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Play It Again
When four once-inseparable friends reunite twenty years after the community theater production that first brought them together, they discover fresh feelings, unfinished business, and plenty of offstage drama in this charming ensemble queer rom-com.
Love always deserves an encore.
As teens, Annie, Lola, Vicky, and Dylan stole the show in a legendary gender-swapped version of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Two couples, one unforgettable summer—until the closing-night party tore them apart, and not all of them knew why.
Now, with lives that look nothing like they imagined, the foursome is called home by their beloved director for a one-night-only revival to save the theater, and the town. Returning to Rhodes means facing everything they left long-buried secrets, undeniable chemistry, and the chance to write a brand-new ending—together.
Brimming with nostalgia, wit, and small-town sparkle, Play It Again is a heartwarming story of first love, second chances, and the magic of finding your way back to the stage—and to the ones who knew you best.
Love always deserves an encore.
As teens, Annie, Lola, Vicky, and Dylan stole the show in a legendary gender-swapped version of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Two couples, one unforgettable summer—until the closing-night party tore them apart, and not all of them knew why.
Now, with lives that look nothing like they imagined, the foursome is called home by their beloved director for a one-night-only revival to save the theater, and the town. Returning to Rhodes means facing everything they left long-buried secrets, undeniable chemistry, and the chance to write a brand-new ending—together.
Brimming with nostalgia, wit, and small-town sparkle, Play It Again is a heartwarming story of first love, second chances, and the magic of finding your way back to the stage—and to the ones who knew you best.
384 pages, Paperback
Published June 16, 2026
About the author
Georgia Clark
15 books1,024 followersHello! I'm a Brooklyn-based novelist and host/founder of the popular storytelling series, Generation Women. I love improv, being cozy, and fun snacks that are salty.
My next book is a queer ensemble rom-com called PLAY IT AGAIN. I also wrote MOST WONDERFUL, ISLAND TIME, IT HAD TO BE YOU, THE BUCKET LIST, THE REGULARS, and two YA novels.
I teach romance writing, mentor up-and-coming writers, host weekend writers’ retreats, and create the monthly author newsletter, Heartbeat. You can connect with me on Insta, @georgialouclark. Sign up for a class at georgiaclark.com!
My next book is a queer ensemble rom-com called PLAY IT AGAIN. I also wrote MOST WONDERFUL, ISLAND TIME, IT HAD TO BE YOU, THE BUCKET LIST, THE REGULARS, and two YA novels.
I teach romance writing, mentor up-and-coming writers, host weekend writers’ retreats, and create the monthly author newsletter, Heartbeat. You can connect with me on Insta, @georgialouclark. Sign up for a class at georgiaclark.com!
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 79 reviews
Did Not Finish
July 3, 2026DNF at 50%
June 10, 2026
A love letter to community theater and first love and self. I loved all the throwback references to the 90s/aughts. All the characters were fully formed and represented totally different people, all in their late 30s. I loved Vicky’s sharp dialogue, Dylan’s heart, Lola’s passion, and Annie’s determination. Two love stories, plus a deeper message about what’s worth chasing. Add this to your list!
Short summary: Annie’s town needs saving, so when the local theater owner proposes a play to save them all, Annie jumps at the chance to play one of the leads…except not exactly…more like she grudgingly accepts b/c she’ll have to play opposite her first love who is now a movie star while Annie owns a dog grooming salon. Dylan and Vicky are back too and while the 4some used to be inseparable, none have spoken in 20 years.
Thanks to Netgalley and Random House. ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.
Short summary: Annie’s town needs saving, so when the local theater owner proposes a play to save them all, Annie jumps at the chance to play one of the leads…except not exactly…more like she grudgingly accepts b/c she’ll have to play opposite her first love who is now a movie star while Annie owns a dog grooming salon. Dylan and Vicky are back too and while the 4some used to be inseparable, none have spoken in 20 years.
Thanks to Netgalley and Random House. ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.
June 11, 2026
This was a cute low stakes book, but it all ended too conveniently. I guess I wasn’t in a happily ever after mood, so I won’t dock it for that, but the fact both couples end up together felt a tad too unrealistic. I appreciate the queer representation and I do enjoy the little community that was built out. There would be good possibility to explore others in the troupe for subsequent stories.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
July 9, 2026
3.5 stars ⭐️
This one is for the theatre lovers!
This one is for the theatre lovers!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Not a Bigger Life, but a Truer One
Georgia Clark’s “Play It Again” asks whether adulthood means scaling up your ambitions or finding the people, work, and place that finally fit.
By Demetris Papadimitropoulos | April 10th, 2026
At the lip of the stage and the edge of summer dusk, the playhouse becomes what the novel finally insists it is – not an escape from life, but the threshold through which these women step into one that fits.
Community theater is one of the few adult institutions that still asks people to risk public humiliation for no salary and then call the whole thing joy. It runs on borrowed costumes, weak coffee, bruised egos, stale popcorn, missed cues, and the frankly heroic belief that making a fool of yourself in public may yet save your life. Georgia Clark knows that world well enough to do more with it than hang fairy lights around a romance. “Play It Again” arrives looking like a glossy queer reunion comedy and turns out to have a sharper bite than that pitch suggests. Beneath the flirtation, the diner banter, the highly competent sex, and the giddy second-chance plotting, Clark is writing about the exhausting work adults do to maintain versions of themselves that other people can live with.
Its glow invites the wrong kind of reading.
The premise can charm a room in one sentence. Four former teenage castmates reunite in Rhodes, a Hudson Valley town hoping to revive both its beloved playhouse and its local fortunes by restaging “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.” Annie Lightfoot is now a dog groomer whose life has narrowed into caretaking, routine, and the thousand small services by which a person can slowly vanish from her own plot. Lola Wilson returns as a recognizable actor whose career looks much larger from the outside than it feels from within. Vicky Fang is a family lawyer so ferociously competent she has started mistaking control for safety. Dylan Rogers, proudly nonbinary and newly at ease inside a self once lived as disguise, comes back as a chocolatier with a business, a quick mouth, and an old wound that never healed correctly. The production is supposed to save the theater, help rebrand Rhodes as queer-friendly and destination-worthy, and give everyone involved one glittering summer of repair. Naturally, it detonates the emotional material they left buried twenty years earlier.
What begins as a modest local audition swells into a crooked line of hope, oddity, and communal risk – the moment Rhodes starts imagining itself otherwise.
What keeps the book moving is friction – romantic, social, bodily, economic.
Everyone arrives already partially costumed. Annie plays the bright local caretaker whose small life is enough because it has to be. Lola plays the success story whose polish long ago hardened into reflex. Vicky has turned competence into armor. Dylan keeps tenderness under swagger and jokes. The Rhodes Playhouse does not merely complicate those roles. It drags them under hot lights, makes them repeat themselves, and waits for the mask to slip. That is one of the book’s less advertised strengths. Clark is not writing a reunion fantasy in which old chemistry simply flickers back on. She is writing about the daily labor of self-preservation: Annie babbling when frightened, as if enough words might crowd out exposure; Lola smoothing herself into charm so automatically that she can barely tell finish from falsehood; Vicky cross-examining because structure feels safer than surrender; Dylan joking at exactly the moment sincerity starts looking dangerous. Everyone here is acting, and not only when the curtain rises.
The playhouse gives Clark a machine that manufactures pressure on cue. This is not upstate charm pasted around the edges. It is a venue where blocking, repetition, understudies, sold-out seats, missed entrances, and collective expectation all become forms of truth serum. Jazz Whitaker, the director, is not staging Stoppard for nostalgia alone. She is trying to keep a building alive, a town imaginatively alive, and a version of local communal life alive. If the show works, Rhodes might begin to see itself differently. If it fails, something larger than one fundraiser goes down with it. Clark is especially good on the way private feeling gets forced into public speech. A table read becomes a referendum on adulthood. A rehearsal note lands like exposure. An opening-night crisis is both theatrical emergency and emotional reckoning. Repetition here is not filler. It is character development by other means. Scenes improve because people change.
The deepest injury belongs to Annie and Lola. As teenagers, they were secretly in love until Annie ended things with a lie meant, in her own mind, to free Lola for the larger life waiting elsewhere. It is an act of sacrificial love, yes. It is also an act of damage. Clark is smart enough not to cancel one truth with the other. Annie’s motive is understandable. Lola’s decades of mistrust remain real. The novel’s maturity lies in refusing to launder that damage into pure nobility. When the truth finally surfaces, it does not function as a neat key turning in a romantic lock. It explains the wound. It does not erase it. That distinction matters, and Clark respects it.
At the hidden swimming hole, the book lets desire leave rehearsal and enter sunlight, turning private longing into a scene of startled, hard-won release.
Vicky and Dylan, by contrast, give the novel its quickest comic heat and some of its sharpest feeling. Their reconnection is immediate, erotic, and lined with the humiliation of old longing. But Clark does not ask chemistry to do all the work. The sex scenes are not bonus prizes. They are diagnostic. Vicky’s desire keeps colliding with her need to remain defended, impressive, and unmastered. Dylan’s flirtation keeps exposing the tenderness it was built to conceal. What begins as banter turns into a method of disclosure. Their sexual candor is funny because it is reckless, and moving because it is the only register in which both of them briefly stop managing themselves. The jokes are not confetti. They are protective gear.
