this one was really cute! this made my musical theater kid heart (which i can't believe i am admitting publicly because it is embarrassing to admit that there have been years i refuse to share my spotify wrapped because of the heavy prevalence of musicals on there) so happy and i had a blast reading it. i literally finished it in one day, which i find increasingly hard to do so that's a good sign! i definitely recommend and i will definitely continue to read more elissa sussman in the future!

thank you to netgalley and penguin random house for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review!! <3

This book was SO MUCH FUN!

I loved Funny You Should Ask, and as a lover of all things musical and campy, I knew I was going to enjoy this book. I adore the author’s writing style and how fast-paced the book was. The alternating timelines made the story fly by and I simply needed to know what the next page said the entire time I was reading.

The tension between Cal and Kathleen was delicious and I was rooting for them the entire time. I loved this book so much, brb while I go join a community theater production.

This one is for the pop girlies! I absolutely loved this book I couldn’t put it down and finished it in one sitting. I found this to be a much stronger and more compelling novel than Funny You Should Ask. This book has all the vibes of Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake’s breakup circa 2003. I loved Kathleen and Cal- individually and together. I easily found myself rooting for their reunion. I appreciated that Elissa Sussman did Kathleen character right by providing context to her career fallout and the injustice of it all. I think the barriers and baggage that Cal and Kathleen had to work through and overcome were really realistic. Same for the friendship between Kathleen and Harriet. I highly recommend that everyone grab this book!

Okay, so this book gives major Britney and Justin post-breakup double standards vibes...and I love it.

Katee Rose is a former hyper-sexualized pop star known more for her appearance and less for her actual voice who, at the height of her fame, is in a very public relationship with Ryan of boy band CrushZone fame. She ends up cheating on him with his bandmate, Cal. Guess who takes the fall after they split??? If you guessed that all the blame falls squarely on Katee then you would be correct. Does this sound familiar? Her whole career is destroyed due to her "reputation" and meanwhile Ryan and Cal emerge completely unscathed from the whole ordeal.

Fast forward 15 years or so and Katee (who now goes by her real name, Kathleen) gets an amazing opportunity to be in a musical that has a real shot at making it to Broadway which has always been her dream. However, it's to be directed by none other than Cal...

This is a second chance romance with depth. I liked the theater setting and the dual timeline. I really liked the allusion to Britney and Justin's breakup and how the world turned on Britney amid cheating allegations. I was very emotionally invested in this story and couldn't put it down. The characters were in their 30s and acted like it. Sure, there were miscommunications (it is a romance, after all) but they were believable, and I found myself sympathizing with both Kathleen and Cal at different times.

Kathleen is a flawed main character who makes mistakes but apologizes when necessary and tries her best not to let one youthful mistake derail her dreams.

I will read anything Elissa Susan writes until the end of time. This book just cemented her as a new auto-buy author as well as one of my top authors.

I read Funny You Should Ask last summer and loved it. It was one of my favorite books of the year. Believe me when I say... Once More With Feeling is 10x better. You can tell how much Elissa Sussman has grown as an author while also staying true to her own unique style.

This book is genuinely such a joy to read. It has so many of my favorite devices and tropes, but even if it didn't - this would still be a wonderful book. There was second chance romance, alternating timelines, angst, friends to lovers, broadway, the entertainment industry, epistolary elements... it was just the best.

Whenever you are reading a book where you want to be actively reading it all the time, are sad when you have to take a break, think about it after you finish it, or immediately want to read it again... that's the mark of a truly special reading experience.

I absolutely cannot wait until this book comes out and I can get a physical copy. I may even reread... who knows...

Anyways Elissa Sussman supremacy.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC

The second book I've read by this author and she has me in a chokehold. The story. The writing style. I love it.

Childhood friends to enemies? 2nd chance for romance?

SIGN ME UP.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this fun book!

The chokehold that Elissa Sussman has on me MY GOD. Similar to the way that I can’t stop thinking about Funny You Should Ask, Once More With Feeling was a book that just GOT ME. A theatre nerd at heart, this was the love story that high school me wanted, needed, craved. I was so excited to receive this ARC and I seriously cannot wait for Elissa’s next book!

