Nora Goes Off Script is Annabel Monaghan’s first adult book and one of my favorite rom-coms this year. The story is fresh with humor and heart. Nora is a screenwriter for a romance channel. Her self-centered husband leaves her and their two children so of course she writes a screenplay about it. This script is…
Reel is the first in Kennedy Ryan’s Hollywood Renaissance series featuring Black creatives. Director Canon Holt’s six-month search for the woman to star in his biopic of a forgotten Black musical legend comes to an end when he sees Neevah Saint take the stage as a Broadway understudy. He doesn’t care that she’s an unknown,…
How to Fake It in Hollywood is an age-gap, fake-relationship contemporary romance début that delivers a Real Deal Romance packed into a slightly uneven story. Grey Books (real name Emily) is a child actor-turned-teen TV star (think One Tree Hill) of moderate fame. At twenty-seven, after almost twenty years of work, she’s ready to reach…
Début novels can be a bit of a gamble, but I’m glad to report that Lily Chu’s The Stand-In is a risk worth taking. Gracie Reed is the biracial daughter of a white Canadian man and a Chinese mother now struggling with dementia. First, her boss sexually harasses and then fires her. Next, a paparazzo…
Birds of California is one of the better post-#MeToo showbiz-kids –grow-up-in-Hollywood novels. Warm and inviting,with engaging characters who are enjoyable, it gets slightly dinged for pacing issues. Fiona St. James was once the child star on the family dramedy The Birds of California, which combined the joys of ornithology with various issues surrounding growing up. …
I’ll admit that I cheated a little on TBR Challenge this month. I usually try to dig deep into the archives of my TBR, but when I saw the “Grumpy” prompt, all I could think of was the grumpy/sunshine romance I’d picked up from Amazon First Reads last month, based entirely on the author’s hilarious…
Make It Sweet by Kristen Callihan was my favorite romance read of 2021. (You can view the rest of that list HERE). The first time I read it, I was swept away by the characters, the story, and the feelings it evoked in me. Now that I’ve read it a second time, I can articulate…
Actor Ryan Kwok is back in Toronto after the promotional tour for his latest film, a rom-com that is getting less-than-stellar reviews. After years of constant work and the sudden death of his mother, Ryan is taking some much-needed time off. But as he tries to be supportive to his family, he struggles with his loss…
Adriana Herrera’s Sambrano Studios series – about a family-run movie business – adds a charming chapter with Just for the Holidays, a Christmas-themed romance with a lot of wonderful tension and romantic warmth. Perla Sambrano is a casting director trying to coax her ex into taking a part in a new telenova produced by her…
Olivia Dade’s All the Feels is a terrific follow-up to last year’s Spoiler Alert, a charming, thoroughly entertaining read that, for all its outward lightheartedness, tackles some knotty issues in a sensitive but down-to-earth way. We met Alex Woodroe briefly in Spoiler Alert and he charmed me completely, so I’ve been eager to catch up…
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