Clark’s prose works for the same reason. It is not “witty” in the soft approving sense that word often picks up. It is characterological. Annie’s humor comes out of panic, bodily embarrassment, and a frantic need to outrun shame before shame outruns her. Dylan’s charm is half seduction, half shield. Vicky makes precision sound like posture. Lola keeps discovering that smoothness can itself become a lie. The diction stays contemporary, tactile, and bodily without turning synthetic. Sweat, stage lights, costume fabric, diner booths, cheap wine, makeup, lanyards, the misery of feeling underdressed in the wrong room – these details keep the novel from floating off into tasteful generality. Clark is especially strong on embarrassment under heat. Annie’s catastrophic table-read introduction is funny because it is socially fatal and psychologically exact. The same goes for the premiere sequence, the best sustained passage in the book.
That premiere is where “Play It Again” sharpens from charming to genuinely incisive. Annie enters Lola’s professional world imagining, not unreasonably, that she will be present there as Lola’s person. Instead she discovers, by increments, that she has been brought into a prestige machine without being given a place inside it. The wrong lanyard. The wrong seating section. The step-and-repeat from which she is gently excluded. The after-party conversations in which she is misrecognized by type before she is heard at all. Annie is not publicly humiliated. She is quietly sorted. Clark understands how painful that can be. Not overt cruelty – worse. That polished kind of exclusion that leaves no single insult to protest, only the accumulating knowledge that one has been placed.
For a book this buoyant, it has a wickedly exact eye for class. Underneath the kissing and stage business, the question humming below everything is simple: what actually counts as a big life? Annie initially reads Lola’s career as pure scale – money, visibility, movement, consequence. Lola has been taught to read it that way too. Vicky mistakes overwork for seriousness. Dylan mistakes motion for freedom. Clark is not making the easy case that glamour is empty or ambition corrupt. She is making the more interesting one that prestige keeps using the wrong ruler. Again and again, the novel redirects attention toward other measures: being known correctly, wanting without self-erasure, staying put without shrinking, work that does not require daily self-betrayal, ordinariness without diminishment. This is not a brief for modesty. It is an argument for fit. A life that fits the person living it.
Outside the abandoned shop, adult love stops looking like flash and starts looking like architecture – two people seeing, in wet glass, the outline of a future they might actually inhabit.
The structure helps because rehearsal is where revelation gets blocked, flubbed, repeated, and finally landed. A scene fails on Monday, stutters on Wednesday, clicks on Friday because the people inside it have shifted. Stoppard’s play gives Clark a live apparatus for questions of performance, spectatorship, contingency, and agency, but she never lets that apparatus turn the novel into a seminar in costume. She keeps it social, dramatic, and active. By the time the opening-night crisis arrives – Lola seeming to abandon the show for a London film shoot, the cast trying to salvage the production without her, the technical catastrophe locking together with the romantic one – the novel has stopped coasting on charm and started earning its deeper claims. Community theater becomes one of the last adult spaces where people can fail in public, revise in public, and still be loved anyway.
Rain-soaked and impossibly late, Lola’s reentry turns melodrama into mercy – the theatrical rescue that saves both the show and the life waiting just offstage.
For me, that leaves the novel at 82/100, or 4 stars: clearly strong, frequently delightful, emotionally intelligent, and consistently readable, though not quite immune to smoothing the bruise it has just earned. It is not five points higher because some reconciliatory beats arrive with more rhetorical clarity than life usually grants, because a few secondary figures are more efficient than fully dimensional, and because the novel occasionally tidies away roughness that might have been more powerful left visible. There is, at the edges, a harsher and stranger version of this book – one less willing to clean up emotional wreckage once the right couples have found the right future. Clark does not quite write that book. Mostly she is right not to. But the pressure of that unwritten rougher novel gives this one part of its charge. It is also not five points lower because its pleasures are earned the hard way. They come through apology, embarrassment, jealousy, sexual candor, class discomfort, missed timing, and the very unglamorous labor of trying again.
What the ending finally changes is the ruler by which these lives have been measured all along. Adulthood here is not résumé management, body management, image management, or the endless strain of seeming fine. It is steadiness without self-erasure. It is the relief of finding a life in which you no longer have to improvise being lovable. By the epilogue – rainbow crosswalk, revived playhouse, salon, chocolate shop, diner booth reclaimed – Clark has made a sturdy case that the supposedly larger life is not necessarily elsewhere, only more expensively lit. Sometimes it is the life that survives the missed cue, the private jet, the bad lanyard, the old lie, and still heads into the night hungry for curly fries.
Early thumbnail studies testing how stage, doorway, sky, and negative space might hold the book’s central tension between performance and home.
The faint graphite scaffold where the final image first finds its balance – architecture, figures, and threshold present, but still speaking in whispers.
A tonal rehearsal in one muted family, mapping where the eye should land and how interior glow should lean against dusk.
The moment color begins to breathe into the page: pencil still visible, mood just arriving, the image discovering its weather.
A palette note in miniature, isolating the creams, dusk blues, muted golds, and softened pinks that give the finished painting its theatrical summer atmosphere.
All watercolor illustrations by Demetris Papadimitropoulos.
Georgia Clark’s “Play It Again” asks whether adulthood means scaling up your ambitions or finding the people, work, and place that finally fit.
By Demetris Papadimitropoulos | April 10th, 2026
At the lip of the stage and the edge of summer dusk, the playhouse becomes what the novel finally insists it is – not an escape from life, but the threshold through which these women step into one that fits.
Community theater is one of the few adult institutions that still asks people to risk public humiliation for no salary and then call the whole thing joy. It runs on borrowed costumes, weak coffee, bruised egos, stale popcorn, missed cues, and the frankly heroic belief that making a fool of yourself in public may yet save your life. Georgia Clark knows that world well enough to do more with it than hang fairy lights around a romance. “Play It Again” arrives looking like a glossy queer reunion comedy and turns out to have a sharper bite than that pitch suggests. Beneath the flirtation, the diner banter, the highly competent sex, and the giddy second-chance plotting, Clark is writing about the exhausting work adults do to maintain versions of themselves that other people can live with.
Its glow invites the wrong kind of reading.
The premise can charm a room in one sentence. Four former teenage castmates reunite in Rhodes, a Hudson Valley town hoping to revive both its beloved playhouse and its local fortunes by restaging “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.” Annie Lightfoot is now a dog groomer whose life has narrowed into caretaking, routine, and the thousand small services by which a person can slowly vanish from her own plot. Lola Wilson returns as a recognizable actor whose career looks much larger from the outside than it feels from within. Vicky Fang is a family lawyer so ferociously competent she has started mistaking control for safety. Dylan Rogers, proudly nonbinary and newly at ease inside a self once lived as disguise, comes back as a chocolatier with a business, a quick mouth, and an old wound that never healed correctly. The production is supposed to save the theater, help rebrand Rhodes as queer-friendly and destination-worthy, and give everyone involved one glittering summer of repair. Naturally, it detonates the emotional material they left buried twenty years earlier.
What begins as a modest local audition swells into a crooked line of hope, oddity, and communal risk – the moment Rhodes starts imagining itself otherwise.
What keeps the book moving is friction – romantic, social, bodily, economic.
Everyone arrives already partially costumed. Annie plays the bright local caretaker whose small life is enough because it has to be. Lola plays the success story whose polish long ago hardened into reflex. Vicky has turned competence into armor. Dylan keeps tenderness under swagger and jokes. The Rhodes Playhouse does not merely complicate those roles. It drags them under hot lights, makes them repeat themselves, and waits for the mask to slip. That is one of the book’s less advertised strengths. Clark is not writing a reunion fantasy in which old chemistry simply flickers back on. She is writing about the daily labor of self-preservation: Annie babbling when frightened, as if enough words might crowd out exposure; Lola smoothing herself into charm so automatically that she can barely tell finish from falsehood; Vicky cross-examining because structure feels safer than surrender; Dylan joking at exactly the moment sincerity starts looking dangerous. Everyone here is acting, and not only when the curtain rises.
The playhouse gives Clark a machine that manufactures pressure on cue. This is not upstate charm pasted around the edges. It is a venue where blocking, repetition, understudies, sold-out seats, missed entrances, and collective expectation all become forms of truth serum. Jazz Whitaker, the director, is not staging Stoppard for nostalgia alone. She is trying to keep a building alive, a town imaginatively alive, and a version of local communal life alive. If the show works, Rhodes might begin to see itself differently. If it fails, something larger than one fundraiser goes down with it. Clark is especially good on the way private feeling gets forced into public speech. A table read becomes a referendum on adulthood. A rehearsal note lands like exposure. An opening-night crisis is both theatrical emergency and emotional reckoning. Repetition here is not filler. It is character development by other means. Scenes improve because people change.
