Echo After Echo—Amy Rose Capetta

Who do you love most? It's a trick question. There's no love wide enough to measure against Echo and Ariston. They're legendary—Romeo and Juliet, but better. Less hormonal, more epic and defiant. Zara craves that kind of love, but she hasn't found it. The closest she's ever gotten is standing onstage. (16)

Every aspect of the description pulled me in more: a mystery, in a theatre, with a lesbian romance. So I was pretty stoked to win an ARC of this book from Librarything Early Reviewers. (The book has since been released, and you can buy it here!)

Zara Evans is just a normal teenage girl until she lands a much-coveted role in the production of Echo and Ariston at the Aurelia Theatre in New York, directed by esteemed director Leopold Henneman, opposite movie star Adrian Ward. However, before rehearsals even start, things go awry when the body of lighting designer Roscoe is discovered in the theatre. His assistant, Eli Vasquez, must take over for him—and all the pressure that she feels with that, being a young lighting designer working for a difficult director—while also falling in love with Zara. But does Zara have feelings for her too? Meanwhile, all of the Aurelia veterans seem to be warning Zara about director Leopold. And one death might be an accident, but when another death occurs, it becomes clear that there's something bigger at play. Who will fall next?

I loved this one. I loved all of the aspects that I expected. The fact that the author has spent a large amount of time IN theatre made it incredibly authentic, and gave me all the feels I hoped for and have experienced/do experience being involved with theatre. I thought the mystery was tied in quite nicely with the other plotlines, and no individual thread seemed weaker or more dominant. In the midst of a love story, this is also a pretty intense murder mystery. I'm usually pretty good at noodling out twists, but I didn't call the complete extent of the culprit. AND THAT'S ALL I'LL SAY ABOUT THAT BECAUSE SPOILERS.

Most importantly, while there is that murder mystery aspect, the book addresses so much of what it means to "find yourself" as a young person. Zara has to deal with her emerging feelings for Eli, and vice versa. Eli has to deal with the pressure of suddenly being responsible for something on your own, and of potentially letting people down, as well as starting to fall for a person before she even knows if there's a chance that person is interested in her. Adrian, Zara's costar, has to deal with the expectations of being a young movie star who people mostly pay attention to because he's good looking and to follow his romantic drama. He also is trying to figure out a relationship he left behind, while getting conflicting information about whether Zara's feelings for him extend beyond their romantic relationship in the story they are telling on stage. And without being too spoilery, several of the older characters look back at their formative years, at the times when they were "finding" themselves, and reflect on how they might have done things differently.

The relationship between Zara and Eli is sweet and tender and messy and complicated. Zara is struggling with being attracted to Eli when she's previously only dated boys (though her first kiss was a girl), and Eli is struggling with her intense attraction to Zara and whether or not she's coming on too strong. Meanwhile, they're both dealing with their roles in the production, in addition to Eli dealing with the trauma of tragically losing her mentor, and Zara dealing with the sly warnings and potentially life-threatening situations. The support that they are able to provide each other during what is a trying time for them both is heartwarming. There is, for me, the perfect amount of insta-love and slow burn in this relationship. And though things don't get too explicit, we do see Eli and Zara's relationship progress in a very satisfying and emotional way, right down to the ending.

It was also very apropos to be reading this story at this particular juncture in time, since Leopold *BIT SPOILERY* turns out to be a predatory director who has at the very least been manipulative and controlling of his young actresses, and at worst has been a rapist. I think the feelings that we see Zara experiencing—being a young, professionally inexperienced actress, and trying to figure out what is normal in the theatre world and what is Leopold overstepping—are incredibly relatable and relevant to the conversations that we're seeing happen today. There's something raw and vulnerable about being an actor that necessitates some intimacy. But there are also boundaries that should be drawn, and trying to figure out where those boundaries are and how where those boundaries are can affect your future opportunities as an actor is a fraught situation.

I gave this book a 4.5 stars on Goodreads (or I would have if there were half stars on Goodreads...but I wanted to leave some room for growth on not a debut), and look forward to reading more from this author in the future. Hopefully that future means some more stories set in the theatre world because I am here for that.