Lost in a Good Book

Published: 10th November 2016
Publisher: BWrite
Pages: 346
Format: ebook
Genre: Contemporary Romance
★   ★   ★ – 3 Stars

WHEN LOVE IS AN ACT, WILL HER HEART BE FOOLED?

Lena Lyons, one of Hollywood’s hottest female stars, has a celebrity problem: she’s too famous.

Lena’s had stalkers before and figures the crazies come with the territory, but when things start going dangerously wrong on the set of her latest movie, her production company aren’t taking any risks. They hire Marc Romero, Hollywood security expert. And Lena thought stalkers were bad—Marc appears to hate his job and anything celebrity, including Lena.

Still reeling from her divorce, the last thing Lena needs is a brooding investigator who won’t let her out of his sight. Worse still, his plan to protect her involves him going undercover as an up-and-coming actor and pretending they’re a couple.

Lena has no choice but to get close to the mysterious man who won’t share anything about himself. With her life depending on her acting skills, she must convince everyone Marc’s the man for her. But will she be able to convince her heart it’s all an act?

I found it so hard to articulate my feelings about this book. I enjoyed some parts and while I didn’t dislike others but I couldn’t find the words to explain why I didn’t love it. A lot I think had to do with the expression of Lena as a character and perhaps the story requiring a more refined plot and romantic entanglement.

This is part of a series and I think while you can read it on its own, the characters are across multiple books and you have a better understanding of them as background characters as well as on their own. I think you need to have seen Lena in a different situation to see she isn’t completely what she comes across here.

Ally is the voice that makes you realise why Lena is being so obstinate and a bit unreasonable, something which can frustrate the reader until you try and read it from that angle, especially when she tends to contradict herself. I didn’t warm to her and while I felt bad for her, she never tries to help herself and fighting those trying to help her so much made her appear foolish. That isn’t entirely bad but something didn’t click for me and while I enjoyed the story, I wasn’t totally drawn into it.

William’s writing feels natural when she write about friendships and romance, a few times around the movie production felt clunky where it felt we needed a full explanation process or history. I know it needed to be in there, but I could see the writing style change when different scenes were happening.

I enjoyed the characters and how they were different, only revealing to us what we needed to know. One thing I disliked was that Marc kept calling Lena Princess, and I hated that Lena seemed ok with it. It seemed unprofessional and while she was often rude to him, he tries to stay on task and do his job but that term felt disrespectful and due to their relationship never became a term of endearment in my eyes.

Lena plays up the “not like other Hollywood types” and that’s a character choice from Williams, it makes Lena look like sweet and good natured but she is also unreasonable, disrespectful and a bit up herself. Which is fine once you realise that is who she is, something that is beneficial from seeing her through Ally’s eyes as well as her own and Marc’s. It also helps show how she develops as a character and her own desire to find herself.

Between Lena and Marc, their love/hate relationship worked well and you could see it coming but I never reached that adorableness between them. I think this is because Williams gave Marc such a strong emotional backstory that it worked for character development and added more intensity to the relationship. I may not have felt the real chemistry between Lena and Marc but I did like the direction William’s took their story. There are complications and a business relationship to work around but it gave it intrigue that there might not have been if it were simpler.

I enjoyed the slow reveal about who Marc was. It was the connection to the in-depth and emotional backstory I was missing from Jacob in the first book. The secrecy about his past and his work gives him an air of mystery and you see how separately he keeps his personal life and work. One thing I loved was when Williams let down the barriers and I loved her explanations why. It was a great shift in the character and allowed a bit of light and humour into the story.

Overall I enjoyed the story. I think a few plot points could have been woven into the story better but it tells Lena’s story and no doubt we’ll see more of her story and character develop through future books and through other character’s points of view.

You can purchase Heartbreaker via the following

Amazon | Amazon Aust