The deepest injury belongs to Annie and Lola. As teenagers, they were secretly in love until Annie ended things with a lie meant, in her own mind, to free Lola for the larger life waiting elsewhere. It is an act of sacrificial love, yes. It is also an act of damage. Clark is smart enough not to cancel one truth with the other. Annie’s motive is understandable. Lola’s decades of mistrust remain real. The novel’s maturity lies in refusing to launder that damage into pure nobility. When the truth finally surfaces, it does not function as a neat key turning in a romantic lock. It explains the wound. It does not erase it. That distinction matters, and Clark respects it.
At the hidden swimming hole, the book lets desire leave rehearsal and enter sunlight, turning private longing into a scene of startled, hard-won release.
Vicky and Dylan, by contrast, give the novel its quickest comic heat and some of its sharpest feeling. Their reconnection is immediate, erotic, and lined with the humiliation of old longing. But Clark does not ask chemistry to do all the work. The sex scenes are not bonus prizes. They are diagnostic. Vicky’s desire keeps colliding with her need to remain defended, impressive, and unmastered. Dylan’s flirtation keeps exposing the tenderness it was built to conceal. What begins as banter turns into a method of disclosure. Their sexual candor is funny because it is reckless, and moving because it is the only register in which both of them briefly stop managing themselves. The jokes are not confetti. They are protective gear.
Clark’s prose works for the same reason. It is not “witty” in the soft approving sense that word often picks up. It is characterological. Annie’s humor comes out of panic, bodily embarrassment, and a frantic need to outrun shame before shame outruns her. Dylan’s charm is half seduction, half shield. Vicky makes precision sound like posture. Lola keeps discovering that smoothness can itself become a lie. The diction stays contemporary, tactile, and bodily without turning synthetic. Sweat, stage lights, costume fabric, diner booths, cheap wine, makeup, lanyards, the misery of feeling underdressed in the wrong room – these details keep the novel from floating off into tasteful generality. Clark is especially strong on embarrassment under heat. Annie’s catastrophic table-read introduction is funny because it is socially fatal and psychologically exact. The same goes for the premiere sequence, the best sustained passage in the book.
That premiere is where “Play It Again” sharpens from charming to genuinely incisive. Annie enters Lola’s professional world imagining, not unreasonably, that she will be present there as Lola’s person. Instead she discovers, by increments, that she has been brought into a prestige machine without being given a place inside it. The wrong lanyard. The wrong seating section. The step-and-repeat from which she is gently excluded. The after-party conversations in which she is misrecognized by type before she is heard at all. Annie is not publicly humiliated. She is quietly sorted. Clark understands how painful that can be. Not overt cruelty – worse. That polished kind of exclusion that leaves no single insult to protest, only the accumulating knowledge that one has been placed.
For a book this buoyant, it has a wickedly exact eye for class. Underneath the kissing and stage business, the question humming below everything is simple: what actually counts as a big life? Annie initially reads Lola’s career as pure scale – money, visibility, movement, consequence. Lola has been taught to read it that way too. Vicky mistakes overwork for seriousness. Dylan mistakes motion for freedom. Clark is not making the easy case that glamour is empty or ambition corrupt. She is making the more interesting one that prestige keeps using the wrong ruler. Again and again, the novel redirects attention toward other measures: being known correctly, wanting without self-erasure, staying put without shrinking, work that does not require daily self-betrayal, ordinariness without diminishment. This is not a brief for modesty. It is an argument for fit. A life that fits the person living it.
Outside the abandoned shop, adult love stops looking like flash and starts looking like architecture – two people seeing, in wet glass, the outline of a future they might actually inhabit.
The structure helps because rehearsal is where revelation gets blocked, flubbed, repeated, and finally landed. A scene fails on Monday, stutters on Wednesday, clicks on Friday because the people inside it have shifted. Stoppard’s play gives Clark a live apparatus for questions of performance, spectatorship, contingency, and agency, but she never lets that apparatus turn the novel into a seminar in costume. She keeps it social, dramatic, and active. By the time the opening-night crisis arrives – Lola seeming to abandon the show for a London film shoot, the cast trying to salvage the production without her, the technical catastrophe locking together with the romantic one – the novel has stopped coasting on charm and started earning its deeper claims. Community theater becomes one of the last adult spaces where people can fail in public, revise in public, and still be loved anyway.
Rain-soaked and impossibly late, Lola’s reentry turns melodrama into mercy – the theatrical rescue that saves both the show and the life waiting just offstage.
For me, that leaves the novel at 82/100, or 4 stars: clearly strong, frequently delightful, emotionally intelligent, and consistently readable, though not quite immune to smoothing the bruise it has just earned. It is not five points higher because some reconciliatory beats arrive with more rhetorical clarity than life usually grants, because a few secondary figures are more efficient than fully dimensional, and because the novel occasionally tidies away roughness that might have been more powerful left visible. There is, at the edges, a harsher and stranger version of this book – one less willing to clean up emotional wreckage once the right couples have found the right future. Clark does not quite write that book. Mostly she is right not to. But the pressure of that unwritten rougher novel gives this one part of its charge. It is also not five points lower because its pleasures are earned the hard way. They come through apology, embarrassment, jealousy, sexual candor, class discomfort, missed timing, and the very unglamorous labor of trying again.
What the ending finally changes is the ruler by which these lives have been measured all along. Adulthood here is not résumé management, body management, image management, or the endless strain of seeming fine. It is steadiness without self-erasure. It is the relief of finding a life in which you no longer have to improvise being lovable. By the epilogue – rainbow crosswalk, revived playhouse, salon, chocolate shop, diner booth reclaimed – Clark has made a sturdy case that the supposedly larger life is not necessarily elsewhere, only more expensively lit. Sometimes it is the life that survives the missed cue, the private jet, the bad lanyard, the old lie, and still heads into the night hungry for curly fries.
Early thumbnail studies testing how stage, doorway, sky, and negative space might hold the book’s central tension between performance and home.
The faint graphite scaffold where the final image first finds its balance – architecture, figures, and threshold present, but still speaking in whispers.
A tonal rehearsal in one muted family, mapping where the eye should land and how interior glow should lean against dusk.
The moment color begins to breathe into the page: pencil still visible, mood just arriving, the image discovering its weather.
A palette note in miniature, isolating the creams, dusk blues, muted golds, and softened pinks that give the finished painting its theatrical summer atmosphere.
All watercolor illustrations by Demetris Papadimitropoulos.
July 18, 2026
Yupppp this was so stupid but ofc I loved it
Did Not Finish
June 24, 2026DNF @ 50% I tried to get into this but it wasn’t for me. I think I expected more theater but that was really just the device for getting the group back together. I did enjoy what I saw of the queer representation. I just wasn’t captured enough by the story to continue on.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the gifted copy!
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the gifted copy!
June 9, 2026
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review. This book had a lot of potential. I think the community theater angle was fun, and some of the minor characters could have been interesting. Unfortunately, Clark made the 4 main characters so stereotypical and silly that they didn’t feel anywhere approaching realistic. There were also SO MANY WORDS. I promise the reader does not care what everyone is wearing in every scene, or every single detail of every single room any character entered. This could have easily been 30 pages shorter without all of that unnecessary detail.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
4.25 ⭐ ARC Review - It’s the emotional depth of the relationships, romantic and friendship, that really define this book and make it into a romantic comedy novel that also champions character growth, finding your people, being true to yourself, and accepting love within the context of two generations of queerness.
🏳️🌈 For Fans of:
- queer romance
- second chance romance
- romantic comedy
- grown up theater kids
- multi-generational LGBTQIA+ experiences
- small town
- multiple couples in single book
- hilarious dialogue
- getting the band back together
- high school to 30s friendships
✏️ Spoiler-Free ARC Review
Nearly twenty years after a high school theater show, the Queer Quartet is back together! The four former friends haven’t talked in two decades when everything fell apart the closing night of their show. Now, they all join the play for different reasons but have to figure out where they stand with each other and how to move forward.
I love that they come together, each with their own point of view, as adults who have grown into their queerness, but also how they appreciate and help the new generation of young queer kids that are also in the play with them.
Since we get each point of view, we get to see their struggles as kids first coming out, their life so far, and most at a crossroads in their almost-40s, re-evaluating what they want out of life.
Plus, each of the four main characters also get their own one-on-one moments with the other young queer kids in the play, just like they had with the show runner, when they were kids. It comes with an appreciation and very real pros and cons for the openness of the new generation of queers, just figuring out who they are and finding their people. It was the sharing of experiences across generations (in both directions) that made this book so impactful.
I also love that the author didn’t shy away from the conversations of the sometimes harsh juxtaposition of how the world viewed and treated LGBTQIA+ people in the 1990s versus now, in the 2020s. They pause to have conversations on what may have been step 1 of acceptance versus what is now accepted, giving the older generation a chance to grow and even better accept themselves.
It’s the relationships, romantic and friendships, that really define this book and make it into the heartwarming yet spicy romance novel that bridges generations.
🖤 Thank you to author Georgia Clark and publisher Dial Press for the digital advanced reader copy (ARC) via NetGalley.
As always, my reviews are honest, my own, and voluntary!
