Author: Kevin Klehr
Publisher: NineStar Press
Length: 221 Pages
Category: Paranormal
At a Glance: Silly, snarky, and hopelessly charming.
Reviewed By: Ben
Blurb: Close friends Allan and Warwick are dead. They’re not crazy about the idea, so to help them deal with this dilemma are Samantha, a blonde bombshell from the 1950s, and Guy, an insecure angel.
Allan also has a secret. He has a romantic crush on his friend, Warwick, but shortly after confiding in his new angel pal, his love interest falls for the cock-sure playwright, Pedro.
Not only does Allan have to win the heart of his companion, he also has to grapple with the faded memory of how he actually died.
Review: I can’t name drop actresses from the fifties, I’m not a theater major, and I don’t enjoy Shakespearean comedies, so I’m one hundred percent convinced that forty percent of this novel went completely over my head. I can’t say I wasn’t warned, because the title is Drama Queens with Love Scenes, and I still managed to enjoy myself.
From my ignorant point of view, this struck me as a mashup of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Friends, and How I Met Your Mother. I enjoyed the mystery, banter, and silliness.
Though it more resembles a contemporary drama, this is actually speculative fiction. At first I wasn’t sure, but I later came to realize Allan and Warwick were in heaven, complete with an angel who can’t fly, a femme fatale, and a bunch of people who really don’t want them there. What starts out as them joining a celestial production of a play, leads to attempted murder. Yup, turns out dead people are still people, through and through. Kinda disappointing but not surprising, really.
As a protagonist, Allan tried my patience. He and Warwick go into heaven, not quite remembering everything, but knowing they kinda had a thing for each other and never did anything about it.
Allan’s like, “Yay, now we can do something about it!”
And Warwicks like, “I’m going to get some ghost dick.”
Then Allan is sad and not quite explaining how he feels (because shouldn’t Warwick know?) and Warwick is being oddly evasive.
Allan goes back and forth and finally I was like, “Dude, Allan, get over it. He doesn’t want you.” But sometimes it does seem like Allan’s being yanked around by unseen malevolent forces. And then someone tries to kill him. Damn. I’d be mopey, too, if someone was trying to kill me in heaven. Shouldn’t there be rules against that or something?
One thing that did seem sort of nice about heaven was that sexism, racism, and homophobia were very much not in vogue, so while we were ensorcelled with a gay couple in a theatrical production in glam society, it didn’t really feel gay, if that makes any sense. Allan and Warwick could have been Anna and Kikki and it would have had the same feel, in this world at least, which was kinda fun.
With a ton of theatrics, clever diction, and a few chuckles, Drama Queens with Love Scenes is perfect for lovers of theater and gay romance.
You can buy Drama Queens with Love Scenes here: