IN SHORT: This romance book featuring a costume designer and an actor is a sweet story of growth and connection.

REVIEW

Marlowe Banks is hiding out. She broke her engagement and fled critics’ panning of her costume design on a play in New York. Now she’s working as a costume production assistant on a popular TV show in Los Angeles. The work is menial and doesn’t allow her to really use her skills and creativity (or that master’s degree from Yale), but she can go unnoticed.

She still has to deal with her high-achieving parents’ disappointment in her lack of achievement, as well as regular texts from her ex-fiance. Her boss is demanding, and Marlowe certainly doesn’t fit in to L.A.’s overly zealous health-and-appearance culture. Even so, it’s easier than going back to New York.

Then a costume mix-up leads to her stepping in to a background role as a waitress in a scene on the show. It’s just one time and no one will really notice her. But then the camera catches heated looks between her and the bad-boy lead, Angus Gordon, and she’s thrust into the spotlight. The show’s writers write her in to three episodes, and she has to spend more time with the arrogant (though admittedly hot) Angus.

As the two spend time together, Marlowe learns that Angus is hiding too. He’s not who he appears to be; even a star can be lonely. But if she is to even think about a relationship with him, Marlowe will have to come to terms with the realities of both his life and hers — the one she’s been escaping. It will be time for a redesign, a time to face hard truths and work on herself.

I found myself really invested in these characters. Marlowe is a young woman who has a lot to give but has been put down by enough people in her life, particularly those who should have lifted her up, that she feels unworthy, not enough. Over the course of the story, she slowly builds up the strength and confidence to face hard things and rewrite the script about herself. She ponders what she’s been told and has allowed herself to believe. As she does so, she realizes she can change how she thinks and how she interacts with others.

The romance between Marlowe and Angus is real and very sweet. Their TV show characters are “shipped” online, and I shipped them as their off-screen selves. They have tender, true-to-life, sometimes awkward interactions and create cute inside jokes.

For a while as I started reading, there was almost no profanity, and I was starting to hope this romance book would be fairly clean. That hope was dashed, with some strong language and several detailed sex scenes. But I was really pleased with how the story was resolved and how this character grew. I recommend it (if you want to skip the sex scenes).

RATING

Rated: High. Profanity includes 12 uses of strong language, about 35 instances of moderate profanity, 25 uses of mild language, and almost 30 instances of the name of Deity in vain. Sexual content includes an imagined sex scene and self-pleasuring, as well as two longer and very detailed scenes.

*I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

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