Overall I really liked the book, I found myself relating to Kathleen a ton!! Part of me wishes it was in chronological order because the story felt confusing a lot of the time switching back and forth. There wasn’t enough direction in the setting change to fully grasp where we were at some points. However I loved the plot, and loved Cal as well!!

Kathleen, Harriet, and Cal meet as teens at a theater summer camp. Kathleen and Harriet become best friends and Cal and Kathleen are attracted to each other. Kathleen (Katee Rose) is discovered a the camp and becomes a pop star, Harriet writes songs and Cal joins a boy band. Katee meets Cal again when the boy band he's a part of joins her tour. Katee is dating another member of the band, Ryan. Katee breaks up with Ryan to be with Cal and her career is destroyed over the way Ryan handles the situation and so is her budding relationship with Cal. Fast forward a decade or so and Harriet has written a Broadway musical with a part written for Kathleen. Cal is going to direct the the show. So all three are in each others orbit again and how will it turn out? This was a really good read; so enjoyable! 4 1/2 stars.

Kathleen has a rare opportunity- to finally star in a Broadway show written by her best friend. The only problem? The director is Cal, who was part of the reason her pop star career imploded. I really enjoyed this story, especially with leads that are in their thirties and dealing with regrets from the past. I didn't love this one quite as much as her last book, Funny You Should Ask, but that could be because Kathleen wasn't an easy character to like and the ending felt a little abrupt. Overall, though, this was a great read with a great story!

I'm not usually one to love a "celebrity" type romance, but I found this to be quite relatable. There is a campy, fun threat to Sussman's writing that I find really lovely. At its heart we have a second chance romance between two individuals who have hurt each other as young adults, who have grown and matured. Their lifestyles are much more different now, and they've changed dramatically. The book takes us through timelines of the past as well as the present, but I especially loved the timelines of the present day. At times I found the past timelines to take away from the flow of the present story, and I wish I could have gotten some of the details of the past through present-day conversations, etc. The musical theater/Broadway plot is fun and I really enjoyed this as a focus. One aspect that really bothered me is the treatment of Harriet as a best friend - Kathleen really disregards her feelings, treats her poorly, and then the two of them end up moving on past a massive fight really quickly. I wish we had more of Harriet woven throughout. I was engaged throughout the book and couldn't put it down once I started, so I recommended it especially if you like musical theater, celebrity romance, etc. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to provide my honest review.

Oops, she did it again! Elissa Sussman managed to take everything I loved about Funny You Should Ask and rework it into a sensational story revolving around a now defunct pop star and her rise and fall from grace.

Sexy pop princess? Check.
Hot boy band? Check.
Staggering inequality between the treatment of women and men in the public eye? Unfortunately, check.

We see Katee Rose (ahem, Kathleen Rosenberg) through not only her own eyes, but through the lense of the media that both destroyed her and has the power to pick up the pieces of her failed career. Years removed from her initial fame, Kathleen has a chance to rekindle with the main love of her life- Broadway. The problem? The director is Cal, an old flame from her past life that may have contributed to her downfall.

My favorite part of the book? How everything can so closely be related to real life pop culture icons and events of the 90s and 2000s. So much of Katee Rose’s story reminded me of the media circus surrounding female pop stars and, often times, their demonization. In retrospect, these same media outlets are starting to call themselves out about the unfair portrayal of women pop stars compared to their male counterparts. (Britney, I’m thinking of you baby girl!)

Long story short, I cannot wait to get my hands on a physical copy of this book and reminisce with Kathleen about her days with the boys of CrushZone.

Honestly, I didn't hate this book, nor did I particularly like it; I'm exceedingly neutral toward it, I suppose, which makes it worse. It's a very fast read but not one that I got a lot of satisfaction from. To me, it felt like the book was very surface-y, which is a horrible description but I can't think of another way to put it. As usual, my opinions, you might feel differently, etc.