📚 Book: Play It Again by Georgia Clark
📅 Release Date: June 16, 2026
⭐ Rating: 4.25 out of 5
🏳️🌈 For Fans of:
- queer romance
- second chance romance
- romantic comedy
- grown up theater kids
- multi-generational LGBTQIA+ experiences
- small town
- multiple couples in single book
- hilarious dialogue
- getting the band back together
- high school to 30s friendships
✏️ Spoiler-Free ARC Review
Nearly twenty years after a high school theater show, the Queer Quartet is back together! The four former friends haven’t talked in two decades when everything fell apart the closing night of their show. Now, they all join the play for different reasons but have to figure out where they stand with each other and how to move forward.
I love that they come together, each with their own point of view, as adults who have grown into their queerness, but also how they appreciate and help the new generation of young queer kids that are also in the play with them.
Since we get each point of view, we get to see their struggles as kids first coming out, their life so far, and most at a crossroads in their almost-40s, re-evaluating what they want out of life.
Plus, each of the four main characters also get their own one-on-one moments with the other young queer kids in the play, just like they had with the show runner, when they were kids. It comes with an appreciation and very real pros and cons for the openness of the new generation of queers, just figuring out who they are and finding their people. It was the sharing of experiences across generations (in both directions) that made this book so impactful.
I also love that the author didn’t shy away from the conversations of the sometimes harsh juxtaposition of how the world viewed and treated LGBTQIA+ people in the 1990s versus now, in the 2020s. They pause to have conversations on what may have been step 1 of acceptance versus what is now accepted, giving the older generation a chance to grow and even better accept themselves.
It’s the relationships, romantic and friendships, that really define this book and make it into the heartwarming yet spicy romance novel that bridges generations.
🖤 Thank you to author Georgia Clark and publisher Dial Press for the digital advanced reader copy (ARC) via NetGalley.
As always, my reviews are honest, my own, and voluntary!
📚 Book: Play It Again by Georgia Clark
📅 Release Date: June 16, 2026
⭐ Rating: 4.25 out of 5
July 3, 2026
3.5 stars
As teenagers they were inseparable. Four friends—Annie, Lola, Vicky, and Dylan—took their hometown by storm when they starred in a gender-swapped adaptation of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead . It was an incredible summer, but the night the show closed the four were torn apart, and went their separate ways.
Twenty years later, they all have very different lives from what they dreamed of. But when their hometown of Rhodes, NY, gets a less-than-impressive write up in a tourism magazine, the town gets closer to dying out completely. Given that Annie owns a pet grooming place in town, she’s definitely concerned.
All four of them get summoned back to the now-closed playhouse where their fondest memories reside. Jazz, their director, wants to revive their production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead to hopefully bring some life (and money) back into the town and the theater. Of course, it will only work if all four agree.
The pleasantries of their reunion quickly fade as the memories of the show’s end 20 years ago are revisited. There’s no doubt that the feelings both couples had for one another still linger, but so do secrets, misunderstandings, and emotional wounds. Can they put the past aside to not only save Rhodes and put on a show, but also to see if a second chance is possible?
This was a mostly fun and lighthearted story, full of nostalgia and emotion. I was a theater kid so I definitely enjoyed those aspects of the book. I felt like the pacing got very slow in the middle and I also thought at times the characters’ actions were a little more petty and childish than they should have been.
Check out my best reads of 2025 at https://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com/2026/01/the-best-books-i-read-in-2025.html .
See all of my reviews at itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com.
Follow me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/getbookedwithlarry/.
As teenagers they were inseparable. Four friends—Annie, Lola, Vicky, and Dylan—took their hometown by storm when they starred in a gender-swapped adaptation of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead . It was an incredible summer, but the night the show closed the four were torn apart, and went their separate ways.
Twenty years later, they all have very different lives from what they dreamed of. But when their hometown of Rhodes, NY, gets a less-than-impressive write up in a tourism magazine, the town gets closer to dying out completely. Given that Annie owns a pet grooming place in town, she’s definitely concerned.
All four of them get summoned back to the now-closed playhouse where their fondest memories reside. Jazz, their director, wants to revive their production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead to hopefully bring some life (and money) back into the town and the theater. Of course, it will only work if all four agree.
The pleasantries of their reunion quickly fade as the memories of the show’s end 20 years ago are revisited. There’s no doubt that the feelings both couples had for one another still linger, but so do secrets, misunderstandings, and emotional wounds. Can they put the past aside to not only save Rhodes and put on a show, but also to see if a second chance is possible?
This was a mostly fun and lighthearted story, full of nostalgia and emotion. I was a theater kid so I definitely enjoyed those aspects of the book. I felt like the pacing got very slow in the middle and I also thought at times the characters’ actions were a little more petty and childish than they should have been.
Check out my best reads of 2025 at https://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com/2026/01/the-best-books-i-read-in-2025.html .
See all of my reviews at itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com.
Follow me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/getbookedwithlarry/.
May 28, 2026
Queer, small town, second chance romance with an ensemble cast of theatre kids and adults trying to save their little town!
This was such a heart warming book to me. As a former theatre kid (who eventually went into visual arts but remembers it fondly), the storyline encompassed everything community theatre is: mentorship, a ragtag group that somehow becomes a family, messing up and learning to roll with it, and an inexplicable sense of it being the most ridiculous but most happy you’ve ever been. Georgia Clark nailed it and I found myself reminiscing about my old theatre days right along with the characters.
Despite a larger cast, the author did a fabulous job fleshing everyone out and making them all memorable on their own. The four teens and Jaime especially have a piece of my heart. 💜 The ongoing conversations about and with the younger generation of queer kids versus the adults’ experiences as teens is something I don’t see often, especially in fiction, and thoroughly appreciated. Especially with protagonists in their mid to late 30’s, it’s important to have those conversations and recognize the differences so that we can appreciate them.
The actual romances in here were great, I liked the contrast of Dylan and Vicky’s hot and heavy vibe against Lola and Annie’s sweet and cautious romance. I’m often not a fan of second chance romances, but this was both believable and incredibly satisfying, despite my desire to drop Vicky off a cliff at times. Love her, but GIRL LET THEM LOVE YOU.
Great, thoughtful queer rep across the spectrum, it was upfront with its representation in a non “crossing off the checklist” way.
Overall, adored this book and will be reading more by this author! If you’re in the mood for a small town, second chance, queer theatre kid romance, this was excellently done and I highly recommend it!
Thank you to the author and to NetGalley for the ARC! All opinions expressed are my own. 🖤
This was such a heart warming book to me. As a former theatre kid (who eventually went into visual arts but remembers it fondly), the storyline encompassed everything community theatre is: mentorship, a ragtag group that somehow becomes a family, messing up and learning to roll with it, and an inexplicable sense of it being the most ridiculous but most happy you’ve ever been. Georgia Clark nailed it and I found myself reminiscing about my old theatre days right along with the characters.
Despite a larger cast, the author did a fabulous job fleshing everyone out and making them all memorable on their own. The four teens and Jaime especially have a piece of my heart. 💜 The ongoing conversations about and with the younger generation of queer kids versus the adults’ experiences as teens is something I don’t see often, especially in fiction, and thoroughly appreciated. Especially with protagonists in their mid to late 30’s, it’s important to have those conversations and recognize the differences so that we can appreciate them.
The actual romances in here were great, I liked the contrast of Dylan and Vicky’s hot and heavy vibe against Lola and Annie’s sweet and cautious romance. I’m often not a fan of second chance romances, but this was both believable and incredibly satisfying, despite my desire to drop Vicky off a cliff at times. Love her, but GIRL LET THEM LOVE YOU.
Great, thoughtful queer rep across the spectrum, it was upfront with its representation in a non “crossing off the checklist” way.
Overall, adored this book and will be reading more by this author! If you’re in the mood for a small town, second chance, queer theatre kid romance, this was excellently done and I highly recommend it!
Thank you to the author and to NetGalley for the ARC! All opinions expressed are my own. 🖤
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
4.5 Stars.
Play It Again is a delightful second chance romance - for two couples! The main couple is Lola and Annie and the other couple is Dylan and Vicky. Each were 'high school sweethearts' and they all separated for life things and a variety of miscommunications from high school. They all come together now they are in their mid/late 30s to do a community theater show in their hometown. Each of them has something they are struggling with, job dissatisfaction, health issues, etc.
We are taken through their journeys preparing for the play and rekindling their romances from high school amidst a quaint backdrop of their adorable sounding hometown, Rhodes.
One of the first things I loved about this book was that they acted like adults! While they had miscommunications in high school, each couple easily spoke about what their seventeen year old brain was thinking and explained it like an adult would. There was no hiding emotions or thoughts or trying to pretend. It all came out in the open pretty quickly. There was one scene at the end - but I would say it is more of an emotional outburst than a straight miscommunication. I really loved that this was NOT a romance about college kids or twenty-somethings, but like, real grown ups.
I actually liked Dylan/Vicky's story line more. I just connected with them, probably since Vicky and I share a career, but, I also just think the author did a wonderful job really creating their characters so well. Honestly, the whole time I was thinking I would love to watch this movie or TV show. I could see each character so vividly! I did love Lola and Annie too, but frankly I found Lola's character just a bit unbelievable. You are telling me a Hollywood star just wants to date a lady in her hometown? I just find it a bit hard to believe. That being said, it is a romance book and an incredibly sweet one. I highly recommend this for lovers of small town romances. I will definitely be picking up more books by this author!
