REVIEW: I will be honest — a romance set in the world of puppeteering was not something I ever imagined picking up, let alone being fully engaged by it from start to finish.
Letitia Vincent has spent three years pouring her creativity and passion into Jellybean Junction, a beloved children's show fighting for its life against dwindling viewership and the constant threat of canceled public funding. She is the heart of the show — quirky, fiercely dedicated, and perpetually putting out fires behind the scenes. Then Rustin Hayes walks through the door. Newly hired as both producer and puppeteer, Rustin arrives with bold ideas for modernizing the show and absolutely no interest in playing it safe. The two clash almost immediately — over production style, over funding strategy, over the very soul of what Jellybean Junction is supposed to be. But their on-screen chemistry is impossible to deny, and their off-screen banter teeters constantly and deliciously between flirty and infuriating.
When the network issues a cancellation threat, Letitia and Rustin must put their differences — and their feelings — aside to save the show. Kasha Thompson takes a premise. I never would have predicted and turns it into something genuinely engaging and fun.
Letitia is an immediately likeable heroine — creative, protective, and deeply invested in bringing joy to children through a medium most adults overlook. Her protectiveness of Jellybean Junction never reads as rigidity; it reads as love. Rustin is the kind of hero who grows on you the way he grows on Letitia — gradually and then all at once. Confident and innovative, he is never simply right, though. He has to learn that innovation without heart is just noise, and that the woman who built this show knows things about it that no amount of sharp thinking can replace. Their enemies-to-lovers dynamic is well constructed, with tension that builds naturally and a payoff that feels thoroughly earned.
What elevates STRUNG TOGETHER beyond its romance is the setting itself. The world of children's television — underfunded, undervalued, and yet profoundly important — is rendered with real specificity and affection. The stakes of saving Jellybean Junction feel genuine because Thompson makes you understand what the show means not just to Letitia and Rustin, but to the children who watch it. That grounding gives the romance something to push against and something to grow within.
STRUNG TOGETHER is a testament to Kasha Thompson's ability to find romance in the most unexpected corners and make it feel completely natural once she gets there. I went in curious and came out genuinely glad I picked it up.
7th May 2026 | romcol@caribsurf.com | romcol1962@gmail.com
Letitia Vincent has spent three years pouring her creativity and passion into Jellybean Junction, a beloved children's show fighting for its life against dwindling viewership and the constant threat of canceled public funding. She is the heart of the show — quirky, fiercely dedicated, and perpetually putting out fires behind the scenes. Then Rustin Hayes walks through the door. Newly hired as both producer and puppeteer, Rustin arrives with bold ideas for modernizing the show and absolutely no interest in playing it safe. The two clash almost immediately — over production style, over funding strategy, over the very soul of what Jellybean Junction is supposed to be. But their on-screen chemistry is impossible to deny, and their off-screen banter teeters constantly and deliciously between flirty and infuriating.
When the network issues a cancellation threat, Letitia and Rustin must put their differences — and their feelings — aside to save the show. Kasha Thompson takes a premise. I never would have predicted and turns it into something genuinely engaging and fun.
Letitia is an immediately likeable heroine — creative, protective, and deeply invested in bringing joy to children through a medium most adults overlook. Her protectiveness of Jellybean Junction never reads as rigidity; it reads as love. Rustin is the kind of hero who grows on you the way he grows on Letitia — gradually and then all at once. Confident and innovative, he is never simply right, though. He has to learn that innovation without heart is just noise, and that the woman who built this show knows things about it that no amount of sharp thinking can replace. Their enemies-to-lovers dynamic is well constructed, with tension that builds naturally and a payoff that feels thoroughly earned.
What elevates STRUNG TOGETHER beyond its romance is the setting itself. The world of children's television — underfunded, undervalued, and yet profoundly important — is rendered with real specificity and affection. The stakes of saving Jellybean Junction feel genuine because Thompson makes you understand what the show means not just to Letitia and Rustin, but to the children who watch it. That grounding gives the romance something to push against and something to grow within.
STRUNG TOGETHER is a testament to Kasha Thompson's ability to find romance in the most unexpected corners and make it feel completely natural once she gets there. I went in curious and came out genuinely glad I picked it up.
7th May 2026 | romcol@caribsurf.com | romcol1962@gmail.com
