We can finally grasp the start of spring in just a few weeks. And already, our reading list looks bright. From contemporary fiction to an epic fantasy series, all our old faves and new authors aren’t messing around! Today, we’d like to introduce Cassie Miller’s debut novel, Meet Me under the Lights.
Meet Me under the Lights takes place in a small town in North Carolina that won us over with its close-knit community and summer traditions. It follows Eliza Crowley and Reed Fulton, two estranged childhood friends whose families have been feuding for years.
A baseball championship can change the course of both their lives, right when they finally started getting close to each other again. It’s a sweet summer romance you won’t want to miss. Here are three things we love about Meet Met under the Lights by Cassie Miller!
Book Overview: Meet Me Under The Lights
Content warnings: fire, burns, hospitalization
Summary: High school junior Eliza Crowley is known as the Princess of Fairfield, a farm town in North Carolina that loves two things—tradition and baseball. Although Eliza loves “the game,” her life goal is to become a lighting designer on Broadway. Shaking off her reputation as the rich girl and focusing on her town’s community theater production are what she’s set her sights on this summer, and nothing will stand in her way. That is until Reed Fulton, the grandson of a struggling Fairfield farmer, and ace pitcher of the Fulton Hawks, returns to town.
Reed dreams of putting the catastrophe of last season behind him and leading the Hawks to a championship victory against the Crowley Cardinals. When his childhood friend turned stranger, Eliza, strolls back into his life, she makes his heart accelerate quicker than his fastball, and he’s not sure he can stay away from the girl he’s supposed to despise.
Small-town summers and baseball draw Reed and Eliza together, even though the Crowleys and the Fultons are determined to run each other out of town. When the families make a deal to settle their thirty-year-long dispute once and for all, Eliza and Reed are stuck in the middle during the most important summer of their lives.
Star-Crossed Lovers
Eliza and Reed’s star-crossed romance in Meet Me under the Lights gave us so many butterflies. The Crowley and Fulton families have had a decades-long dispute over ownership of the local stadium. This summer, they’re risking everything for it once again. With each family running their own baseball teams, whoever wins the championships will win it all. But Eliza and Reed can’t seem to stay away from each other, the spark between them too bright to ignore. Their clandestine meetings quickly turn into something more, something that might last even after the summer is over.
Eliza & The Community Theater
It helps that the summer theater production in Meet Me under the Lights is none other than the classic Shakespeare tragedy: Romeo and Juliet. Eliza works the lighting for her community theater. She’s found her second home in it, as it was the place where her late actress grandmother thrived most. Even with her family’s renown and her father’s obsession with all things baseball, Eliza knows that the theater is where she belongs. Her adaptability in the face of chaos and intuition with lighting cues turn the production into the best show it could possibly be. We were mesmerized at the final result.
Small-Town Comradery
Another thing we love about Meet Me under the Lights is the close-knit community in Fairfield. From the baseball games to the Fourth of July spaghetti dinner, everyone in town is a part of something. And yes, there are still plenty of town gossips who know everybody’s business. Like how Reed’s grandparents’ farm has been struggling to stay afloat. Or how the championships are a last-ditch effort to help the business. We really get to see the town come together after a disaster strikes the local theater. Everyone’s support and combined efforts give us the happily ever after we needed. We may have even shed a few tears.
With two feuding families, a baseball championship, and a theater production on the line, Meet Me under the Lights by Cassie Miller gives us an unforgettable summer romance!
Meet Me under the Lights by Cassie Miller comes out March 3rd, and you can order a copy of it here!
What do you think of Cassie Miller’s debut novel? Are you loving Meet Me under the Lights as much as we are? Let us know on Twitter! You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram!
Want to hear some of our audiobook recommendations? Here’s the latest!
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT CASSIE MILLER:
INSTAGRAM | TWITTER | WEBSITE
