The first time Bee Bannister met Tom Wright, he couldn’t stand him.
Everything about the man aggravated him—his perfect hair and body, his confident arrogance, and the way he looked straight through Bee.
Which is why it’s such an unpleasant shock to find that he’ll be sharing space with him while on a Christmas holiday with friends in Scotland.
However, as the days fly by and snowy Edinburgh begins to work its magic on him, Bee discovers that sometimes first impressions can be very misleading. Tom is kind and funny, and somehow, rather than looking through Bee, he actually sees and likes all of him.
The two men grow closer, but will Bee follow his heart or his head when the holiday ends? And can relationships that start so badly ever lead to love?
From bestselling author Lily Morton comes a festive romantic comedy about enemies to lovers and the magic of Christmas.
This is the first book in the Wright Brothers series.
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EXCLUSIVE Q&A WITH THE AUTHOR:
What is a behind-the-scenes anecdote or interesting fact about the creation of On Circus Lane?
In the book Bee is very busy in the run up to the holiday and doesn’t pay attention to the group chats. When he gets to Edinburgh he finds that he can’t get into any of the tourist attractions because he didn’t know you had to buy tickets. This actually happened to me, and it changed the trajectory of the book.
I’d gone to Edinburgh with my husband to do a research trip and I’d planned to take my characters into the big tourist attractions like Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood Palace. However, we couldn’t get tickets for the castle, and when we went to the palace they were cleaning it. I was so upset because I needed that info for the book, but then my husband said, “Isn’t it more fun to find unusual things, rather than just focusing on what everyone else is doing?” This led us on a quest to find little things for Tom to show Bee and in the process make him fall for him.
Do you read in the same genre you write? Do you have any favourite series or books?
I do read in the same genre. I love MM. I’m an avid reader so I have far too many favourites to list all of them. Some series that are at the top of my reread list are the Snow and Winter books by CS Poe, Adrien English by Josh Lanyon, the Marshalls series by Mary Calmes, the Soulbound books by Hailey Turner, and the Better Than series by Lane Hayes. There are so many more but those are the ones that came to mind immediately.
Now that you’re finished with this book, what’s next on your writing schedule?
I’m torn between the next book in my Model Agency series, or the final book in my paranormal romance series, Black and Blue. I’m writing both stories next year, so it’ll come down to which character has the loudest voice – Xavier or Blue. It’s Clash of the Titans!
If you could spend the day with one of the main characters in your book, which would it be, and what would you do together?
It would be Tom. Bee is incredibly clever and very focused on his lists of things to see and do in Edinburgh, while Tom is much more relaxed and easygoing. He has a way of taking the seriousness out of everything for Bee and finding off-the-wall interesting things for them to do. I like the care and attention he pays Bee and his innate understanding of what makes the man tick. We all need someone to understand us like that and love us for who we are.
What are your favourite tropes or themes to write in a book? Is it/are they in this book?
I love writing forced proximity. It’s so much fun to see how being close together can override preconceptions or provide the spark to make friends turn to lovers. On Circus Lane features forced proximity. Bee dislikes Tom intensely when he first meets him, but then he finds himself sharing an apartment with him while on holiday with a group of friends. The closeness lets him see how wrong his first impression was of the man as they’re thrown together in Edinburgh.
As I settled in and started reading this book I was quickly confused. Jack? Arlo? Friends? But they are together?
*does some digging*
I see. Lily Morton wrote Merry Measure a few years ago and is officially Wright Brothers Book 2 and this newest is book 1. Once I got that sorted I was ok. It also helped to know that Steven, Jack’s boyfriend, wouldn’t be around forever.
Back to the story. Bee and best friend Ivy and a rag tag group of friends and relations decide to go on vacation in Edinburgh. And although there was a bit of a miscommunication? Missed connection? between Bee and Tom and a lot of stony glares thrown at Tom during the drive, Tom felt that gut punch of “this is my person”. Too bad Bee is not a relationship kind of guy.
I did love that Bee, the child prodigy academic who tends to miss most of what is going on around him, is the one and done guy. Nice flip on the stereotype.
He’s also confident in himself and knows he can catch a guy for a night. But apparently not Tom.
And so Tom courts him in a way. Sneaking on his phone to google things to do that Bee would like. Offering to take him shopping and sight seeing. Offering tea and toast in the morning in their shared accommodations. It’s really rather sweet.
Bee is semi oblivious to this because he is still stung that his masculine wiles haven’t worked on Tom. Everyone else sees it though.
I love both the romantic nature of the story as well as the reading about the various spots in Edinburgh they visit. The group of friends was fun as well. Not expecting the group to stick together during the day, only hoping that they can get together for a meal every night. Except for the aforementioned Steven. Why he got so much page time in Bee and Tom’s story, I’ll never know. He was a pompous ass and too much energy was devoted to him.
Toward the end of the book we get to visit with Tom’s (and Arlo’s) parents again which is always fun. They are unique and fun characters.
And I adored the romance of Tom and Bee being present for each other. Tom at first especially. He LISTENED to Bee. He was interested in what he had to say and made sure to give him his focus. That, to me, is one of the most romantic and intimate things between 2 people.
I really enjoyed this book (except for Steven) and when I finished it, I reopened Merry Measure because On Circus Lane ends where Merry Measure begins and I wanted to see Jack get his happily ever after again.
For reference, Merry Measure review here.
4.5 pieces of eye candy
Lily lives in sunny England with her husband and two children, all of whom claim that they haven’t had a proper conversation with her since she bought her first Kindle.
She has spent her life with her head full of daydreams and decided one day to just sit down and start writing about them. In the process she discovered that she actually loved writing, because how else could she get to spend her time with hot, funny men!
She loves chocolate and Baileys and the best of all creations – chocolate Baileys! Her lifetime’s ambition is to have a bath in peace without being shouted by one of her family.
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