Play It Again is a delightful second chance romance - for two couples! The main couple is Lola and Annie and the other couple is Dylan and Vicky. Each were 'high school sweethearts' and they all separated for life things and a variety of miscommunications from high school. They all come together now they are in their mid/late 30s to do a community theater show in their hometown. Each of them has something they are struggling with, job dissatisfaction, health issues, etc.
We are taken through their journeys preparing for the play and rekindling their romances from high school amidst a quaint backdrop of their adorable sounding hometown, Rhodes.
One of the first things I loved about this book was that they acted like adults! While they had miscommunications in high school, each couple easily spoke about what their seventeen year old brain was thinking and explained it like an adult would. There was no hiding emotions or thoughts or trying to pretend. It all came out in the open pretty quickly. There was one scene at the end - but I would say it is more of an emotional outburst than a straight miscommunication. I really loved that this was NOT a romance about college kids or twenty-somethings, but like, real grown ups.
I actually liked Dylan/Vicky's story line more. I just connected with them, probably since Vicky and I share a career, but, I also just think the author did a wonderful job really creating their characters so well. Honestly, the whole time I was thinking I would love to watch this movie or TV show. I could see each character so vividly! I did love Lola and Annie too, but frankly I found Lola's character just a bit unbelievable. You are telling me a Hollywood star just wants to date a lady in her hometown? I just find it a bit hard to believe. That being said, it is a romance book and an incredibly sweet one. I highly recommend this for lovers of small town romances. I will definitely be picking up more books by this author!
June 14, 2026
Play It Again is a second chance, ensemble queer romance book! Vicky, Dylan, Annie and Lola get the band back together to try to save their hometown theatre. However the four of them haven’t spoken in 20 years, since the closing night party from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead that they were all in ended a few relationships.
First of all I loved the getting the band (or theatre kids in this case) back together in this book! It was fun and I loved seeing the play come together! I loved the focus on community theatre and its importance to a town as well!
I also loved that the main characters were in their mid thirties and also acted like it! They are just trying to find their place in life throughout the book, something that very much doesn’t stop in your twenties. It was refreshing having them be a bit older.
I just loved the overall queerness of the book too! The main characters are but also some of the side characters too. I enjoyed the small parts of commentary throughout the book too with queerness, especially when using a play written in the 60s, and the different perspectives on it depending on the generation. But everyone was treated with respect with it.
Lola, Annie, Vicky and Dylan were all great characters with distinct personalities, something that was well done with being an ensemble book with each character having POV chapters. I also loved Annie and Lola, and Dylan and Vicky’s relationships throughout the book. You could see for both couple’s how they resolved the past hurt and trying to build new relationships.
The pacing did feel a bit rushed at times but this was a very minor thing and didn’t overtake the rest of the enjoyment.
Looking for a low stakes summer read with second chance romance and an ensemble cast? Play It Again is a great choice!
Thank you to the NetGalley and Random House for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
First of all I loved the getting the band (or theatre kids in this case) back together in this book! It was fun and I loved seeing the play come together! I loved the focus on community theatre and its importance to a town as well!
I also loved that the main characters were in their mid thirties and also acted like it! They are just trying to find their place in life throughout the book, something that very much doesn’t stop in your twenties. It was refreshing having them be a bit older.
I just loved the overall queerness of the book too! The main characters are but also some of the side characters too. I enjoyed the small parts of commentary throughout the book too with queerness, especially when using a play written in the 60s, and the different perspectives on it depending on the generation. But everyone was treated with respect with it.
Lola, Annie, Vicky and Dylan were all great characters with distinct personalities, something that was well done with being an ensemble book with each character having POV chapters. I also loved Annie and Lola, and Dylan and Vicky’s relationships throughout the book. You could see for both couple’s how they resolved the past hurt and trying to build new relationships.
The pacing did feel a bit rushed at times but this was a very minor thing and didn’t overtake the rest of the enjoyment.
Looking for a low stakes summer read with second chance romance and an ensemble cast? Play It Again is a great choice!
Thank you to the NetGalley and Random House for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
July 28, 2026
With the town struggling and the theater about to close, Jazz decides to put on a revival of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead with the help of the same group who starred in the original production. All grown up now, the four adults are forced to confront everything that broke them up as teens. I thought about going back and rereading the play for this one but didn’t have the time. So I don’t know how much the themes of the play mirror those in the novel.
The revival of the play was a perfect setup for Clarke’s signature style of ensemble casts. Unfortunately, this didn’t live up to my expectations. Rather than really diving into more character the novel really focused on the two main couples, Annie & Lola and Dylan & Vicky. While the story leaned more towards Annie & Lola, I thought Dylan & Vicky were actually more interesting and well rounded characters. It seemed like a missed opportunity to not use the story of the present day kids more to create parallels. We only really got them interacting one on one with the adults, not with each other. I also would have appreciated more of Jazz. She’s meant to be the force that brings everyone together so why not have her also draw us into the story?
Now let’s talk about the ending. It’s a romance so obviously everyone is going to work things out but it was a bit too easy given the size and nature of the fights. I personally did not find Lola’s actions during the fight to be in character.
Dylan being non-binary was handled very well throughout, acknowledging it when needed but not making it into more than necessary. It’s not lost on me that they were the only one of the main four who seemed to have their life in order.
Overall, not my favorite by Georgia Clarke, it took me a bit to really get going on the story. But if you love the style of ensemble cast this is worth picking up.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC!
The revival of the play was a perfect setup for Clarke’s signature style of ensemble casts. Unfortunately, this didn’t live up to my expectations. Rather than really diving into more character the novel really focused on the two main couples, Annie & Lola and Dylan & Vicky. While the story leaned more towards Annie & Lola, I thought Dylan & Vicky were actually more interesting and well rounded characters. It seemed like a missed opportunity to not use the story of the present day kids more to create parallels. We only really got them interacting one on one with the adults, not with each other. I also would have appreciated more of Jazz. She’s meant to be the force that brings everyone together so why not have her also draw us into the story?
Now let’s talk about the ending. It’s a romance so obviously everyone is going to work things out but it was a bit too easy given the size and nature of the fights. I personally did not find Lola’s actions during the fight to be in character.
Dylan being non-binary was handled very well throughout, acknowledging it when needed but not making it into more than necessary. It’s not lost on me that they were the only one of the main four who seemed to have their life in order.
Overall, not my favorite by Georgia Clarke, it took me a bit to really get going on the story. But if you love the style of ensemble cast this is worth picking up.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
4⭐️ Play It Again by Georgia Clark
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC!
This book felt like a love letter to queer friendship, second chances, and former theater kids who never really stopped being theater kids.
Nearly twenty years after one disastrous high school production tore their friend group apart, the Queer Quartet is reunited when they come back together to save their small town theater. What follows is messy, emotional, funny, nostalgic, and honestly incredibly heartwarming.
What I loved most about this story wasn’t just the romance (although the romances were GREAT) — it was the way Georgia Clark explored friendship, identity, and how different generations of queer people experience the world. Watching these characters reflect on growing up queer in the ‘90s while also mentoring younger LGBTQIA+ teens in the present day added so much emotional depth to the story.
The theater setting also absolutely worked for me. The chaos, the found family energy, the drama, the ridiculousness of community theater somehow becoming the center of everyone’s lives again… it all felt so genuine and full of heart.
Despite having a larger ensemble cast, every character felt distinct and memorable, and I found myself fully invested in both the friendships and the romances. The second chance elements felt believable, emotional, and satisfying, and I especially appreciated how much this story focused on growth, healing, and learning to accept yourself fully.
This book balances humor, romance, nostalgia, and emotional depth so well. It’s warm, thoughtful, funny, and full of love in every sense of the word.
If you love:
🎭 queer romance
🎭 second chance love stories
🎭 found family
🎭 small town settings
🎭 theater kid chaos
🎭 multi-generational LGBTQIA+ stories
🎭 friendship-focused romances
…definitely pick this one up.
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC!
This book felt like a love letter to queer friendship, second chances, and former theater kids who never really stopped being theater kids.
Nearly twenty years after one disastrous high school production tore their friend group apart, the Queer Quartet is reunited when they come back together to save their small town theater. What follows is messy, emotional, funny, nostalgic, and honestly incredibly heartwarming.
What I loved most about this story wasn’t just the romance (although the romances were GREAT) — it was the way Georgia Clark explored friendship, identity, and how different generations of queer people experience the world. Watching these characters reflect on growing up queer in the ‘90s while also mentoring younger LGBTQIA+ teens in the present day added so much emotional depth to the story.
The theater setting also absolutely worked for me. The chaos, the found family energy, the drama, the ridiculousness of community theater somehow becoming the center of everyone’s lives again… it all felt so genuine and full of heart.
Despite having a larger ensemble cast, every character felt distinct and memorable, and I found myself fully invested in both the friendships and the romances. The second chance elements felt believable, emotional, and satisfying, and I especially appreciated how much this story focused on growth, healing, and learning to accept yourself fully.
