Curveballs & Curtain Calls

In the hallways of Rosenberry High, a cast list has the power to rewrite everything.For Elliot Maypedal, the spring musical was supposed to be his final bow — a triumphant send-off before trading high school spotlights for a full scholarship to the University of Michigan and a future already neatly scripted: prestigious conservatory, new city, and Perry Worthington, the older boyfriend who was supposed to be the love story Elliot had always deserved. Securing the lead role of Tony in West Side Story was the last piece of a perfect ending. He just needed to get through auditions without the past ambushing him.Then he sees Jared King's name on the audition list, and the careful architecture of Elliot's life begins to crack.Three years ago, they existed in stolen moments — whispered confessions in a grandmother's music room, secret kisses in an athletic utility closet, a love that lived entirely in the shadows because Jared King was Rosenberry's golden-armed baseball star, and some things were easier to hide than to explain. Elliot saw what no one else did: the songwriter behind the pitcher, the boy who poured his whole heart into lyrics he shared with no one else. What they had was quiet and luminous and entirely theirs — until one spring burned it all to ash in a betrayal Elliot has spent three years trying to stop replaying.Now Jared is back, changed in every way that matters. A devastating car accident has ended his baseball career, shattered the future he was building, and left him with nothing but a guitar, a limp, and an audition he has no business walking into. He's stepping into Elliot's world with everything to prove and no idea whether forgiveness is even on the table.As rehearsals force them into each other's orbit night after night — circling lines about star-crossed lovers while their own unfinished story hums beneath every scene — both boys must decide what they're willing to risk. Because Perry isn't quite the ending Elliot thought he was. And Jared isn't quite the coward Elliot convinced himself he'd been.Some performances are for the audience. Some are just for surviving.Curveballs & Curtain Calls is a richly romantic, emotionally layered YA novel about first love, second chances, and the terrifying, necessary act of finally letting yourself be seen. Read more