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  • Purgatory Playhouse

  • A M/M Fantasy Rom-Com
  • By: E.J. Russell
  • Narrated by: Greg Boudreaux
  • Length: 6 hrs
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (3 ratings)

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Purgatory Playhouse

By: E.J. Russell
Narrated by: Greg Boudreaux
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Publisher's Summary

Staging a musical in Purgatory can be absolute hell.

Lonnie Coleridge last saw the sun in 1968. Since then, he’s been consigned to Limbo, still wearing the same tie-dyed T-shirt and bell-bottomed jeans he had on when he left his life behind. He and others like him have one chance each year at redemption: produce a show for the Greek pantheon. Whoever pleases this very specific - and temperamental - fan group could earn the right to move on.

But after a literal act of god (*cough* Hermes *cough*) destroys their sets, lights, and costumes, the company needs emergency help to rebuild. Without it, all of them could poof out of existence forever. 

Out-of-work theater technician TD Baylor has precisely three things on his cosmic wish list: a job, a place to stay, and a boyfriend who isn’t a total tool. He thinks he’s got the first two nailed when he gets a line on a two-week gig that includes room and board. So what if the job tip came from a guy who was leaning way too hard into the LOTR cosplay at a sketchy Halloween pop-up? At this point, TD doesn’t have anything more to lose, so he figures…what the hell.

He didn’t realize hell was the operative word.

When Lonnie greets him at the theater door, though...whoa. TD fantasizes that item number three could be within his reach. But then Lonnie gives him the bad news: This is Purgatory Playhouse, aka Theater of the Darned. In two weeks - if they’re lucky and can successfully mount a musical version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream - the company will return to Limbo after the curtain falls. If they’re not lucky?

Remember that part about hell?

Purgatory Playhouse is part of the multi-author Magic Emporium Series. Each book stands alone, but each one features an appearance by Marden’s Magic Emporium, a shop that can appear anywhere, but only once and only when someone’s in dire need. This book contains a theater techie who’s one couch surf away from homeless, a production assistant who’s sort of, um, not alive, Greek gods behaving very badly indeed, and a guaranteed HEA.

©2021 Ellen J Russell (P)2021 Ellen J Russell

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Fun fantasy romance!

Theatre technician TD Baylor is having a bad patch. He’s unemployed, destitute, and nearly homeless. When he enters the Magic Emporium, he’s given a chance to earn serious money at the Purgatory Playhouse, a theatre of lost souls and Greek legends who need his services. TD is particularly taken with Lonnie Coleridge, an acting idol of his. Things are looking up if only they can stay on the right side of the Gods. Like all the Magic Emporium stories, this was a fun romance with interesting fantasy world building and some nice humour. EJ Russell has delved into the Ancient Greek mythologies and made some really lovely adaptations, like Prometheus (who gave humans the gift of fire) being the lighting technician and Tantalus (who was forever tantalised but never satisfied) stocking the vending machines. There’s a large cast of characters (LOL), but the brief backstories were all there. TD and Lonnie had nice chemistry, maybe a touch too instalovey for my taste, and I would have liked to experience the aftermath of the play on-page rather than be told what happened, but these didn’t detract from my thorough enjoyment of the story. Audio narrator Greg Boudreaux performed the story perfectly.

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