This book balances humor, romance, nostalgia, and emotional depth so well. It’s warm, thoughtful, funny, and full of love in every sense of the word.
If you love:
🎭 queer romance
🎭 second chance love stories
🎭 found family
🎭 small town settings
🎭 theater kid chaos
🎭 multi-generational LGBTQIA+ stories
🎭 friendship-focused romances
…definitely pick this one up.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Play it Again centers around a group of 4 friends (Dylan, Annie, Vicky & Lola) who haven't seen each other since a fateful night 20 years ago destroyed their relationship. They've been brought back together in Rhodes, the small town they grew up in, to help save the community theater that first brought them together.
I absolutely LOVED Most Wonderful by Clark and was so excited for another queer ensemble rom com from them centered around the theater! As the four friends reunite and remember the halcyon days of teenage theater Clark absolute excels at evoking those memories - as a person with incredibly similar experiences I was thrown back to my own past in green rooms and backstage spaces and the way it felt to be there as a teen. There is truly no friendship like the deep devotion created between teen thespians in the dark of theater spaces.
Ultimately, though, this one ended up feeling a little less emotionally grounded for me than Most Wonderful. The ensemble cast didn't feel as fleshed out and the emotional moments felt a little more rushed through. I felt like a lot of the Dylan & Vicky storyline i was getting told about as flashbacks, with small moments of emotionality that didnt land as strongly because i hadn't seen the moments leading up to it. I felt much more present in Lola & Annie's storyline because i was experiencing things along with them. I found the third act break really understandable between them, with Lola falling back into patterns of behavior and feeling like she's making the right choice and not being understood.
Overall a sweet summery queer ensemble romance that elicited a huge dose of nostalgia and fondness for the theatrical summers of my own youth.
Thank you to Dial press and Netgalley for the early copy in exchange for this review.
I absolutely LOVED Most Wonderful by Clark and was so excited for another queer ensemble rom com from them centered around the theater! As the four friends reunite and remember the halcyon days of teenage theater Clark absolute excels at evoking those memories - as a person with incredibly similar experiences I was thrown back to my own past in green rooms and backstage spaces and the way it felt to be there as a teen. There is truly no friendship like the deep devotion created between teen thespians in the dark of theater spaces.
Ultimately, though, this one ended up feeling a little less emotionally grounded for me than Most Wonderful. The ensemble cast didn't feel as fleshed out and the emotional moments felt a little more rushed through. I felt like a lot of the Dylan & Vicky storyline i was getting told about as flashbacks, with small moments of emotionality that didnt land as strongly because i hadn't seen the moments leading up to it. I felt much more present in Lola & Annie's storyline because i was experiencing things along with them. I found the third act break really understandable between them, with Lola falling back into patterns of behavior and feeling like she's making the right choice and not being understood.
Overall a sweet summery queer ensemble romance that elicited a huge dose of nostalgia and fondness for the theatrical summers of my own youth.
Thank you to Dial press and Netgalley for the early copy in exchange for this review.
June 15, 2026
3.5 ⭐️
Thank you to The Dial Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this arc! All opinions are my own.
What a fun, sweet, and spicy read! This one truly is a love letter to the former theater kids, and as a former theater kid myself, I absolutely loved all of the found family in the story. There’s something about the camaraderie and bonds that are formed in theater, and Georgia Clark showcased it so well. I really enjoyed being in the POVs of the four main characters. They all had such unique voices and their own experiences, especially with how they grew from the past. And all of the side characters were so wonderful, from the group of teens that mirrored the main characters to all the townsfolk that joined in on the play. It added some really great humor!
I’m not always the biggest second chance romance fan, and this had two second chance love stories. So much time had passed - twenty years! Annie and Lola were a couple as teenagers, and it ended with a lie from Annie. Being reunited in Rhodes, love came back quickly. My one big qualm with their relationship was the third act breakup - it happened so fast and was resolved so quickly! I think they were meant for each other in the right person wrong time way, but the issues they had definitely could have been worked out more.
With Vicky and Dylan, they technically weren’t in a relationship before, but they always were attracted to each other. Their chemistry when they were reunited was explosive and so fun to read. However, I feel like with them being on different pages of what their relationship should be made it hard to believe they would work. Like Lola and Annie, everything was resolved so quickly, and while I love a happy ending, it was a little too convenient.
Overall, I really loved the theater and found family aspects but was kind of meh about the romance!
Thank you to The Dial Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this arc! All opinions are my own.
What a fun, sweet, and spicy read! This one truly is a love letter to the former theater kids, and as a former theater kid myself, I absolutely loved all of the found family in the story. There’s something about the camaraderie and bonds that are formed in theater, and Georgia Clark showcased it so well. I really enjoyed being in the POVs of the four main characters. They all had such unique voices and their own experiences, especially with how they grew from the past. And all of the side characters were so wonderful, from the group of teens that mirrored the main characters to all the townsfolk that joined in on the play. It added some really great humor!
I’m not always the biggest second chance romance fan, and this had two second chance love stories. So much time had passed - twenty years! Annie and Lola were a couple as teenagers, and it ended with a lie from Annie. Being reunited in Rhodes, love came back quickly. My one big qualm with their relationship was the third act breakup - it happened so fast and was resolved so quickly! I think they were meant for each other in the right person wrong time way, but the issues they had definitely could have been worked out more.
With Vicky and Dylan, they technically weren’t in a relationship before, but they always were attracted to each other. Their chemistry when they were reunited was explosive and so fun to read. However, I feel like with them being on different pages of what their relationship should be made it hard to believe they would work. Like Lola and Annie, everything was resolved so quickly, and while I love a happy ending, it was a little too convenient.
Overall, I really loved the theater and found family aspects but was kind of meh about the romance!
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Thank you PRH audio for the gifted advanced listener copy of this audiobook (all opinions are mine)!
I loved Most Wonderful (a Christmas novel) by this author so I was so excited to read this one and it didn’t disappoint! Retired theater kids rejoice, this one is for us!
My absolute favorite thing about this author is how much heart and depth are in their characters. Though we follow multiple storylines with multiple leads, each character is fully developed and unique in their own way. Sometimes following so many characters can get confusing and distracting but it’s the exact opposite here and I’m so happy for it.
Similarly, I love how this author ended the book. Sometimes I have a hard time with endings that revolve around a full cast of characters but this one was so good! It was satisfying and by the end I felt each character was like a friend. It was charming, fun, and romantic in all the best ways.
The story itself was a lot of fun and I loved how it revolved around saving the town theater! I loved how the characters put the show together after such a long time apart and how their love for their craft continued to shine through the show. I appreciated how thoughtful the representation was and how multiple different diverse POVs were featured. And the side characters were just as fun as our leads!
The audio was fantastic and I highly recommend! There were four narrators for the four main characters and I loved listening to each narrator bring their character to life.
Overall, this was a hit for me! Thanks again to PRH Audio, Play It Again releases June 16th!
I loved Most Wonderful (a Christmas novel) by this author so I was so excited to read this one and it didn’t disappoint! Retired theater kids rejoice, this one is for us!
My absolute favorite thing about this author is how much heart and depth are in their characters. Though we follow multiple storylines with multiple leads, each character is fully developed and unique in their own way. Sometimes following so many characters can get confusing and distracting but it’s the exact opposite here and I’m so happy for it.
Similarly, I love how this author ended the book. Sometimes I have a hard time with endings that revolve around a full cast of characters but this one was so good! It was satisfying and by the end I felt each character was like a friend. It was charming, fun, and romantic in all the best ways.
The story itself was a lot of fun and I loved how it revolved around saving the town theater! I loved how the characters put the show together after such a long time apart and how their love for their craft continued to shine through the show. I appreciated how thoughtful the representation was and how multiple different diverse POVs were featured. And the side characters were just as fun as our leads!
The audio was fantastic and I highly recommend! There were four narrators for the four main characters and I loved listening to each narrator bring their character to life.
Overall, this was a hit for me! Thanks again to PRH Audio, Play It Again releases June 16th!
June 16, 2026
Play It Again, by Georgia Clark, is a sweet, second chance queer romance. Four friends who became close during a local theater production during their teens reunite twenty years later to help breathe life back into their small town. Annie still lives in Rhodes, their hometown, and owns and runs a dog grooming business. Lola has moved out to LA and is a big movie star. Dylan is a chocolatier, and Vicky is now a high-powered attorney.
These four friends met while working together on the play “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead”, and Jazz, the theatre owner, asks them to create a new production of the play to help bring visitors to their town. Old misunderstandings between the two couples come to light and they are each struggling to admit the reality of their present-day lives. Each of the couples still feel a powerful attraction for each other, but will it be enough to get over their wounds from the past?
Overall, this book is an enjoyable read, but the pacing can be slow, and the book felt very long. I loved the idea of redoing a local theater production together twenty years later, but I felt that the charm and humor of community plays was lacking. I liked each of the characters, and appreciate the LGBTQIA+ representation. I struggled sometimes with the characters because their actions were immature, despite being in their late 30s.
