‘Melody McIntyre, stage manager extraordinaire, has a plan for everything. Lead actor need a breath mint? She’s on it. Understudy bust a seam? Mel’s sewing kit is at the ready. Not only is her Plan A foolproof, she’s got a Plan B, and a Plan C, because actors can be total fools.
What she doesn’t have? Success with love. Every time she falls for someone during a school performance, both the romance and the show end in catastrophe. So, Mel swears off any entanglements until their upcoming production of Les Mis is over.
Of course, Mel didn’t count on Odile Rose, rising star in the acting world, auditioning for the spring performance. And she definitely didn’t expect Odile to be sweet and funny, and care as much about the play’s success as Mel.
Which means that Melody McIntyre’s only plan now is trying desperately not to fall in love.’
Robin Talley is fantastic is bringing the world sapphic love stories and that’s what I presumed Love Curse was going to be, but I’m not sure it really is. Whilst the romance between Melody, the stage manager for her school’s production of Les Mis and the actress in one of the leading roles, plays a large role in the story, I would argue its more about the production and theatre group as a whole. As someone with a casual interest in musicals I found the references to Broadway shows fun to begin with – unfortunately for me it got tiring quite quickly. The characters, especially Mel as the first-person narrator of the novel, are unashamedly and utterly devoted to their show.
Largely, I found the characters in Love Curse okay – they served their purpose and I didn’t have any strong feelings about them either way. The two core young women at the heart of the story – Melody and Odile – do stand out amongst the array of students involved in the production. Melody is stubborn (almost frustratingly so) and completely unashamed of who she is. It’s refreshing to read about a character who doesn’t internally shame herself for the number of relationships she’s had or the fact she wants to follow a creative career path rather than an academic one. But I found it difficult to settle into her narrative voice – at times towards the beginning of the story she felt like a younger narrator than she is. Odile, the rising acting star, felt genuinely quite charming and I really enjoyed her as a character, but I don’t have much else to say on her.
Generally speaking, Love Curse is a story about a group of young people coming together on the verge of a disaster however there was one aspect of the premise which irked me from the beginning. The “love curse” of the title ties to the superstitions surrounding theatre – Mel’s friends believe that whenever she is in a relationship, their show goes wrong. Long story short, they agree that Mel is not to fall in love over the course of their production of Les Mis. If Mel had made identified the connection herself and made a kind of internalised agreement with herself, I would have probably been more on board. But there was something about her friends confronting her about it which felt genuinely unpleasant and I wish Mel reacted in a different way. I understand that the cast and crew are a superstitious bunch but that just felt like they were crossing a line.
Overall, The Love Curse of Melody McIntyre was a chaotic and fun journey through the process of putting on a theatre production. The vast array of characters at times blurred into one another but the plot surrounding superstitions really carried the novel through. Whilst the romance felt a little underdeveloped it was great to see Robin Talley deliver on another sapphic love story. It’s definitely a fun book with moments of seriousness and packed to the brim with drama.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for an ebook copy in exchange for a review.
jemima is writing 