June 23, 2014

{Blog Tour: Review + Excerpt} Understudy by Cheyanne Young

Welcome to the Understudy Blog Tour brought to you by Oops I Read Again!


Title: Understudy
Author: Cheyanne Young
Publisher: 336Love
Date of Publication: February 14, 2014
Genre: Contemporary, New Adult, Romance



The high school play is in two months and senior Wren Barlow just became director. Wren still isn't over the fact that she got stiffed as a stagehand instead of the lead role that she totally deserved. Now she is in charge of rehearsals, costumes, navigating around cast member hookups and managing the real life drama at home.

The principal counts on her to succeed because tickets have been sold and the money has been spent. But when he drops a gorgeous bad boy on her and wants him to help the play for extra credit, she falls hard for someone she knows she can't date. With everything spinning out of control, the mysterious and secretive detention king named Derek has a few tricks up his sleeve and wants to help—too bad Wren is scared to give him a chance to prove himself.


This book kind of hit close to home for me. Just a year ago, I was the sound director for our group for our Theater Direction and Production class, a mandatory subject for Mass Communication students in our school. I can definitely relate to this in a way. Staging a play is hard. It may seem to the audience but it's not. It's live for crying out loud and one slight fumble and then you're dead. You have to dedicate 120% or even more of your time and your energy for something as huge as a stage play even if it runs for only twenty minutes.

I just hated how Wren's aunt, the director of the play, bailed on them so soon. I mean, how unprofessional is that. I want to strangle her. That's not how a teacher should perform in her class you know. I am very disappointed with that.

But Wren along with resident bad boy Derek, managed to save the play. Of course, with a lot of drama. Both of the lead actors are in trouble. Wren falls head over heels for Derek. Her best friend quits the play. She only has two months to make this play perfect.

The chemistry between Derek and Wren is very cute and funny. Derek is so hot! I don't like guys with tattoos. Well, bad boys, literally, in general. But he was so funny and handsome in the book and in my head that I fell in love with him.

Not only did the story revolve around Derek and Wren, it also revolved around the other members of the play even if there were just snippets of it. I definitely recommend this book to those who are looking for something funny and light to read.




EXCERPT:

School has been out for thirty minutes so I’m surprised to find a student in the back of the warehouse using the skill saw. I don’t recognize him from behind, but from what I can see of his backside, he’s too hot for Lawson High. Maybe he’s a movie star researching his next film role. He’s wearing jeans a tight fitting black shirt. His brown hair touches his shoulders and is as silky smooth as mine is after an hour of flat-ironing it to death. Ugh, why do guys always get the best hair?
Mr. Harrison gives an old man arthritic grunt as he settles onto his work stool. He slides the longest piece of molding across the workshop table toward me. “Cut this on the chalk line.”
I slide open my tape measure, but he stops me. “Use the square. Come on girl, I taught you better than that.” Of course he did. The normal me would have known to grab the square to mark a perfect line, but right now I can’t think over the thudding of my heart in my chest. How is it that I’m more nervous standing across the room from a guy who hasn’t even noticed that I exist, than I was moments ago while auditioning for the biggest role in the school play?
I head over to the pegboard wall with all the tools on it. The square, which actually looks like a triangle, should be on the lower left corner but it’s not. I check the workspaces around me but still can’t find it. I’m about to tell Mr. Harrison that someone stole his tools again when I see it.
It’s shoved in the back pocket of the hottest ass I’ve ever seen. I make my way over to the possible movie star, miraculously not dropping dead from cardiac arrest. A sheepish grin falls over my face. “Can I have that square?”
Hot Boy turns around, a carpenter’s pencil sticking out of his mouth. He takes the square from his pocket and hands it to me. “Thanks,” I say. He glances over at my project and then back at me, and I’m pretty sure his eyes graze over my entire body in a split second, but it feels like it takes an hour.
“Crown molding?” He says it like he’s confused. Like we’re in a shoe factory instead of wood shop.
I give an awkward shrug. “I want my room to look like a French boudoir.”
He nods and this smirk spreads across his lips as he looks at the molding and then back at me, as if suddenly understanding my entire personality.
There’s something in his smile that makes me want to rip off my shirt and throw myself into his arms, declaring my soul as his love slave, like some lunatic in an Axe body wash commercial. He holds out his hand. “I’m Derek.”

GIVEAWAY:




Cheyanne is a native Texan with a fear of cold weather and a coffee addiction that probably needs an intervention. She loves books, sarcasm, nail polish and paid holidays. She lives near the beach with her family, one spoiled rotten puppy and a cat who is most likely plotting to take over the world.

She also writes under the pen name Amy Sparling.











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