A BOOKISH STORY by Heatherly Bell
Blurb:
A female ghostwriter is recruited to be the face of the bestselling
novel in the country, secretly written by a man.
Luci Santana believes in love, especially when it comes to books. Since
being forced to give up her apartment, she’d love to get out of her
over-involved family’s backyard she-shed and resuscitate her life. She’s
given a chance to supercharge her career when she’s recruited to be the
face of the country’s bestselling novel.
The one secretly written by a man.
Years before he wrote the book that changed his life, literary author
Ryan Brady was caught shaming the romance genre in a video. When his
romance book is chosen by a celebrity morning show, a face to face
interview is required. Suddenly his secret pen name desperately needs a
woman’s face.
Enter Luci.
Luci hates the book everyone else raves about but it becomes her job to
defend the book, the genre, and try not to get caught falling in love with the enemy.
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Sunny Shelly’s Review: 3.5 Stars
I loved the premise of this book. Ryan is the author of WWII thrillers, who went viral for a rant against the romance genre, and he’s secretly written a romance book. Now that he needs to go on a press tour, ghostwriter Luci is hired to be the face behind the story. The only problem is that Luci doesn’t see the hype in the book everyone is raving about, and she’s not so keen on Ryan. But pretending to be the face of the book will give her the connections to have her own romance novel published.
This story was fun. The pacing was well done, I loved that Luci’s priorities were more about her career and family than finding love, and there was a wonderful group of supporting characters. I really liked Ryan and how he struggled with his secret. That said, I felt there was a lot of “telling” as the story unfolded, and I wish that there had been more showing as Ryan and Luci fell in love. There were a lot of subplots that I found distracting and not necessarily relevant to the main plot.
Overall, this book was enjoyable, but it just fell short of a four-star read for me.
I received an advanced copy and voluntarily left a review.
Meet Heatherly Bell:
I’m a USA Today bestselling romance author who’s passionate about fast-paced, emotion-filled romantic suspense and science-fiction romance. I love writing about people overcoming unbeatable odds and achieving seemingly impossible goals. I like to believe it’s possible for all of us to do the same.
My parents are to blame for my insatiable need to mix action, adventure, and romance. When I was young, I raided my mother’s romances and my father’s action adventure thrillers. I love being exhilarated and left just a little breathless. I’m a sucker for that moment when the team is walking in slow motion, shoulder-to-shoulder heading off into battle.
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