Noah's first broadway show opens and closes the same night. He gets a call from his mom that his dad had a heart attack so he and his agent/boyfriend Chase fly to Illinois to support. While there, Noah's old local theater group surprises him with a party and the news that they want to perform his show and want him to direct. Chase convinces him this will be good for him and let him help with his dad's recovery. Except he now has to interact with his high school bully, Luke, who happens to be quite hot. Will a month in his hometown help him find his love of theater and writing again?

It was an enjoyable story with likable characters and a sweet romance.

Showmance is the story of Noah who writes musicals and is enjoying life in New York. He returns to his home town following the disastrous opening night of his first Broadway musical for a family emergency. He brings with him a fair bit of emotional baggage about the failure of his musical and his feelings about his small home town, the residents, and his family. Noah is asked to direct his recent musical flop at his local community theater and the story takes place through the rehearsals and reconnecting with his community.

I loved the parts of the story that took place at the theater, the amateur cast were a lot of fun and I loved how they pushed Noah to see things differently. I enjoyed the small-town setting, the characters, and the story of the community production of the musical. Where the book fell short for me was with the main character, I really struggled to like him and see his side, as he was often very mean to the people in his life. His interactions with his family, friends and the cast of the musical had me cringing. I did enjoy the romance but it was hard to root for his character.

Showmance is a great story of a small-town community coming together to put on a great show and I recommend it for fans of fast-paced romcoms and musical theater.
Thank you to Penguin Books and NetGalley for the gifted digital ARC to review.

"Showmance" is a dazzling, heartfelt ride through the world of theater and romance. The vibrant characters and sharp wit make it an absolute page-turner, with every scene bursting with energy and charm. Beguelin crafts a story that's as entertaining as it is emotionally resonant, leaving you with a smile long after the last page.

First, thank you NetGalley and Penguin Books for this e-arc! Showmance drew me in with its fun, sweet premise of a playwright returning to his small hometown and finding love there. And as much as I am a sucker for some feel-good romance, the writing itself was a huge disappointment for me.

Noah, the protagonist, is high-strung and just plain mean. I do understand that the author is trying to be funny with a pov character who's a little bit of an asshole, but about 90% of the jokes didn't land. This leads into one of my biggest issues with this book, which is that it needed sensitivity readers; a lot of the unfunny jokes didn't land because they read more like microagressions. And even though Noah does become kinder to people as the story progresses, it ends up feeling superficial.

Another detail that I couldn't stand was how often he used celebrity comparisons for descriptions—we get it, your hot British boyfriend looks like George Clooney. This is a personal pet peeve, rather than a concrete writing flaw, and I do understand that it has it's place, but comparing him to Clooney four times in the first 15% of the novel feels excessive. Even without the celebrity comparisons, the writing style felt choppy and shallow in ways that made even the best scenes fall flat for me.

The romance itself was... fine. There was some insta-lust, which isn't my cup of tea, but otherwise I did like Luke as a character. His presence is the best part of this book. And with him, there were some genuinely sweet and heartwarming scenes along the way.

Overall, Showmance was a disappointment to me, but I know it'll be enjoyed by others.

This book was too cute! I loved the relationship so much- and the ending! Highly recommend! I’ll be thinking about this cute little rom com for a while!

This is a great read. There is humor throughout. The characters are real and the story is heartfelt. Library patrons should enjoy this title.

I absolutely adored this book.

The characters were fun and you rooted for them. There was laughing, crying, and all the emotions in between.

Would highly recommend this fun story. It is simply witty and charming and full of… heart!

First off thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.

From the very first page, I loved this book. Shomance by Chad Beguelin is just such a fun romp of a book. The book follows Noah, a playwright who has finally gotten a show onto a Broadway stage. With his show flopping and his father having a health scare, Noah winds up back home. Not fully understood as a kid growing up in a small Mid-Western town, Noah has a skewed view of the people that reside there including Luke, a guy that he considers a former bully and competition for his father’s esteem. When he winds up working on a production of his musical with the local community theater, Noah gets more insight into himself, Luke, and his relationship with his father.