Once More With Feeling by Elissa Sussman

⭐️: 4.25/5
🌶️: 🌶️/5

Honestly I was so intrigued by this read from the moment I picked it up till the moment I finished it in literally less than 24 hours! I love that all the characters were connected and knew each other from their younger years & I’m a sucker for a dual timeline! 😍 I feel like it always lets us understand characters so much better! I also really like the past celebrity life aspect of it!

I loved Kathleen and Harriet’s friendship! I love how supportive they were of each other's dreams and how they stayed friends even after everything that happened.

I loved the chemistry between Cal & Kathleen. I didn’t like how difficult they tried to be to each other knowing when it was all headed I was frustrated like I know how you both really feel, get it together!!!! 😂

The ending was everything. It made me smile so big and giggle and literally cheer! Needless to say this is definitely one to add to your TBR asap. It’s a feel good, angsty, slow burn, friends to lovers to enemies to strangers to lovers again all wrapped in one with the HEA you root for from the first chapter.

📖 Thank you to Random House Publishing Group, NetGalley & Elissa Sussman for sending me this ebook in exchange for my honest review! 💕

3.5 stars. This is a charming second chance romance, set in the world of music and theater. There are three timelines that playout over the course of the book where you see the main characters first meeting at summer drama camp, then touring the world as famous pop musicians, and now reuniting to stage a new Broadway musical.

I really liked both of the main characters, Cal and Kathleen/Katee, and the author convincingly was able to both show how their relationship imploded in the past and then also have you root for them to find a way back together in the present. I do wish that some of the past timeline content could have been condensed as that could have helped propel the slow burn of the current timeline forward, It did take me awhile to get into the book for this reason and I much preferred everything sent in the present.

Overall, this was quite enjoyable even if I preferred the author's debut novel a bit more.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Growing up, I wasn’t in musical theatre but I was in choir. This book brought me back to fun atmosphere of fine arts and I loved it. From the summer camp to the big stage, Katee and Cal’s story was told so well. No matter how frustrated I got, it was all worth it in the end. The writing style of Elissa Sussman books first interested me with Funny you should Ask and Once more with feeling did exactly the same. It’s something about the alternating flashbacks and how well thought out they are that I love. Once more with feeling is definitely a must read for anyone who enjoys second-chance, friends to enemies(ish) to lovers.

This was a cute, second chance romance story about two famous people. I enjoyed the fame aspects and how well developed it was in the past and the present.
The main problem for me was that with only one POV, Cal didn’t fee fully developed or relatable. There was never any really explanation to his past and it made him kind of look like a jerk.
Overall, this was a cute but forgettable romance story.

I loved Elissa Sussman’s first book, but I loved this one even more. The chemistry between the two characters was palpable and I found myself smiling along at their interactions and almost squealing in delight at others. Plus the musical references all made my little theater loving heart happy

Thank you to Net Galley, the author, and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I was really looking forward to Elissa Sussman's follow-up to Funny You Should Ask. And given the premise of this one, I anticipated some similarities in style and content. It seemed as if Sussman had found a formula that worked for her.

And while there are some definite likenesses between the two works, this one just didn't vibe with me as much. Like Funny You Should Ask, Once More with Feeling is clearly inspired by a true celebrity story. In this case, it seems as if Sussman is drawing on the Britney/Justin relationship-saga that overtook us all in the early-2000s. The protagonist, Kathleen (aka, Katee Rose), was once a high-profile pop singer who was in a widely-publicized relationship with a fellow music sensation, Ryan. However, once it was discovered that Katee cheated on Ryan with one of his bandmates (Cal), her reputation tanked and her career followed.

Now, several years later, Kathleen and Cal are collaborating again... this time on a musical production written by their mutual friend, Harriet. Understandably, there's some residual tension between them, especially given the flack Kathleen received that Cal (as a man) was basically exempt from.

While I liked the premise, I didn't love the pacing. I didn't feel an attachment to the characters. There wasn't the same sort of flow as the timeline alternated between past and present. I just really wasn't sure, at any point, where this one was going to go... and I don't mean that in a good way, unfortunately.

Not my favorite. As much as I love a good book inspired by celebrity culture, this one wasn't it for me.