If you are looking for a light, queer romance read this summer, this book will be a good choice. Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for an advance reader’s copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
These four friends met while working together on the play “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead”, and Jazz, the theatre owner, asks them to create a new production of the play to help bring visitors to their town. Old misunderstandings between the two couples come to light and they are each struggling to admit the reality of their present-day lives. Each of the couples still feel a powerful attraction for each other, but will it be enough to get over their wounds from the past?
Overall, this book is an enjoyable read, but the pacing can be slow, and the book felt very long. I loved the idea of redoing a local theater production together twenty years later, but I felt that the charm and humor of community plays was lacking. I liked each of the characters, and appreciate the LGBTQIA+ representation. I struggled sometimes with the characters because their actions were immature, despite being in their late 30s.
If you are looking for a light, queer romance read this summer, this book will be a good choice. Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for an advance reader’s copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
June 20, 2026
Thanks to @thedialpress @randomhouse and @netgalley for the gifted e-ARC and to @prhaudio for the ALC!
Read this book if you like: Queer romance, FF romance, acting, local theater, small town
Spice: open door
Twenty years ago four queer teenagers, Annie, Lola, Vicky, and Dylan were cast together in the play Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead at their local community theater. They formed friendships and fell in love, becoming two couples. But after the play they all went their separate ways and haven’t seen each other since. Now Jazz, the director, has called them all back to their hometown for a chance to revive the show and the theater. As they spend time together rehearsing they confess old truths, give apologies and open their hearts to each other, falling in love all over again. But the end of the summer is coming and they all have real lives to return to. The magic of community theater can’t last forever, right?
This is the warmest queerest hug for all theater kids and theater lovers! There’s nothing like a summer of small town community theater. I loved the four main characters and found their relationships to be perfectly paced. The dramas they faced felt very realistic and there was so much yearning and passion. All the side characters were lovely, the best kind of small town found family (although it did take me half the book to remember who was who).
If you’re a theater nerd or just love small town romance, this book is for you.
The four narrators did an excellent job bringing all the characters to life. Sound quality was excellent even at 2x.
Read this book if you like: Queer romance, FF romance, acting, local theater, small town
Spice: open door
Twenty years ago four queer teenagers, Annie, Lola, Vicky, and Dylan were cast together in the play Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead at their local community theater. They formed friendships and fell in love, becoming two couples. But after the play they all went their separate ways and haven’t seen each other since. Now Jazz, the director, has called them all back to their hometown for a chance to revive the show and the theater. As they spend time together rehearsing they confess old truths, give apologies and open their hearts to each other, falling in love all over again. But the end of the summer is coming and they all have real lives to return to. The magic of community theater can’t last forever, right?
This is the warmest queerest hug for all theater kids and theater lovers! There’s nothing like a summer of small town community theater. I loved the four main characters and found their relationships to be perfectly paced. The dramas they faced felt very realistic and there was so much yearning and passion. All the side characters were lovely, the best kind of small town found family (although it did take me half the book to remember who was who).
If you’re a theater nerd or just love small town romance, this book is for you.
The four narrators did an excellent job bringing all the characters to life. Sound quality was excellent even at 2x.
June 18, 2026
Play It Again is small-town homecoming perfection with a queer twist. It's about finding your way back to the people who knew you before life got complicated—and back to the passions you thought you'd left behind. As teens, Annie, Lola, Vicky, and Dylan were the stars of a legendary gender-swapped production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Two couples, one unforgettable summer, and a closing-night party that changed everything.
One thing I really appreciated was that these characters are adults who actually act like adults. When old wounds and misunderstandings resurface, they don't spend the entire book holding grudges or avoiding each other. Instead, they have honest conversations about what happened and acknowledge that seventeen-year-olds don't always make the best decisions. It was refreshing to see mature communication drive the story.
Like Georgia Clark's Most Wonderful, this book felt incredibly cinematic. I could easily picture the characters, the town, and every scene unfolding like a movie in my head.
If you're looking for a light, heartwarming summer read filled with friendship, second chances, and small-town charm, definitely add Play It Again to your TBR. 📚☀️
Thank you go NetGalley, Penguin Random House and of course the wonderful Georgia Clark for the opportunity to read this book early.
One thing I really appreciated was that these characters are adults who actually act like adults. When old wounds and misunderstandings resurface, they don't spend the entire book holding grudges or avoiding each other. Instead, they have honest conversations about what happened and acknowledge that seventeen-year-olds don't always make the best decisions. It was refreshing to see mature communication drive the story.
Like Georgia Clark's Most Wonderful, this book felt incredibly cinematic. I could easily picture the characters, the town, and every scene unfolding like a movie in my head.
If you're looking for a light, heartwarming summer read filled with friendship, second chances, and small-town charm, definitely add Play It Again to your TBR. 📚☀️
Thank you go NetGalley, Penguin Random House and of course the wonderful Georgia Clark for the opportunity to read this book early.
June 22, 2026
If you've ever been involved in theatre, this is the book for you! Play It Again is a love letter to theatre productions and also a very sweet ensemble romance. It focuses on four friends, with a lot of history from the last time they performed together, who are thrown back together by their eccentric director over a decade later. They were just teenagers the first time they performed, experiencing first love and secret crushes. These feelings are able to come back to the surface and evolve into beautiful adult relationships as they are tasked to perform the very same show and given a mission to save the town as well. Georgia Clark's narration is very character-driven, which makes it fun to read all four distinct perspectives. I especially loved Dylan's storyline as the hot non-binary character who learns that they are not the only one who changed in the past few years. Their gender journey felt very authentic to me as a non-binary reader. I loved both relationships that we followed and especially liked how different they were from each other. At its heart, though, this is a book about coming together for a cause and the beauty of theatre. For anyone who's ever sat on an empty stage looking out into those bright lights, this is written for you.
Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for the Advanced Reader Copy!
Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for the Advanced Reader Copy!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
There's a comfort I always find in Georgia Clark books. The characters feel like friends and I feel like that's the highest compliment I can give.
Play It Again is no different. Rhodes, New York was once home to Annie, Lola, Vicky and Dylan as teenagers. Time and circumstances led to them growing apart, and all but Annie ended up leaving. Now twenty years later, reunited to try to save the playhouse in their beloved town, the band is back together. But there is a lot of history between them, particularly with Annie/Lola and Vicky/Dylan, and no closure. Now as adults, they need to navigate each other, try to rebuild those fractured relationships, and also finally be honest about what went wrong all those years ago.
This is a four way POV book between all our main characters, but it never gets confusing as to whose chapter you're reading. Every one of them has a distinct voice, and they're all so endearing and easy to root for.
Also, as a huge Broadway enjoyer, this was right up my alley. Drama and second chances AND our characters in a play that they all were minor characters in as kids but are now old enough to be the leads?? Sign me up! Also loved the full circle moments of them becoming mentors for kids in the community the same way the owner of the playhouse was for them at that age.
I also love that they're in their late 30s, it fits the story perfectly and absolutely would not have worked as well had they been younger.
This is a sweet and easy read, and a very pleasant way to spend a summer afternoon!
Play It Again is no different. Rhodes, New York was once home to Annie, Lola, Vicky and Dylan as teenagers. Time and circumstances led to them growing apart, and all but Annie ended up leaving. Now twenty years later, reunited to try to save the playhouse in their beloved town, the band is back together. But there is a lot of history between them, particularly with Annie/Lola and Vicky/Dylan, and no closure. Now as adults, they need to navigate each other, try to rebuild those fractured relationships, and also finally be honest about what went wrong all those years ago.
This is a four way POV book between all our main characters, but it never gets confusing as to whose chapter you're reading. Every one of them has a distinct voice, and they're all so endearing and easy to root for.
Also, as a huge Broadway enjoyer, this was right up my alley. Drama and second chances AND our characters in a play that they all were minor characters in as kids but are now old enough to be the leads?? Sign me up! Also loved the full circle moments of them becoming mentors for kids in the community the same way the owner of the playhouse was for them at that age.
I also love that they're in their late 30s, it fits the story perfectly and absolutely would not have worked as well had they been younger.
This is a sweet and easy read, and a very pleasant way to spend a summer afternoon!
June 15, 2026
Take a bow, Georgia Clark. You’ve done it again!
I could not have loved Play It Again more. After reading Most Wonderful in 2024, I knew Clark was great at writing from multiple POVs and writing more than one romance into a story, but Play It Again was next level. We get two full romances in one book, and we get to see it all from all four characters’ POVs. Furthermore, each of the characters were fully fleshed out individuals, unique in their own right, and following each story and the underlying plot was effortless.
I’ve seen other reviews describe Annie & Lola as the “main” romance and Dylan & Vicky as the “side” romance, but I disagree. I felt like all four characters got equal page-time, and neither romance felt more prominent to me than the other. Annie & Lola had more open drama, but both couples’ stories were a focus.
Beyond the romance, this story has so much heart. It is truly a love letter to theatre (which won me over immediately as a forever theatre nerd), but also to small towns, first loves, and unapologetic queerness. It’s full of warmth, love, and hope. It will tug on your heartstrings and also make you laugh out loud. It’s absolute perfection.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the eARC!
