“This Is Not A Love Scene rings brilliantly true from the first page to the last.” –David Baldacci, #1 New York Times bestselling author Funny, emotional, and refreshingly honest, S.C. Megale’s This is Not a Love Scene is for anyone who can relate to feeling different while navigating the terrifying and thrilling waters of first love. Lights, camera–all Maeve needs is action. But at eighteen, a …
Lights, camera–all Maeve needs is action. But at eighteen, a rare form of muscular dystrophy usually stands in the way of romance. She’s got her friends, her humor, and a passion for filmmaking to keep her focus off consistent rejection…and the hot older guy starring in her senior film project.
Tall, bearded, and always swaying, Cole Stone is everything Maeve can’t be. And she likes it. Between takes, their chemistry is shockingly electric.
Suddenly, Maeve gets a taste of typical teenage dating life, but girls in wheelchairs don’t get the hot guy–right? Cole’s attention challenges everything she once believed about her self-image and hopes for love. But figuring this out, both emotionally and physically, won’t be easy for either of them. Maeve must choose between what she needs and what she wants, while Cole has a tendency to avoid decisions altogether. And the future might not wait for either.
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Megale is a terrific new voice in the world of YA. This Is Not a Love Scene rings brilliantly true from the first page to the last. Megale’s prose is refreshingly original, her pacing already at a master level, and her storytelling abilities will pull hard on every emotion you have… Look out for this writer.
This Is Not a Love Scene is so good. S.C. Megale is remarkable… This book is the result of her unswerving determination and undoubted talent.
Megale’s pacing and style are absolutely wonderful. I feel deeply attached to her characters, and I can’t believe how perceptive many of her descriptions/observations are, especially disability related ones.
It’s been a while since I’ve been inspired to give a book five stars (and I only write reviews when I feel I want to give five stars), but thank goodness I found this beauty: This is NOT a Love Scene by Shea C. Megale.
Its eighteen-year-old protagonist Maeve is a larger-than-life spitfire who makes films and aspires to become a professional film director. She is smart-mouthed, funny, unapologetically horny and has a zest for living that not all of us can match.
She is also crippled by muscular dystrophy: she is paralyzed but for the partial use of one arm, cannot hold her head up by herself, and is confined to a wheelchair.
This girl is unstoppable, a full-time high school senior going out by herself at all times of day and in all kinds of weather, working with and leading able-bodied kids as director of a student film project, and applying to UCLA film school. She goes about her life with a joy that’s very engaging, yet at the same time, your heart is breaking over the grief she carries just below the surface—the grief from knowing that her life will end before it really starts and that she will miss out on so much. Love, climbing trees, walking through the grass. Sex.
Maeve thinks about sex a lot and how she, as a near quadriplegic, can get some. She knows no boy will ever want her. And yet, a boy does want her. And she wants a boy. A different one.
And herein lies the complication in this unconventional love triangle. Maeve is so out there and fearless in her courting of the boy she loves that you grow to fear for her. In some ways, she’s a total innocent, and I was scared she’d get eaten alive.
Like the rest of this book, the resolution is neither cliché nor boringly predictable. It is uniquely Maeve-like—fresh and unconventional and delightful.
A must read, as far as I’m concerned.
So when I first started reading I wasn’t sure if I would continue reading. I had a very hard time connecting to Maeve. I felt her personality was lacking but as I kept reading she grew on me and I wanted nothing but the best. I loved her family and her friends who supported her throughout this story. Maeve spoke about several struggles that comes with her condition and I couldn’t imagine dealing with that when I was her age. I must say I wasn’t sold on Cole and I wanted more for Maeve. For a debut novel this story was well written, refreshing plot and I can’t wait to see what the author will write next.
The premise for this book sounded really wonderful to me. A teenager with muscular dystrophy falling in love for the first time while dealing with her disability seemed like a moving and riveting story. I was looking forward to a heartfelt cute romance with tons of emotions and even some tears. It just seemed like it would be that kind of book and I was really excited. Well, this book just didn’t really charm me like I thought it would. It wasn’t horrible at all and it had its moments. Personally, it just wasn’t the most satisfying or perfectly adorable teen romance. However, I felt that the story as a whole was quite enjoyable and I appreciated the message S.C. Megale was trying to convey.
Snarky and blunt, eighteen year old Maeve loves filmmaking, hanging out with her friends, and crushing on boys. She’s also very passionate, driven, and even kind of funny. Sadly, not everyone can see past her wheelchair and disability…most especially boys her age. But, maybe her luck is changing. While working on her senior film project, Maeve meets a hot older guy, Cole, who seems to be romantically interested in her. He gives her the swoons and suddenly Maeve find herself flirting and entertaining the idea of dating. Will Maeve get her happily ever after with Cole?
