Hollywood Heartache pt 2
Love, fame, fanfic, scandal, and... pegging??
It’s a strange time in Hollywood right now, especially for an aspiring screenplay writer who moved to LA not long ago in order to get a TV writing gig somehow, some way! If you’re confused by what the WGA Strike is all about, here’s a good master post of resources and explainers (incidentally, a public Patreon post from my filmmaking podcast, the other thing I regularly produce outside of this newsletter).
It’s an even stranger time for me to be posting this roundup, since I got laid off from my job today as the Manager of Creator Success at Seed&Spark (a crowdfunding platform for artists and filmmakers)! I’m actively looking for indie film educator work (as a workshop leader, teacher, speaker, consultant, etc specifically for early stage filmmakers), creative producer/ coordinator work (narrative & digital media), or digital community management work (especially in film/arts communities). Have a lead? Email me!
But enough about that, since the film and TV industry is essentially on pause, here are three more Hollywood love stories to tide you (and me!) over! Find the first roundup here.
Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monaghan. Nora Hamilton currently believes in love more in theory than in practice. A writer of made-for-TV romance movies (think Hallmark/Lifetime channels), she’s recently gone through a fairly awful divorce, and in a surprise burst of inspiration has written something completely different based on that experience. It turns out to be the best screenplay of her life, and when it’s picked up for production by a major production company, they decide to film it at her actual 100-year-old house in upstate New York. Things heat up when former Sexiest Man Alive Leo Vance, cast to play her ex-husband, decides to stick around after shooting completes, asking Nora if he can stay an extra week for a thousand dollars a day. She needs the cash, what with two young kids and no support from her ex, and she can tell Leo needs this break from reality as much as she does.Â
This book broke my heart and put it back together about a million different times. I thought the film industry details were accurate, I always love a meta romance-writer-finds-her-own-HEA storyline, and Leo is just such a fun, complicated hero to Nora’s steadfast practicality for the sake of her recently broken heart and her kids. I cried a lot. I laughed a lot. I found myself deeply envious of Nora’s career. You know, classic stuff.
Rating: 5/5
How hot? 🔥 (closed door)
All The Feels by Olivia Dade. A whole book throwing shade at the failings of the Game of Thrones TV series with an ADHD hero and a burnt out curvy heroine? Sign me up!!
Actor Alex Woodroe has a hard time moderating his emotions and actions- it’s part ADHD, part penance for a dark past he never, ever talks about. In an attempt to keep him in line until the final season of his latest TV show, God of the Gates, airs its final episode, the showrunners hire him a minder. So enters Lauren Clegg, cousin to one of the showrunners and former ER therapist who just happened to be on vacation nearby to set when Alex’s latest antic, a bar fight, set our events into motion.
At first, Alex resents his babysitter, especially since she seems to not be much fun, but they quickly come to a peaceful cohabitation as Lauren reveals her sassy side and Alex reveals his emotional moderation is poor but for the right reasons. Plus, he’s got an anonymous spicy fanfic writing side hustle that’s too amusing to ignore, especially when it becomes clear Alex is venting his frustrations with how his character’s arc concluded in the show.
We’ve got forced proximity, Hollywood insider drama, a California coastal road trip (just like I took for my honeymoon last year!), fandom, fan fic, mental health rep, a curvy heroine who has trouble with airlines with too-firm arm rests (I can unfortunately relate), dealing with trauma and fame and family and integrity… truly, this book was a delight.Â
Rating: 4.5/5
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥
Scandalized by Ivy Owens. This might be one of the hottest books I’ve ever read. I already knew I’d like this book, by one half of Christina Lauren (the Lauren half) going solo, but I didn’t anticipate how much.
We start in Seattle (where I was born!) after a flight to Los Angeles has been canceled until the next day. Journalist Georgia Ross is out of clean underwear and fucks to give after a long (but fruitful) trip to London where she was investigating a story that might make her whole career, and can’t get a hotel room overnight. So it’s lucky that while in line at the front desk, she runs into her childhood best friend’s big brother, Alec Kim, who does happen to have snagged a room. He’s surprised to see her- it’s been years (his family moved to London when they were kids), but agrees to let her stay in the suite he got. They grab a drink after they’ve both showered off the storm and the day of travel, and it’s clear there’s a lot of chemistry, so they have an intensely hot one night stand with the expectation they’ll never see each other again, but wasn’t it fun to reconnect?
Then Georgia gets back to LA, sees Alec get absolutely swarmed by fangirls, and does some Googling, realizing the enigmatic comments he made the night before were referencing the fact that she’s probably the only person in the universe who was excited to see him for him, and not as a world famous heartthrob and actor. Though Alec’s schedule is intense and Georgia’s on deadline, they can’t help but want to continue to explore the intense attraction they discovered in Seattle, despite how complicated it is and how they have to keep it secret so Georgia doesn’t get absolutely mobbed. And then when it turns out Alec’s closer to the story Georgia’s covering than either of them expected, things get even more complicated.
This book had me on my toes the whole time. Gigi and Alec are so stinking cute, out-of-this-world sexy, and I am always a fan of books about famous people where fame is the complicated curse it actually is, rather than a fantastical fun time for all involved. I feel the same way about books about billionaires where wealth isn’t a magic fixer without the strings of capitalism and consumerism.
Rating: 4.5/5
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Next week, I’ll be recommending books where one or more of the protagonists is a business owner changing things up from how they always were. Positive capitalism stories, if you will, all historical.
What should I be reading next? Let me know in the comments!