Dionysus

When god Dionysus toys with the lives of two struggling actors, the results are as sensual, dramatic, and tragic as theatre itself.

During a Manhattan blackout, Kristen meets an iconic playwright who prompts her to create a script for her life. In a fateful instant, orchestrated by the playwright, she falls in love with Broadway actor Taylor O’Neal.

Struggling to overcome his history as a drunk, Taylor lives a guarded life with his wife and daughter. Kristen allows Dionysus to influence her convictions. They create wicked schemes that rock Taylor's marriage and tear at his precarious sobriety. Only when she wins her game of seduction does Kristen discover the malevolent purposes of the god of wine.

As Kristen watches her lover relapse, she’s horrified that Taylor knows and loves Dionysus—loves the very thing that will destroy him. To thwart the inevitable, she embarks on one final scheme. But it will take more than a clever script to turn tragedy into triumph. As the curtain falls, Kristen fights for redemption—Taylor’s redemption, and her own.

Read a Sample of Dionysus

HarperCollins UK reviewed an excerpt of Dionysus:

“This is a great idea for a novel. The morally ambiguous god of theatre and debauchery interfering with the lives of two bright young things on Broadway. Taylor, a star with a dark past, and Kristen, a hungry young would-be actress who will stop at nothing to get what she wants, whether it is a role in a Broadway hit or the love of a married man. Suspense builds as Kristen abandons one after another of her morals and the two protagonists move towards one another and, we suspect, romantic tragedy.

“The romantic tension that builds as Kristen relentlessly pursues Taylor is convincing and absorbing, and Taylor himself is a great character – charismatic, alluring, but believably damaged. I love the idea of a book set in the theatre world, which is continually fascinating. There’s great narrative momentum to the way events then unfold.

“It strikes me as a commercial story, but with an interesting mythological twist and a great setting. I’d be interested to know how the story unfolds. What exactly is going on between (Dionysus) and Taylor? What is his motivation in contacting Kristen in the first place? How far do his powers extend and does Kristen have a hope in hell of undoing the damage he’s convinced her to do?” (HarperCollins UK)

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