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A Novel
by Samantha Allen
In this A Midsummer Night's Dream-inspired romcom, Puck is a reality show producer and agent of chaos with a talent for bringing people together ... and tearing them apart.
Meet Puck: the nonbinary, thirty-year-old mastermind behind Homewreckers, a dating show that puts troubled couples through hell—with a little help from their exes. Used to being the one pulling the strings, it shocks Puck when their life undergoes a plot twist of its own and their college roommate Mia announces her engagement to her ex's best friend, Damon. Having only recently broken up with longtime-boyfriend Zander, and never having had much in common with Damon (who lovesick Lena has always pined after), Mia's news leaves her friend group reeling—and Puck's mind whirling.
When they arrive for a week of wedding festivities at an upscale resort in the Appalachian forest, Puck immediately sees that Mia's marriage will lead to misery, and takes it upon themself to save their friends by rearranging the couples—without anyone finding out. But as Puck comes up against a type-A maid of honor hell-bent on making this wedding happen, it becomes clear that they will have to deliver the greatest stunt of their career. If only they can take their eyes off the bridesmaid. After all, the course of true love never did run smooth…
Written with Samantha Allen's signature charm, wit, and an irresistible dose of Shakespearian mischief, Puck is the ultimate romcom for our chaotic era, and a celebration of the friendships that carry us through it all.
"Allen uses Puck as an agent of chaos to highlight the manicured production of wedding culture and how heteronormativity is performed and policed ... Bursting with humor, interpersonal drama, and badly timed desire, this equally smart and playful narrative has a point to make: that control is antithetical to intimacy and the course of true love, whether queer or straight, resists both scripting and stage management. It's a delight." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Full of frothy fun, the story is also earnest and emotionally grounded when it needs to be. An excellent romantic comedy with both style and substance." —Library Journal (starred review)
"Delightful chaos, sizzling spice, and the best personal growth readers can ask for ... a superb example of a classics-inspired reimagining ... Allen has masterfully pulled the strings of the romance genre to engineer this lightning-fast, laugh-out-loud romance that all can enjoy." —Booklist (starred review)
"So much fun! Unique and heartfelt, Puck by Samantha Allen balances humor and swoony spice with a thought-provoking story." —Farah Heron, author of Accidentally Engaged
"Full of mischief and romance, this book is everything you'd want in a Shakespearean retelling. A joyful, riotous romp!" —Ashley Herring Blake, award-winning author of Delilah Green Doesn't Care
This information about Puck was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Samantha Allen is the author of the Lambda Literary Award finalist Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from Red States and a GLAAD Award-winning journalist. Her writing has been published by the New York Times, Rolling Stone, CNN.com, and more. She lives in Seattle.
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