I could not have loved Play It Again more. After reading Most Wonderful in 2024, I knew Clark was great at writing from multiple POVs and writing more than one romance into a story, but Play It Again was next level. We get two full romances in one book, and we get to see it all from all four characters’ POVs. Furthermore, each of the characters were fully fleshed out individuals, unique in their own right, and following each story and the underlying plot was effortless.
I’ve seen other reviews describe Annie & Lola as the “main” romance and Dylan & Vicky as the “side” romance, but I disagree. I felt like all four characters got equal page-time, and neither romance felt more prominent to me than the other. Annie & Lola had more open drama, but both couples’ stories were a focus.
Beyond the romance, this story has so much heart. It is truly a love letter to theatre (which won me over immediately as a forever theatre nerd), but also to small towns, first loves, and unapologetic queerness. It’s full of warmth, love, and hope. It will tug on your heartstrings and also make you laugh out loud. It’s absolute perfection.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the eARC!
June 17, 2026
As teens, Annie, Lola, Vicky, and Dylan stole the show in a legendary gender-swapped version of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Two couples, one unforgettable summer—until the closing-night party tore them apart... and not all of them knew why. 💔
Now, with lives that look nothing like they imagined, the foursome is called home by their beloved director for a one-night-only revival to save the theater—and the town. Returning to Rhodes means facing everything they left behind: long-buried secrets, undeniable chemistry, and the chance to write a brand-new ending—together.
~~~~~~
Play It Again is the small town romance we needed this summer. This is a wonderful story about "coming home", even for those who never really left. This charming cast of characters, young and old, pull together whimsy, love, and togetherness. As a theater Nerd myself, I really soaked up every last drop of one of my favorite pastimes.
As a person in the same age range as the main characters, I long for the nostalgia of a younger me sometimes, and reading this makes me want to get into local theater. I find myself carrying a few of the traits for each of the main 4 characters. If I could add anything else to the story, I'd have wanted to spend a little more time with the secondary characters.
Now, with lives that look nothing like they imagined, the foursome is called home by their beloved director for a one-night-only revival to save the theater—and the town. Returning to Rhodes means facing everything they left behind: long-buried secrets, undeniable chemistry, and the chance to write a brand-new ending—together.
~~~~~~
Play It Again is the small town romance we needed this summer. This is a wonderful story about "coming home", even for those who never really left. This charming cast of characters, young and old, pull together whimsy, love, and togetherness. As a theater Nerd myself, I really soaked up every last drop of one of my favorite pastimes.
As a person in the same age range as the main characters, I long for the nostalgia of a younger me sometimes, and reading this makes me want to get into local theater. I find myself carrying a few of the traits for each of the main 4 characters. If I could add anything else to the story, I'd have wanted to spend a little more time with the secondary characters.
July 7, 2026
This was a sweet, second-chance romance that follows four former friends reconnecting for the first time in two decades, finding their lives intertwining once again. I enjoyed seeing characters who are older, in their 30s and still there is still room for messiness, finding themselves, and letting themselves fall into new options with a refreshing openness. The queer representation was perfect, showing a true sense of love in so many different dynamics and giving readers truly a love story.
While also focusing on a greater sense of community, giving us a gaggle of characters who become intertwined once more with a hint of nostalgia. The only challenge for me was that everything came together quickly and smoothly with not much difficulty that felt a little rushed. While I love an HEA, sometimes they can come together too perfectly that doesn’t match the rest of the book where characters are shifting through the mud for the previous 60%. Overall a fun, community centered queer romance that will have you laughing, feeling a sense of nostalgia in reconnecting with childhood and a love story that has you feeling whole at the end.
Thank you to Netgalley for an early copy in exchange for a review!!
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
This was a delightful second chance romance, theater style.
While I wasn't a theater kid, many of my friends were. I understand that iron-clad bond that is shared amongst others with a common interest and a deep and intense love for the stage.
What I loved about this story was not necessarily the second chances, not only for love once thought lost, but the second chances for the adults learning from the kids and vice versa. The lessons that were taught and learned. I would have loved to have had a deep dive into those relationships and lessons. There was a lot of revisiting and healing from past traumas. I also loved a community coming together to save their theater and their town. But most importantly, the queer relationships, the acceptance, love, and willingness to see beyond labels and to be able to truly see the people behind those things. To change perspective and gain understanding.
Thank you Random House for the E-ARC of Play it Again, by Georgia Clark via NetGalley. All opinions are mine!
While I wasn't a theater kid, many of my friends were. I understand that iron-clad bond that is shared amongst others with a common interest and a deep and intense love for the stage.
What I loved about this story was not necessarily the second chances, not only for love once thought lost, but the second chances for the adults learning from the kids and vice versa. The lessons that were taught and learned. I would have loved to have had a deep dive into those relationships and lessons. There was a lot of revisiting and healing from past traumas. I also loved a community coming together to save their theater and their town. But most importantly, the queer relationships, the acceptance, love, and willingness to see beyond labels and to be able to truly see the people behind those things. To change perspective and gain understanding.
Thank you Random House for the E-ARC of Play it Again, by Georgia Clark via NetGalley. All opinions are mine!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
When Jazz, the director of the play that built their friendship so many years ago, asks Lola, Annie, Dylan, and Vickie to come to the run-down, small-town theater with no preamble, they all show up for her. They agree to pause their current lives and commitments to come together and put on a show - one night to try to save the theater and revive the small town that built them.
The story is told from four main characters’ POVs. Each of these characters is flawed but lovely, funny, and kind. We get not only the story of the four of them now, but flashes to who they were and what their lives were like all those years ago, as closeted, frightened but ambitious theater kids in the 90s. Initially, I worried that four main characters with four points of view would be difficult to follow, but each of these characters has such a unique voice and perspective that I found it really drove the storytelling well. This story is a beautiful telling of queer love and romance, found family and community, and second chances.
Thank you to Random House & NetGalley for the ARC!
The story is told from four main characters’ POVs. Each of these characters is flawed but lovely, funny, and kind. We get not only the story of the four of them now, but flashes to who they were and what their lives were like all those years ago, as closeted, frightened but ambitious theater kids in the 90s. Initially, I worried that four main characters with four points of view would be difficult to follow, but each of these characters has such a unique voice and perspective that I found it really drove the storytelling well. This story is a beautiful telling of queer love and romance, found family and community, and second chances.
Thank you to Random House & NetGalley for the ARC!
June 25, 2026
I really wanted to love this one because the premise had so much potential, and the chemistry between the leads was definitely there at the beginning.
Unfortunately, somewhere along the way I started to lose interest in the romance. It wasn’t bad by any means! I just never became as invested in the relationships as I wanted to be.
The biggest letdown for me was the ending. After the third-act breakup, the reconciliation happened so fast that it didn’t feel earned. It honestly felt like the story skipped several chapters of emotional resolution. I wanted to see the characters have those hard conversations and actually work through what happened instead of jumping straight to happily ever after.
Overall, this was a perfectly fine read, but it didn’t leave much of a lasting impression. I can definitely see it working for readers who enjoy second chance LGBTQIA+ romances, but I was hoping for a stronger emotional payoff by the end.
Thank you to Random House, Dial Press, and NetGalley for providing an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
Unfortunately, somewhere along the way I started to lose interest in the romance. It wasn’t bad by any means! I just never became as invested in the relationships as I wanted to be.
The biggest letdown for me was the ending. After the third-act breakup, the reconciliation happened so fast that it didn’t feel earned. It honestly felt like the story skipped several chapters of emotional resolution. I wanted to see the characters have those hard conversations and actually work through what happened instead of jumping straight to happily ever after.
Overall, this was a perfectly fine read, but it didn’t leave much of a lasting impression. I can definitely see it working for readers who enjoy second chance LGBTQIA+ romances, but I was hoping for a stronger emotional payoff by the end.
Thank you to Random House, Dial Press, and NetGalley for providing an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Play It Again is a slow-paced double romance featuring a group of friends reunited after twenty years. I really enjoyed the dynamic characters of the main group, and even the supporting cast. There were a lot of named people, and I found myself forgetting which of the teenagers was who, but they were all sweetly included.
The double Sapphic romance was a treat. I actually liked Dylan and Vicky's back-and-forth more than Annie and Lola's. I was a theatre kid growing up, and there were some throwbacks and descriptions that felt like being back on stage. But I never read/acted in/saw the one in this book, so some of the references went over my head.
Overall, I had a good time reading this with my friend. It helped that we did it over the course of a week, so the pace matched our time. It felt like checking in on the lives of friends once a day.
Thank you to Dial Press for the opportunity to read and review.
The double Sapphic romance was a treat. I actually liked Dylan and Vicky's back-and-forth more than Annie and Lola's. I was a theatre kid growing up, and there were some throwbacks and descriptions that felt like being back on stage. But I never read/acted in/saw the one in this book, so some of the references went over my head.
Overall, I had a good time reading this with my friend. It helped that we did it over the course of a week, so the pace matched our time. It felt like checking in on the lives of friends once a day.
Thank you to Dial Press for the opportunity to read and review.
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