It is a representation of any theater kid that didn’t fit in growing up in a small town and one of the things this book does flawlessly is to create the intensity that exists when you love something so much that you make your whole world about it. This is Noah with musical theater. He’s such an amazing character and made best by all of his flaws. He’s self involved and insensitive and judgemental. All of that could have made Noah unlikeable, but all of his flaws make him more interesting instead, so much so that you can understand why he is the way he is when he expands on all the ways he’s been hurt.

What the book does well is in having Noah face his past and grow from it. Not just personally, but through his musical and all the changes that he makes with the help of the community theater actors. This book also contains a very cute romance. Right from the moment we meet Luke it makes sense that he and Noah will end up together. There’s tension between them and Noah is misguided in why he’s holding a grudge. Beguelin manages to traverse the complexities of their relationship and the misunderstandings of their past and build it all up into a sweet romance that you can’t help but root for.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable book. From the cute romance to the involvement of musical theater and the amazing character work. Outside of Noah and Luke there are just such wonderfully fully fleshed characters that make the story fuller. 4.5/5 stars.

This was an adorable story! Noah has just dealt with his Broadway play being tanked in reviews and now has to go back to his small town due to a family emergency. Once he's there, he learns his agent optioned his play to his small town community theater. While this book has a few serious moments, it's full of humor, and a lot of the snarky kind that I am a fan of. Thank you to Penguin and NetGalley for a chance to read an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin Books, and Chad Beguelin for an ARC of this charming and smart novel. I tend to find queer rom-com novels to simply be palate cleansers, and this book was that, but it was also extremely smart with witty banter throughout that did not feel overly forced. While, as with many of these books, a few characters seem too good to be true, those characters in this case are simply so likeable, and such good country balance to our main protagonist, that I could overlook this and just allow it to make me feel good. The plot is not the most original and it wasn't exactly unpredictable, but it was such a joy that it gets a great rating. I'll also note that I tend to rate within genres. If you're looking at this genre then I assume you would like to know how this fits within it. In my mind this is one of the best queer romances I've read in a very long time.

This was a sweet rom-com following Noah, a broadway producer, as he returns to his small hometown following some professional challenges (no spoilers). I found the plot a little predictable (as I do in most rom-coms) but a fun story with a sweet ending. If you like Emily Henry or Abby Jimenez, give Chad Beguelin a try!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

After his Broadway musical debut receives a scathing review, a playwright, Noah, escapes to his small hometown. To his dismay, his agent has set up for him to direct an amateur rendition of his flop at the local community theater. To make it even worse, Noah keeps encountering Luke, his high school nemesis who is now a local favorite.

Showmance provides a delightful and quick-paced look into the world of professional and amateur musical theater. It may be a bit cheesy, but it’s full of heart and features a wonderful cast of characters, especially the endearing small-town locals. The protagonist, Noah, is a charmingly flawed character who undergoes a good amount of growth over the course of the story. The theater elements are a standout feature, with numerous nods to musicals and Broadway stars that will appeal to any theater lover. Although I was initially skeptical about the romance (cheating isn’t fun), its charm and the chemistry eventually won me over.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Books for early access to this book!

Showmance is a cute, fast, fun look into the world of professional and amateur musical production. Noah’s first Broadway show flops the same night that his father suffers a heart attack in the small Illinois town where he grew up. His return to Plainview is also a return to the community and culture that made him love theater in the first place, and he finds his assumptions and memories challenged by the acceptance he finds there (particularly from Luke, the hunky farmer who initially triggers horrible memories of high school and eventually triggers something very different).

What’s kind of weird about Showmance is that for a m/m romance, the women are the real stars. Every mother, best friend, and musical theater mentor is pitch perfect: funny, loyal, sincere, badass. Noah, on the other hand, spends most of the book in a state of self-pitying, sophomoric arrogance, and it’s often hard to root for him despite the fact that he’s clearly the novel’s hero. The two romantic interests come off as somewhat wooden and one-dimensional; only Noah’s father struck me as relatable in his complexity. Note that Showmance zooms out during sex scenes, so readers looking for spice might be disappointed. I didn’t mind the novel’s essential sweetness, and ultimately I felt moved by the small town drama and my own memories of the power of community theater.

