Blurb:
On the eve of the best night of his life, winning an Academy Award, Jonathan Bello thinks back to his one great love, David Star. Flipping back the pages of time, Jonathan recalls his handsome, muscular, and charismatic college roommate. Since Jonathan was a freshman and David a senior in the Theatre Department, David took Jonathan under his wing and molded him, not only as an actor but as a lover. With every wonderful new adventure, David left his joyful mark on anyone with whom they came in contact, but Jonathan soon uncovered David’s dark past, leading to a shocking event. Undaunted, Jonathan celebrates the captivating man who will always hold a special place in his heart.
A Bittersweet Dreams title: It’s an unfortunate truth: love doesn’t always conquer all. Regardless of its strength, sometimes fate intervenes, tragedy strikes, or forces conspire against it. These stories of romance do not offer a traditional happy ending, but the strong and enduring love will still touch your heart and maybe move you to tears.
Guest Post:
Jonathan stops by to tell us about his greatest achievement and his regret. Definitely something you should check out. Read and enjoy!
Hello, Molly Lolly readers. This is Jonathan Bello from A SHOOTING STAR, the second In My Heart bittersweet dreams novella by Joe Cosentino, published by Dreamspinner Press. Since you can’t see me, I’ll tell you I have chestnut curly hair and eyes to match. My fans say I’m handsome. Since I work out with a personal trainer every day in my home gym, I’m pretty muscular. I’m also Italian-American and come from a hysterically funny family.
Molly asked me to tell you about my greatest achievement. Well, you probably know that already. Last night I won the Academy Award for Best Actor. I’m looking at the statue right now, still on an incredible high.
Molly also asked me to talk to you about a regret. That’s easy. To do that I need to take you back twenty years to when I was a theatre major in college. As a freshman I was lucky enough to have a senior as a roommate. Later, I found out luck had nothing to do with it. The whole thing was orchestrated by my incredible roommate, David Star. Since you can’t see back in my memories, I’ll tell you David was twenty-one years old, half Native American with long shiny jet black hair down his neck, and crystal blue eyes. He wore the most amazing clothing and colorful long scarves—and he let me borrow them. David was incredibly muscular, and he taught me how to be the same. I learned everything I know about acting from him. My name even came from David, he changed it from Falabella to Bello (meaning beautiful in Italian). He was extremely charismatic, and he changed the life of anyone with whom he came in contact. He adored molding and shaping others—including me. I can describe him as magical, an enigma, and incredibly sexy. Everyone, male and female, was in love with him, and so was I. David wanted to be a star at all costs. But David carried an incredible secret. That led to something I think about and regret to this day.
To find out about my love affair with David, what I regret, and how it all resolved, you’ll have to read A SHOOTING STAR. When you do, you’ll also read about Barry, my wildly funny and always loyal scene partner who got me through my classes. Barry was also Jewish and fed me blintzes at late night rehearsals. You’ll also meet my acting professor, the hysterically hypochondriac Professor Katzer. He gave me good advice about acting, and about life. On the dark side, you’ll get to know Terrence, another senior, who was as arrogant and manipulative as he was tall and muscular.
I hope you all read about David and me in A SHOOTING STAR. I think it will make you laugh, feel romantic, and maybe even shed a few tears. Though I told him the whole story, I think Joe Cosentino did an incredible job of writing it. He loves to hear from readers, so please contact him via his web site: http://www.JoeCosentino.weebly.com. Enjoy!
Excerpt:
As an Italian-American, I subscribed to my mother’s theory that if someone doesn’t want you to see something, he will hide it in a locked vault covered with cement. So I inadvertently took a quick look at my roommate’s things on the other side of the room. He was incredibly neat. Numerous theater textbooks and play scripts lined his bookshelf in alphabetical order. The bulletin board above his desk displayed artistically arranged programs from various comedy, drama, and musical college productions listing the same male lead in each show: “David Star”.
“Do you always look at other people’s things?”
I nearly got whiplash as he entered the room.
Stammering like a kid caught masturbating by his parents, I said, “I… w-was… ad-m-miring y-your… r-room.”
Though it was a fall September day, he took off his scarf (violet) and rested it on a tall coat-rack, which held scarves in various colors like a department store window display. He was taller than me, with a chiseled, handsome face, and straight, shiny black hair, which fell down his thick neck. I admired his perfectly sculpted muscles, housed in a turquoise designer dress shirt. But what captivated me the most were his piercing crystal-blue eyes—and the enormous bulge in his skin-tight, designer beige pants.
“What’s your name?”
“Johnny Falabella.”
He looked at me like a surgeon examining a tumor. “No, it’s not.”
“Excuse me?”
“It’s Jonathan Bello.” He opened a bureau drawer, pulled out a bottle of hair gel, and tossed it to me. “You should gel your hair.” He opened his closet, revealing a multitude of color-coordinated shirts and slacks, and lay some on my bed. “And you can wear these.”
I looked at his perfectly pressed designer clothes. “Where did you get all these things?”
“They were gifts, mostly.”
“You must have some generous friends…. Sorry, I don’t know your name.”
“I’m David Star.” He took a bow.
Looking back at his play programs, I said, “You must have starred in every play at the college over the last three years.”
“Guilty as charged.”
“What happened to your last roommate?”
“He went to LA over the summer break and started auditioning. He got cast in a new TV sitcom. I hope it takes off. It’s called Cosby.”
“At the orientation session, they said freshmen are housed with other freshmen. How did I get a senior for a roommate?”
His eyes twinkled. “Just lucky I guess.”
“Do you think it was some kind of an administrative error or something?”
“Or something.” He added matter-of-factly, “I asked for a freshman roommate.”
About Joe:
Joe Cosentino is the author of An Infatuation and A Shooting Star (Dreamspinner Press), Paper Doll the first Jana Lane mystery (Whiskey Creek Press), Drama Queen the first Nicky and Noah mystery (Lethe Press), and The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (Eldridge Plays and Musicals). He has appeared in principal acting roles in film, television, and theatre, opposite stars such as Bruce Willis, Rosie O’Donnell, Nathan Lane, Holland Taylor, and Jason Robards. His one-act plays, Infatuation and Neighbor, were performed in New York City. He wrote The Perils of Pauline educational film (Prentice Hall Publishers). Joe is currently Head of the Department/Professor at a college in upstate New York, and is happily married. His upcoming novels are A Home for the Holidays (Dreamspinner Press holiday novella), The Naked Prince and Other Tales from Fairyland (Dreamspinner Press short stories novella), Porcelain Doll the second Jana Lane mystery (Wild Rose Press), and Drama Muscle the second Nicky and Noah mystery (Lethe Press).
Author Contact:
Website: http://www.JoeCosentino.weebly.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/JoeCosentinoauthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JoeCosen
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4071647.Joe_Cosentino
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00KRPXJP6
Where To Buy:
Dreamspinner Press: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=6803
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B014LNRXU6
ARe: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-ashootingstar-1870418-149.html
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-shooting-star-joe-cosentino/1122590987?ean=2940150803107
Molly Lolly 