEDY (April 2013) a 2-book re-imagining of the classic Grimm fairy tale, Snow White & Rose Red, and THE SEAHORSE LEGACY (May 2014) and THE SUNKEN REALM (September 2015), a 2-book, epic (and oh-so-romantic!) pirate adventure. Set in the world created within the first two books of the series, these two books give nods to several fairy tales, including an unexpected twist to the tale of The Twelve Dancing Princesses. On November 15, 2016, Serena Chase released her first non-fantasy novel, INTERMISSION.
In her spare time, Serena drinks entirely too much coffee and Dr Pepper and pretends she does not have a dark chocolate addiction. She likes to listen to modern pop punk, 80s pop/rock, 60s soul, and the occasional boy band (there may be more than one One Direction fan in the house!) Serena loves to watch action/adventure movies and Jane Austen screen adaptations. She admits to suffering from the occasional NetFlix marathon when she discovers a new series, but mostly, she just reads a lot because people actually pay her to do that, which is the BEST.JOB.EVER. (next to writing her own books, of course!)
The Author Known As Serena Chase doesn’t get out of her writing cave often, but she has been known to live vicariously through her hair. She has been a blonde, a brunette, a redhead, all three at once, and more. (You should have seen the Fire Hair Ombre or the time she did the Eggplant/Purple/Platinum mix! Her favorite so far is a base of deep, warm brown with caramel and pink highlights.) Don’t be too surprised if she looks a tad different from one day to the next. We all have our vices.
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It’s been a couple of months since I read Intermission, but I really loved it. It was sweet while also exploring emotionally wrenching topics.
Yes! A great way to describe it. Glad you enjoyed it 🙂