Allison Winn Scotch Guest Post - Take Two, Birdie Maxwell ~ JeanBookNerd

Photo Credit: Kat Tuohy Rosenberg

Allison Winn Scotch is the New York Times bestselling author of eleven novels, including Cleo McDougal Regrets Nothing, In Twenty Years and Time of My Life. She lives in Los Angeles with her family and their two rescue dogs, Hugo and Mr. Peanut.

YOUR FAVORITE QUOTES/SCENES FROM TAKE TWO, BIRDIE MAXWELL
There’s a scene early on in the book after Birdie, one of the most famous actresses on the planet who has recently been cancelled, slips into her best friend’s bar in her quiet, small hometown that she has slunk back to in order to escape her real life and the bad press. This was definitely one of my very favorites to write and remains one of my very favorites to read. For a lot of reasons! The bar is teeming with old high school friends, none of whom Birdie remembers very fondly but now she’s famous, and people are starting to ogle. She’s a character who definitely believes that her best revenge is living well, but she also can’t help but tell one of her nemeses off – so that is always fun to write. J If memory serves, we toned down that dialogue because I had her tee off a little too much!

But even more fun was reuniting her with her forbidden high school crush – and one time one-night stand – her best friend’s twin brother, who may or may not become the leading man in both Birdie’s story and the book. What was most fun about this scene was that there were so many moving parts between Birdie and Elliot: the electricity that they still share for each other, the fact that neither one of them wants to or can acknowledge this electricity, the fact that Mona, Elliot’s sister and Birdie’s best friend, doesn’t know about their fling, and then the general discombobulation that they both feel being back in their hometown after they’ve both chosen to flee. They each harbor secrets about their return, and they each harbor secrets about each other. Put all of those together, and I had an absolute ball writing that scene, moving the characters around like Birdie and Elliot were on a chess board, not to mention their dialogue. It also sets everything in motion for what’s about to come next for all three characters. Which is all you can ask for in one scene: a little humor, a little drama and a lot of anticipation for what’s to come.

Hollywood’s biggest rom-com star tries to recover from her damaged reputation by staging her own rom-com and following a lead on a lost love.

Birdie Robinson thought she’d gotten everything she wanted out of life: fame, adoration, and an A-list Hollywood career. But after an on-set feud goes viral, she leaves L.A. for the one place where no one would think to find her: her hometown. She’s startled to stumble upon a love letter from a former boyfriend asking for a second chance. And there’s just one issue: the letter was unsigned and she’s not sure which ex sent it. Still, a public reunion with an ex-boyfriend could turn the wave of public opinion back in her favor. Life imitating art. What could go wrong?

Elliot O’Brien, star reporter, knows that life isn’t an actual rom-com. Case in point, he’s spent two decades repressing his long-simmering feelings for his twin sister’s best friend, Birdie. But with his journalism career cratering and Birdie back in their hometown at the same time he is, he realizes that chronicling her search for her long-ago ex may be his opportunity to right some wrongs.

As they hit the road in an ancient RV, Birdie and Elliot retrace her romantic history for clues to who wrote the letter and come face to face with their own romantic missteps, all while grappling with whether happy endings are found only on the big screen—or whether their own happier ever after could be closer than they both ever imagined.

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