Spotlight of Honeymoon Stage by Margaux Eliot

PHOTO SOURCE:
TYPORAMA
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HONEYMOON STAGE

MARGAUX ELIOT

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ALL INFORMATION IN THIS THIS POST IS COURTESY OF KAITLYN KENNEDY | PUBLICITY DIRECTOR | KAYE PUBLICITY INC.

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Brimming with wit and romance, this twisty trip back to the early 2000s follows as a former production assistant’s upcoming marriage descends into the confusion, chaos, and karmic consequences of reality TV.

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November 4, 2025

Little A

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PRAISE FOR HONEYMOON STAGE:

"If you ever played a Britney album on repeat or devoured a season of Newlyweds, Honeymoon Stage is the book for you. A smart, juicy look at the way we treated our early aughts starlets, this novel is compelling, romantic, and wildly fun. You won’t be able to look away." —Laura Hankin, author of The Daydreams and One-Star Romance

“A brilliant, soapy mystery and love story, but most of all a sendup of early aughts culture—the era that gave us Newlyweds, the rise and fall of Britney, and low-rise jeans (not to mention self-esteem issues). In smooth yet trenchant prose, Eliot beautifully captures the experience of being a young woman in L.A. during the birth of reality TV—and in so doing creates a universal story that explores the new blurred lines between “stars” and their audience that governs so much of today’s pop culture. If the reference “Tuna is the Chicken of the Sea” makes you laugh, it’s your sign to pick up this book (and put on your eye cream).” —Ashley Winstead, USA Today-bestselling author of This Book Will Bury Me

"Newlyweds meets Edith Wharton in Margaux Eliot’s millennial comedy of manners. Though Honeymoon Stage is a delightfully dishy Y2K-era treat, don’t let the shiny surface fool you: this smart, skillfully-plotted novel has teeth, and it bites back at all the infuriating expectations women face whether we’re on reality TV or just trying to live our real lives.”  —Layne Fargo, USA Today bestselling author of The Favorites

"Honeymoon Stage whips up crystalline prose with the frothy drama of reality TV to create a thrilling, irresistible, cotton-candy confection of a story. It's funny, smart, surprising, and unputdownable—I gobbled it up in one night."  —Julia Phillips, author of Disappearing Earth and Bear

"Honeymoon Stage is a brilliant, sexy homage to the early days of reality TV, the pop stars we wronged, and the love we can't help but chase. Bingeworthy, satisfying, and surprising, conjuring bubblegum summer and the thrill of dark secrets, this is the novel all your smartest friends will be talking about."  —Katie Gutierrez, author of More Than You'll Ever Know

"I binged this novel faster than the juiciest season of reality TV. Honeymoon Stage feels like watching your favorite show while texting your brilliant, hilarious friend. A love story laced with celebrity secrets and high-stakes intrigue, you won't be able to stop pressing next episode."       —Avery Carpenter Forrey, author of Social Engagement

"Delightfully wicked and subversively romantic, Honeymoon Stage deftly cuts through all the grit and glitter of reality television to reveal a whip smart young woman who finds not only love, but the power of her own voice. A total lollipop of a novel with a hidden tender heart—I'd eat it for dessert if I could."  —Amy Jo Burns, author of Mercury 

"Margaux Eliot's sharp, hilarious debut is the perfect blend of Hollywood satire, 2000s nostalgia, and heart-thudding romance—a captivating journey into the sparkling, shadowy world of reality TV and celebrity culture."   —Sara Sligar, author of Vantage Point

*PRAISE TAKEN FROM AUTHOR'S WEBSITE*

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ABOUT HONEYMOON STAGE:

It’s the night before her wedding, and Cassidy Baum isn’t sure she wants to get married . . . Or maybe she just doesn’t want to get married on set, surrounded by cameras and crew, with the crushing weight of everyone watching.

As a production assistant, Cassidy’s used to being behind the camera, not in front of it.

But her fiancé is a former child star and musician, and their wedding makes the perfect spin-off for Honeymoon Stage, the groundbreaking celebreality show she once worked on.

Five years ago, the show fell apart—for dramatic reasons Cassidy is still struggling to understand.

Now, Cassidy is forced to reckon with what happened on set to search out the truth once and for all before her wedding is broadcast to the world.

Rumors, lies, and suspicions come rushing back.

And if Cassidy can’t figure out a way to make sense of the past, her own happily ever after may not be so happy after all.

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TALKING POINTS:

• How the author transitioned from writing award-winning speculative gothic fiction to a witty, romantic novel that playfully satirizes reality television in the early 2000s

• The Power of Nostalgia: The TV shows, celebrities, and fashion that inspired the novel— including Newlyweds, The Mickey Mouse Club, Nick Lachey, Jessica Simpson, Britney Spears, Mandy Moore, and the dELIA*s catalogue—and what they reveal about the culture in the early 2000s

• How producers manipulate storylines on reality television: What we know as viewers now versus when they debuted

• Gender inequity and media coverage of young female stars versus male stars in the early 2000s

• Building a personal brand in the age of early reality TV, vs now with social media. How celebrity image creation went from old Hollywood to tabloids to celeb-reality to TikTok influencers

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Margaux Eliot is excited to give early aughts pop culture its due. 

Writing as Julia Fine, she is also the author of speculative novels The Upstairs House, What Should Be Wild, and Maddalena and the Dark. She lives in Chicago with her family.

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