Okay, so Maeve isn’t really an easy character to like and I personally couldn’t relate with her not because she has a disability. Her personality just comes off too strong for me. There were also moments when I was quite surprised with what she says and how she acts. I personally don’t think I can ever be around someone like Maeve… at least not for a long time. But, that’s just how I feel based on who I am. I’m in no way saying Maeve is a horrible person. In truth, I was never frustrated or annoyed with her. I actually felt heartbroken for what she’s going through. I felt that she just really wants to do normal teenager stuff and be happy in whatever way she can. She’s misunderstood and judged like any other teenager and she’s reacting the way she knows how. Maybe that makes people like her less. I can’t say that I love Maeve as a character, but I was definitely rooting for her.
Cole is not dreamy or charming and I wasn’t impressed at all. I honestly did not like this guy and could not understand why Maeve is so attracted to him. He’s a forgettable love interest and there isn’t really much to say about him.
I love cute, fun, and well-written teen romances. The feel good kind that gives you butterflies and swoons. This was definitely not like that and I didn’t enjoy it at all. There was no excitement and that was utterly disappointing. The story does have flirting scenes, sexual tension, and moments that would have been adorable, but with a dull love interest and awkward dialogues, I just wasn’t into it.
There’s quite a few more hiccups that affected my feelings and reading experience and I’m quite sad that this didn’t completely work out the way I had expected. I wasn’t in love with most of the story, the characters were flat, and there were some strange relationships that made me feel uncomfortable. That being said, I still found some parts enjoyable. I liked seeing how Maeve deals with her disability and just being part of her journey. It wasn’t always perfect, but I thought the author tried to be as realistic as possible and I appreciated that. I liked that there was a little humor and there were moments that I found quite endearing. It wasn’t the best, but it also wasn’t the worst.
This is Not a Love Scene didn’t totally capture my heart. The concept of the story seeemed absolutely promosing and I wanted it to be, but the execution just didn’t work for me. However, I did enjoy some parts of the book and admired the message the author was trying to convey through Maeve’s character and story. It was honest, realistic, humorous, and emotional. For a debut novel, I think S.C. Megale wrote a belieavable story. True, it may not be completely my cup of tea, but not every story I read will be so I’m not giving up on Megale just yet and really hoping her next book will appeal to me more.
I recevied an advance reader copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
This Is Not A Love Scene by S.C. Megale a four-star read that will set the scene. This was a great story; I adored some the characters, but some others lacked a little something and some I wondered why they were even in the story. But overall well done to the author for giving us a compelling story that didn’t make me love Maeve all the time just because she lives with a disability, I do find that at times disabled characters are portrayed as too nice and understanding all the time, and that’s not life, living with a disability doesn’t make you an angel. But that being said it does show you the reality behind living with a disability the dark moments that make life harder, that’s why I’m giving this four-stars, as at times I struggled to give it any.
A young girl in HS looking for a boyfriend, seems as if it is an everyday story.
The only difference is Maeve is in a wheelchair and growing weaker each day. She only wants to live her life to the very fullest and experience what her friends are partaking in.
This is a story of friendship, maturity, love and hurt.
An interesting read that the teenage years will savor!
What a treat, a book by a friend in my writers’ group, S.C. Megale! This Is Not a Love Scene is Megale’s first published novel, although she’s well known at the writer’s group table for a number of books she’s read to us over several years, each done with passion and skill. Unlike most of what I’ve read from her before, which tended toward fantasy or science fiction, this novel is realistic and set in the contemporary era. It follows Maeve, an 18-year old senior in high school who is taking a film class and hopes to enroll the following year at UCLA in film. She’s fallen in love, or at least lust, with the school’s top actor, Cole Stone, who is tall and good-looking, and has come up with a film project for her class involving Cole for possibly mixed reasons. And, oh yes, Maeve is in a wheelchair with a degenerative spinal disease for which there’s no cure.
Maeve has a disappointing dating history–boys who go out with her to be nice, but have no intention of becoming more involved with her. A succession of guys who are “just…not able to go there.” Cole is different. He’s hard to read–teasing, alternating between flirtatious and distant, often monosyllabic. But he also seems to have a real romantic interest in Maeve, and over a series of awkward (but funny!) dates and encounters, they gradually learn how to translate their mutual sexual desire into physical affection.
Maeve also has a close group of friends to help her out–BFF Mags, who’s pretty and romantically experienced and unfortunately currently dating Nate, who resents the attention Maeve gets from his girlfriend; Elliott and KC, two fellow students in her film class; Quinten, an older man and retired FBI agent who lives at a local nursing home; and of course Francois, her faithful service dog.
Together, the friends help Maeve navigate the myriad adventures of an active, lusty, wheelchair-bound teenage girl–filming a fifteen-minute film project that requires multiple on-location shots, confronting the pushy local director of a special-needs camp who seems to think Maeve owes her involvement, acquiring the unusually delicious ice cream at a local store that was built before handicapped-accessible laws.
In the end, though, it’s Maeve who has to help one of her friends in a dangerous situation when no one else can. Will she survive? Will she get accepted to UCLA so she can pursue her dream of directing movies? And most importantly, will she get laid by Cole Stone?
very good
My ride-along with Maeve was a joy from first sentence to last. She’s authentic, unabashedly honest, fun to be with, and I still catch myself wondering what she’s been up to lately.