Publication Date: November 4, 2025
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.
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.
Instead of a private wedding, Cassidy is gearing up to exchange vows à la reality television style.
Author Margaux Eliot takes readers behind the scenes of reality television production to build Honeymoon Stage, which offers both humor and romance.
The storyline centers on an effort to create a spin-off of a once-successful reality show by featuring Cassidy and her famous fiancé. Through a past/present approach, readers get insight into the drama surrounding the original show.
In order for Gabe and Cassidy to get their happily ever after, Cassidy must resolve questions about the show’s demise. It’s a quest paved with rumors, lies, and manipulation.
Honeymoon Stage provides a throwback to the early 2000s, featuring unresolved questions surrounding a reality television project.
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.
