A big-hearted tribute to small towns and enduring love.
Breakups are seldom easy, but for Morgan, this one stings more than most. As if getting dumped by a man the world idolizes weren’t enough, Morgan is basically evicted from his fancy NYC apartment with zero fanfare, zero notice, and zero options but to head back home. Back to holiday baking contests and local gossip. Back to majestic pines and eye-popping blue skies. Back to the relationships she left behind years ago. But things in Sugar Pine aren’t the same as when she left for NYC. Her childhood best friend is no longer writing music, her parents are now separated, and her family’s theater business is at risk. Money issues are the root of the theater’s problems, but Sugar Pine Rep needs more than cash to survive. It needs something new, a play that will make a splash and draw people in. Cue the tabled childhood passion project of once unstoppable friends Morgan and Max. At twelve, they started writing a rock musical adaptation of an ancient Shakespeare play. But creative differences, hurt feelings, and personal choices got in the way. Now, the only way to save the theater is to revive the unfinished play and get the production up and running in under a month. Morgan might be able to convince Max to work on Bohemian Winter with her, but will their complicated past get in the way of any shot at a happy future?
A touching blend of humor, forgiveness, music, secrets, and love, My Winter Song to You is a big-hearted tribute to small towns and enduring love. Max is a charmingly awkward musical genius grappling with the unfairness of life, and Morgan is a conscientious scriptwriter and struggling actress who has been living with regret ever since leaving Colorado. They are relatably flawed, realistically drawn, and are a delight to get to know through the play they’re writing together. As the point of view shifts fluidly between Max and Morgan in the present and past, readers will connect with these characters on a profoundly deep level. Though Max and Morgan dominate the story, they aren’t the only cast members audiences will find entertaining. Who wouldn’t love a well-intentioned eighty-four-year-old grandmother who whisper-shouts advice on sexual intimacy at a family dinner? And the manipulative ex-boyfriend with a knack for showing up at just the wrong time is the kind of guy you’ll love to hate. Theater buffs will relish the behind-the-curtain details, music aficionados will tap their feet in time to the increasing pressure of long-held secrets threatening to reveal themselves, and those looking for a redemptive story arc will be humming to a tune of sweet satisfaction as romantic partners find the courage to follow the songs in their hearts. Friends-to-lovers gets a theatrical new shine in Laurel Osterkamp’s life-affirming novel, My Winter Song to You.
