Reviewed by Dan
TITLE: Our Stage
SERIES: Weldstone Harbor Book 1
AUTHOR: James T. Prince
PUBLISHER: Gloaming Books
LENGTH: 277 Pages
RELEASE DATE: January 30, 2018
BLURB:
David Benton is an aspiring actor, but when a poor career choice ends in an industry blacklist, his only hope is to audition for a small production in the middle of nowhere with one big-name star. David decides this is the chance of a lifetime and probably the only way he’ll ever get his good name back. That is until he realizes that the big name star is Louis Greene, the gorgeous and talented star of David’s favorite childhood series.
He also happens to be the boy who broke David’s heart at the tender age of five.
Louis Greene hates small towns, empty houses, and television productions, but he’s stuck here with all three. After tragedy leaves the series in need of a new star, Louis finds something of interest—and maybe even a little familiar—in his newfound co-star. But David Benton has no interest in men and Louis won’t be here for long, anyway.
Not when his sister’s life has an expiration date.
Stuck in a small town and on the small screen, Louis and David must figure out what they really want from life—and each other.
REVIEW:
This book came in as an author request, and the blurb and premise looked like something I would enjoy, so I signed up for it. I suspected at the time that this was the first book by this author, although some things I’ve read seem to allude to another name, so I’m not sure. I’ll be treating it as a first book in this review.
I think the author did a good job at building the story of David and Louis and fleshed it out with enough side characters and storyline to keep it flowing, although I never really figured out where the story was actually taking place, because I thought Weldstone Harbor was in California, but near the end of the book it mentioned a hurricane, and I don’t believe many of those hit California. I also wasn’t sure where Midtown was, so I guessed somewhere in the mid-west.
I liked the story. To keep it honest though, it was just a little too slow moving in my opinion and I would have liked more character engagement. By that, I mean I never really engaged with the main characters. I found myself frustrated with both of them throughout a large percentage of the book. They were both flawed, there was back history, there was the dying sister and there were tons of instances of miscommunication. Then there was what appeared to be one character’s possibly identifying as an asexual. It should have been engaging as heck, but it left me a little bit flat. I would particularly have liked to know more about Rosemarie. As a cancer survivor myself (knock on wood), I always focus on the character with cancer. In this case she needed more involvement in the story in my opinion. Others might not agree, but that is what makes us all individuals.
I’d also like to note that there was a nod to alternate pronouns with the character of Avery. I applaud the author for including those pronouns even knowing very well that for many readers like myself, those pronouns would be a learning point. I noted that on the author’s page on Amazon the same pronouns are used, so ey were using things that ey were familiar with while writing the story. Hopefully I used the pronouns correctly.
Overall, I would say that I liked the book. It shows promise, and I wish the author continued success with eir writing in the future. On our rating scale I would rank it as a 3.5, meaning that I liked it and consider it above the average for a first-time author.
RATING: 
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