A quick-witted depiction of moviemaking best suited for contemplative romantics.
A group of famous film actors moves to Sweden to shoot an unconventional movie in Leavy’s novel.
The avant-garde French filmmaker Jean Mercier is making a new English-language film featuring many fan-favorite celebrities. Considered a thoughtful and cerebral director, Mercier’s choice of actors, including a former teenage heartthrob and an action-adventure star, is unexpected. As per Mercier’s instructions, the actors will be required to live together, on location in Sweden, for the duration of the shoot. Of particular note is 42-year-old movie star Finn Forrester, who tries to break up with his longtime girlfriend, Savannah, just before he departs. Savannah will have none of it, however, telling Finn to wait until his return to make any decisions. Two weeks into the shoot, the American philosopher and artist Ella Sinclair arrives on set, and Finn is immediately smitten (“She’s a real artist through and through, the embodiment of inspiration. And not bad to look at either”). Ella seems to be Mercier’s muse, and Finn is at first unsure whether it’s acceptable to pursue her. As the pair grow closer, Finn wonders how he could ever have a meaningful life without Ella in it. Meanwhile, Ella worries Finn is being disingenuous about his intention to end his preexisting relationship. As readers are treated to a delightful will-they, won’t-they romp, the group of actors grows progressively closer, and many of their lives are changed irrevocably. There are many scenes in which the cast, a cerebral group, engages in compelling and high-level philosophical debates about art, sex, films, and more. Each character is more charming than the next, and the stay at the Swedish home seems like great fun, but there are moments when excessive detail stalls the otherwise lively narrative; much of the story unfolds over meals, in which characters place one food order after another, again and again. Other details about the setting (that might help ground the reader in the action) are sparse. Even so, the intellectual discussions throughout the book prove fresh and engaging and will keep the pages turning.
A quick-witted depiction of moviemaking best suited for contemplative romantics.Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2023
ISBN: 9781647425678
Page Count: 224
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A surprisingly sensual sports romance.
A collegiate diver and swimmer secretly pursue kink together, and risk falling in love along the way.
Scarlett Vandermeer is struggling. Despite a successful recovery from the injury that almost ended her Stanford diving career, she hasn’t been able to get her head together, and it’s affecting her performance. Plus, she’s trying to stay focused on getting into medical school. A relationship would be out of the question. By comparison, Lukas Blomqvist is a swimming idol, a record-breaker who wins medals as easily as breathing, and Scarlett has long been convinced he would never look in her direction—until one fateful night when a mutual friend lets slip that they have something unexpected in common: Scarlett likes to be submissive in the bedroom, while Lukas prefers to take a dominant approach. Now, they both know a big secret about each other, and it’s something neither of them can stop thinking about. It’s Lukas who suggests they have a fling—purely physical, just to take the edge off, so Scarlett can get out of her own head and stop overthinking her dives. Initially, their arrangement is easy to stick to, but the more time they spend together, the more Scarlett starts to realize that what she feels for Lukas is more than physical attraction. Complicating the situation is the fact that Scarlett’s friend Penelope Ross used to go out with Lukas, and the longer Scarlett keeps mum about her true feelings for him, the more difficult it is to keep the situation hidden from another person she really cares about. While Scarlett and Lukas’ relationship does begin as a physical one, their deeper psychological connection takes a little too long to emerge amid all the other storylines, resulting in a somewhat rushed resolution. However, Hazelwood’s latest is proof of the depth and maturity that has emerged in her writing over the years, and it highlights her embrace of sexier, more emotional elements than were present in her original STEMinist rom-coms.
A surprisingly sensual sports romance.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593641057
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2025
A satisfying crime novel with a side order of romance.
A TV producer and a detective try to stop a strange pattern of young women disappearing.
In “Auclair, Loooziana,” disillusioned detective John Bowie reluctantly meets in a bar with Beth Collins, producer for the true crime show Crisis Point. She needs to interview him about the disastrous case of the missing Crissy Mellin, but he refuses. The teenager disappeared three years ago on the night of a blood moon and hasn’t been found, but a suspect hanged himself in jail after signing a confession. Case closed, says John’s boss. But John is convinced that their prisoner could not have been guilty, and he’s deeply upset at his failure. “The Mellin case messed up your life,” Beth tells him. She persuades John that Crissy’s disappearance is the latest of a series that happen on the night of a blood moon, the colloquial term for a total lunar eclipse. “It’s going to happen again,” she predicts. And wouldn’t you know, another blood moon is coming in four days. Tick, tick, tick. Beth’s boss at Crisis Point insists on airing an update on the case, but Beth knows the show is going to get it wrong, and its reputation will be ruined. Meanwhile, there’s an electric sexual tension between Beth and John that the author toys with nicely—do they, or don’t they? The answer plays out in detail more than once. The characters are fun if easy to pigeonhole: the detective angry at his failure, the honest (and beautiful) outsider eager to do her job but susceptible to love, the hero’s corrupt (to say the least) boss, and the ogre who carries out said boss’s dirtiest deeds. Even John’s dog, Mutt, plays a small but vital role. When John found him, he’d been “a flea-bitten hide wrapped around a skeleton that whimpered.” Little plot devices are easy to spot, like the phone that rings at a crucial moment, or the handgun that John places in Beth’s hand for her protection. Does Chekhov’s guideline apply here? The romantic angle leavens the dark theme, and readers will have plenty of incentives to turn the pages.
A satisfying crime novel with a side order of romance.Pub Date: March 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781538742983
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
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