SNEAK PEAK: Go On Pretending by Alina Adams

 

Welcome to The Book's Delight and a SNEAK PEAK into the upcoming novel by best-selling author, Alina Adams. She's sharing a excerpt with us today! It sounds terrific! 

SneakPeek: “Go On Pretending” by Alina Adams 

Thank you, Jean, for this opportunity to introduce my May1, 2025 historical fiction, “Go On Pretending” to “The Book’s Delight” readers. 

“Go on Pretending” begins in 1950s New York City, whereRose Janowitz, a Jewish woman who grew up on the Lower East Side, has her dreamjob, producing the radio soap opera, “Guiding Light” under the watchful eye ofIrna Phillips, the (also coincidentally Jewish) woman who invented the entire genre. Rose hires Jonas Cain, an African-American classicallytrained Shakespearean actor to play the role of “Guiding Light’s” villain and,along the way, falls in love with him. They’re forced to keep the relationshipquiet, not just because she’s his boss, but due to the interracial aspect, asthis is pre-Loving v. Virginia and miscegenation is still illegal in parts ofthe country. But Rose has a much bigger secret, one that she realizes she needsto confess to Jonas… up to a point.

 

Please enjoy this excerpt scene from “Go OnPretending….

 

Rose was no innocent, but she was a virgin to thenotion that happiness didn’t have to be complicated. Of course, matters werecomplicated. They were more complicated than they had ever been. But, at thesame time, Rose could close Jonas’ apartment door to the world, to jobs, tonightclubs, to restaurants, to nay-sayers, and it became utterly simple.

There was her, there was him, there was them.

Simple.

The only hurdle still between them, one that Rosehad done her darndest to keep behind the shut door but it kept hammeringincessantly when she least expected it, was the business of Rose’s past – andhow it could affect both their futures.

They were lying in bed, Jonas on his stomach,Rose’s head propped up on one elbow, tickling her fingers down his back withher free hand while he smiled sleepily, when she finally gathered up thecourage to say, “I never graduated from high school.”

Jonas rolled over slowly, facing her with aquizzical expression. “You went to college.”

“I took the test. Got an equivalency.”

The side of his mouth twitched, trying to remainserious, “If that’s the worst thing you ever did – “

“It isn’t,” Rose cut him off. And the twitchstilled.

He sat up, back against the headboard. He tookher hand in his, stroking the palm with his thumb. He looked down to meetRose’s eyes but, when she looked away, he didn’t push. “What is it?”

“I told you I grew up going to Workmen’s Circle.Attended their summer camps, sang with the chorus. They’re a social-actionorganization. They taught me to stand up for the rights of the oppressed, callout injustice, fight for freedom. Not just my own, everybody’s.”

“Sounds like a cause I could support,” Jonas saidsoftly, encouraging her to continue.

“I was seventeen. I was sure I knew everything. Iwas sure I knew better. Certainly more than my mother did. Certainly more thananybody who told me to think my actions through did.”

“What actions?” No judgment, just support.

“I went to Spain. To fight with the Republicansin the Abraham Lincoln Brigade against the Nationalists.”

It was clearly not what Jonas expected to hear.

“I didn’t really fight,” she admitted. “I arrivedtowards the end. We didn’t know how close we were to losing. There were coloredsoldiers,” she recalled, a detail Rose hadn’t remembered up till that momentbut suddenly saw as significant.

Jonas nodded, “Langston Hughes wrote about them.Said he saw no difference between the Nationalists and the men in white hoods.

“Our forces were integrated. Everyone was equal,men and women, too. Though the one time this all-women anarchist delegationtried to attend the National Confederation of Labour Congress they were toldtheir presence would undermine working-class interests….” Rose dropped thattrain of thought in favor of, “Workmen’s Circle, it’s a Socialist organization.Except the Socialist Youth of Spain refused to send women to the front lines.Anyone who wanted to participate in the fighting had to switch allegiance tothe Communists.”

That last word caught Jonas’ attention. It was1952, how could it not?

“And that’s what you did?” he asked cautiously.

Rose nodded, swallowing hard.

Jonas exhaled, briefly closing his eyes andrunning a hand through his hair. “Then what happened?”

“Then the war ended. I came home.” That soundedconvincing. Nothing to question. It was even mostly true. “Couple of monthslater, Stalin signed a pact with Hitler. We had speakers from the AmericanCommunist Party come to Workmen’s Circle to tell us why we should support it,but I’d had enough. I quit. I went to college and never really looked back.Well, I did work for WEVD, but that was – it was a soap-opera. It was barelypolitical. I work for Procter & Gamble now! It doesn’t get more all-Americanthan that!”

“Does Miss Phillips know?”

“No. The one time somebody mentioned the loyaltyoath to Irna, they ended up slinking out of her office like The Burghers ofCalais.” Jonas should appreciate the Rodin imagery.

“So you’re in no danger.”

“Not at the moment. But who knows what mighthappen tomorrow? Phillip Loeb, he was in TheGoldbergs on Broadway, then on television. Red Channels called him a Communist and General Foods insistedGertrude Berg fire him or they’d drop their sponsorship. Pert Kelton had toleave The Honeymooners. JackieGleason covered for her, said it was heart trouble, but she was listed in Red Channels, too. Lucille Ball only gotaway with keeping her show because Desi claimed she was too dumb to know whatshe was doing when she registered as a Communist.”

“You’ve been keeping a close watch.”

Rose shrugged. “I had to. The Hollywood 10, theywere all writers, all blacklisted.”

“Any colored folks on that list of theirs?”

“Paul Roebson, Lena Horne, Langston Hughes, HarryBelafonte, Hazel Scott, Canada Lee,” Rose rattled off. She hadn’t realizedshe’d been keeping track.

“So we all can’t claim to be too stupid? Hardlyseems fair, seeing as how we’re judged too stupid to do anything else.”

She wondered if Jonas were truly offended, buthis laugh quenched that fear.

“So now that you know, if somebody asks you aboutme – “

“If someone asks me about you,” Jonas shifted hisweight to turn towards her, kissing Rose’s shoulder, the crook of her neck, hercollarbone, the base of her throat, murmuring, “I’ll tell them you’re abeautiful woman, a brilliant writer, and a compassionate human being. That’sall they’re going to get out of me.”

And that’s all Jonas was going to get out of her.Because, no matter how smoothly this part went, Rose had no intention of evertelling anybody what really happened in Spain.

 

“Go On Pretending” is now available for pre-order at: https://www.historythroughfiction.com/go-on-pretending