Review #18: Pretty Face, by Lucy Parker

From the author of Act Like It comes another Cannonball favorite, Pretty Face. And while, if I remember right, Pretty Face wasn't as strongly loved as Act Like It, I definitely enjoyed it more. Act Like It was just okay in my book; this one gets an additional two stars.

Grumpy director Luc Savage is reviving a classic West End theatre, and needs a new star. Enter Lily Lamprey, clearly the best actress for the job, even if she doesn't have the resume. Lily is a soap star, low man on the theatre totem pole, and is "too sexy" for the Elizabethean drama they are staging, but she's a good actress, and Luc takes a chance on her. Of course, sparks fly, and even though they try to fight it and definitely try to hide it, word gets out and the rumors start to fly as well, painting Lily as just another actress sleeping her way to the top, and jeopardizing Luc's career as well.

One thing I really enjoyed about this installment was the way Parker addressed the very real threat to both careers. So often, we devour Hollywood gossip as just good juicy stories, but we forget that the salacious things we read about actually affect real people. Lily's reputation is on the line - sleeping with the director, whether it's true love or not, is often frowned upon, and can truly damage one's career - and I liked that Parker included some pretty serious handwringing about that. And Luc rightly doesn't want to be known as a director who takes advantage of his new starlet, and so they both resist as long as they can, but, as is so often the case, their passion for each other overcomes their sensibilities. Another interesting angle is that Luc is some years older than Lily, and that's not glossed over in the book; Parker deals with it head on, with both characters addressing the situation with varying degrees of seriousness. 

I think what I liked best about Pretty Face is that it felt real. There was no instant love connection (although maybe a bit of instant lust), the characters felt real and measured, Parker allowed us to see their flaws, and even the ending felt real. Kind of a "we love each other and we're going to try to make this work but we know it's not always easy". That's the kind of happily ever after I can get behind.

Review #50: Act Like It, by Lucy Parker

So everyone loves this book. Everyone. It's been all over CBR. And it popped up as $2.99 or something the other day on Amazon, so I downloaded it.

And...

I didn't much care for it.

Can I still be in CBR?

I mean, it was okay. There were a few funny moments, and I laughed a few times, but I expected lots of snark and banter and wit and... I don't know. It just didn't blow my skirt up.

Lainie is an actor in a West End theatre, and her role on stage has her smooching with her off-stage former paramour, Will Farmer. Will's kind of a jerk, having dumped Lainie for someone else and then wondering why she's so upset with him. So I guess Will is kind of a clueless jerk. Sometimes those are the worst kind, aren't they? And then there's Richard Troy, who gives off the air of feeling too good for their little theatre, and is kind of a jerk of the pretentious kind. Richard's got some PR troubles - he's got a bad boy reputation - and so the theatre lackeys come up with the brilliant plan to make Lainie and Richard pretend to be together. A few paparazzi snaps, a few dinners out, a few blind items, and all will be well. But of course in true romance novel fashion, they fall in love for real, there's a misunderstanding about something, they have a falling out, and they come back together.

But I guess I didn't see what was so jerky about Richard. I mean, he wasn't exactly the most awesomely sweet guy ever to grace the pages of a book, but he felt pretty normal to me, kind of on the gruff side, but normal. I don't know. Maybe that says something about the guys in my life. Lainie was so good she made my teeth ache, and I was honestly surprised that she wasn't a virgin in the book, because that's the ultimate in good-girl-ness in romance - you know, the whole being unsullied by a man's touch thing. And Will was pretty bland in his jackass-ness. If he's supposed to be the bad guy, make him the bad guy, not this wussified version of a bad guy.

Maybe that's the issue that I had with the book. It was just...bland. No heat, no spark, and even the sexy times were kind of meh. I kept waiting for the wit and smartass remarks and I guess if you turned the book on its side and squinted really hard you could find them, but I'd say that it's kind of a stretch.

Years ago, my parents used to watch some British comedies. And I didn't really get them, because I think British humor isn't really my bag. Maybe that's what was wrong here? I don't know, but I feel like everyone else read a different book than me.