Limelight Kisses: Love Behind the Scenes, Book 1 is a contemporary romance novel written by Michelle Segal. Katherine Walker was a law student who had only accompanied her friend, Mia, to the audition for a starring role in Mrs. Woodbridge's Daughters, a historical fiction film being shot in Williamsburg, Virginia, for moral support, but she had something that Ryan Lancaster knew was a winning combination. There was something about Katherine’s Audrey Hepburn-like looks and the way she carried herself, but when she read her lines and easily became the role of Theresa Woodbridge, he knew he had found a star. Katherine was not at all sure she should give in to the temptation of being in the movie. It would mean taking a leave of absence from law school; something her judge father would not be pleased about at all. Katherine was also concerned that he might have another heart attack if he got too angry, and she knew her mother was not strong enough to survive losing him. Still, she had always dreamed of acting, and Ryan stirred up feelings she had never experienced before.

Michelle Segal's contemporary romance novel, Limelight Kisses: Love Behind the Scenes, Book 1, is a compelling story about a love that survives years of separation and misunderstandings, and the challenges faced by Katherine and Ryan in rekindling their brief, long-ago summer relationship. I enjoyed the theatrical subplot that is woven throughout this engaging tale, and found the two main characters to be people I quickly began to care about. This is a well-written and beautifully plotted tale that works on a number of levels, and I was pleased to discover that it's the first book in a series rather than a standalone novel. Limelight Kisses: Love Behind the Scenes, Book 1 is most highly recommended.

As romance is not my favourite genre, what prompted me to select Limelight Kisses to read and review? It was how the author, Michelle Segal, described herself on Amazon. She says she lets "the characters in my novels try out all these crazy things," the stuff of her daydreams, the kinds of things her own life doesn't allow for. That made me curious about what lay behind the rather benign cover of Limelight Kisses. Just what kind of love story would take place under the pen of a writer with this mindset behind the scenes of a Hollywood movie set?

That's where I was introduced to famous movie star, Kathleen Walker, who was studying to become a lawyer when she accompanied a classmate to a movie audition. The classmate didn't get the part, but Kathleen did because she had just the look the assistant director, Ryan, had been told to locate. Of course, as these Hollywood romances go, Ryan and Kathleen fall madly and passionately in love but life, and especially Ryan's past, totally disrupts their dreams of eternal bliss in each other's arms.

Twelve years later, both now highly successful in their own fields, they are brought together again. But the beautiful Kathleen is bitter and resentful of Ryan's inexplicable, sudden departure from her life so many years earlier. Forced to work with him again on the set of the next Hollywood blockbuster, both must once again deal with the love each buried in order to move on from the past. Is there any hope of rekindling and reconciling their differences? In true romantic fiction style, Michelle Segal lets Kathleen and Ryan explore the possibilities.

In the acknowledgements at the end of Limelight Kisses, Michelle Segal admits the female protagonist is based loosely on the great Katherine Hepburn. Michelle also states that she "became very fond of Kathleen and Ryan" as she wrote Limelight Kisses. One senses that fondness in Michelle Segal's writing. She is enjoying telling this story and her readers will enjoy hearing it if romantic fiction is their choice in books.