Noah's playwright career is dead due to a horrible review of his first Broadway musical. His agent arranged for him to stage an amateur version of the play. Luke, the jerk from his high school yrs, stars in it and even improves on it...

Love the characters. I didn't like Noah too much in the beginning but he grows and changes. Luke is terrific too. Love the romance... The play within play works well.

Thanks to the publisher for the arc.

This book was perfect. I sometimes have a hard time staying invested in contemporary romance but this held my attention from the first page. It was funny and heartfelt and if you are a musical lover like me, it will feel like talking to a friend. I've already recommended it to everyone I know. I really appreciated how the dialogue felt very modern and reflective of how people actually speak to each other in 2024. loved it and can't wait to see what he rights next!

This book is a quick, entertaining, and enjoyable read!

I love the cast of small town characters! The MC Noah is a delightful mess, who really grows and develops rather quickly throughout the course of the book(which spans about a month). The troupe of thespians is a colorful group of lovely people who all love and support Noah, even through his bad times. They even help him fine tune his craft. Also, his zany artist mother is an absolute delight!

The only thing I didn't like was the character Chase, Noah's agent/boyfriend. Since the book is written in Noah's voice, the beginning of the story made their relationship seem idealistic. There was no hint of issues, because he viewed it through rose-colored glasses. For me, the story would have been better if Noah and Luke weren't falling in love while Noah was already in a seemingly great relationship. I would have preferred the story with either Chase being only an agent or for the story to have had some subtle hints at the relationship not being what Noah thought.

This was an adorable quick read! I’m not a huge theater person but was so sucked in. As someone from Southern Illinois myself, the small town setting was so real I could picture every bit of it. When a Broadway playwright suffering from a huge professional setback finds himself back into his hometown, he finds himself working with the community of people he grew up with for a small town production of his play. At first old prejudices and snobby NY prejudices make Noah rather unlikeable but following his journey of reevaluating his friends, nemesis and family was so fun and heartwarming. And Luke! Luke is the devastatingly handsome former high school football player that was not what he seemed. Their relationship was so sweet. I needed more!! All in all super sweet and lovely love story.

4 stars.

This was a fun small town, Broadway themed romance. It’s very cheesy but has a lot of heart and great characters. Noah starts off the book kind of unlikeable. He’s very self centered and very condescending towards his small hometown and the people in it (though not entirely for no reason). However, I thought his character had a lot of growth and he really changed a lot for the better. The musical plot line was fun and also really helped push Noah to grow as a person.
The ending of this book was almost over the top ridiculous and hard to believe, even for fiction, but it led to a really like conclusion for the main characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Books for the ARC!

I LOVE a theater romance novel, and I was so excited to be among the first to read playwright and Broadway lyricist Chad Beguelin's new book! After his latest Broadway musical proves a total flop, protagonist Noah Adams heads back to his hometown of Plainview, Illinois following a family emergency...and the town's community theater company is eager to have him direct the first local production. Conveniently, Noah's extremely hot high school nemesis Luke just happens to be the set designer...

This was cute! I loved all the theater references and how Beguelin immerses the reader in the theater world. But the plotting was extremely predictable, even for a rom com; the twists didn't feel all that twist-y and this wrapped up with a particularly neat little bow at the end. I enjoyed Noah's character, though he was slightly obnoxious. And I grew a little restless towards the end because it was really easy to see where it was going. But always a treat to read romance novels set in the theater world, and Beguelin has made this accessible to hard-core theater nerds and neophytes alike.

This book is a theater lover’s dream. As someone who grew up feeling like I didn’t belong in the small sporty town that I grew up in, I ate this book right up. The characters and the plot were masterfully laid out. I laughed, I “aww”d and I found myself overwhelmed with happiness and smiling on many occasions.

Noah’s character showed so much growth and development over the course of the book, and I loved watching the way that all the side characters interacted with him and reminded him how special he was. While I was unsure about the romance in the book at first, it quickly won me over with its charm and chemistry.

My favorite part of the story was Noah’s mom and his banter with her. I also loved his best friends, Kiara and Melissa and his banter with them. The funny little quips and musical theater jokes made this one such a good time.

I think anyone who appreciates musical theater/Broadway/community theater is going to adore this book, and it’s definitely accessible to many audiences!!