Kaliya Wilson has paid her dues ten times over. A small town Southern girl with dreams of producing movies she's stuck in a dead end receptionist job at a Los Angeles film studio, working for privileged assholes who dismiss her talent and ambition. It's just another soul-sucking day at the office when opportunity waltzes through the door in the form of the man who shattered her heart. Danny Prescott. Son of Hollywood royalty. The boy she fell hopelessly in love with when they met in NYC film school. The boy who now has a CW-like soap opera princess on his arm.
Danny is the son of an award-winning, now deceased, white Hollywood director and a black mother - his parents childhood sweethearts who grew up and fell in love in Tennessee, naturally against all odds. Danny was their "miracle baby" and he is determined to bring his parents' love story to the big screen. Danny has garnered a lot of buzz around town and people are already talking about how this movie is major Oscar bait. He certainly did not expect to see Kaliya working a crummy receptionist job when he came to the studio to meet with execs. Kaliya, the girl who championed his film school thesis movie, the girl he was hopelessly in love with, the girl he pushed away but never forgot.
Danny knows he needs Kaliya on this project and after a series of misadventures and heartbreak (Hollywood politics yo) she ends up agreeing. Kaliya has only heard no. She can't get anyone to consider giving her a shot working on a film, and while seeing Danny rips open a lot of old wounds, she sees it as an opportunity she cannot pass up - her movie-making dreams having been on life support for so long.
Second chance romances can be very tricky to write because the author has to straddle the line of having the couple breaking up for credible reasons and still make them redeemable so that you root for them getting back together. This was honestly a tricky tightrope for me early on since all I could think to do was tell Kaliya "Run Girl! He destroyed your heart once and this smacks of him using you for his own gain." But as the story unfolds you realize that Danny recognizes that while he does need Kaliya by his side to make this movie, just like her he's been in a state of emotional limbo since they split. There's a mess of unfinished business between them. The fly in the ointment? He's got a girlfriend who has thrown some of her money into his movie, plus the overall general bullshit of Hollywood politics.
This book does feature two plot elements that normally drive me batshit insane in other books. Of course Danny's girlfriend plays The Evil Other Woman role and of course the first time Danny and Kaliya have sex there's no condom and we get the "I'm safe, I'm clean" nonsense. But you know what? I loved this book anyway. Subdued isn't quite the right word, but The Evil Other Woman stuff isn't drenched all over the narrative, it's more like a snide-ness that creeps in when the plot dictates it. Also, Danny doesn't drag that relationship out over the course of the entire book. Once the unfinished business between him and Kaliya becomes undeniable, they break-up. But she's still invested in his movie, hence the added bits of conflict with her sticking around.
There are also underpinnings of grief and privilege to the conflict. Danny, who idolizes both of his parents, who is determined to make this movie about their love story, while staying true to his vision, has had to process the loss and grief of losing his father. Kaliya is stuck in limbo with her career, still hopelessly in love with Danny, and has maybe lost a bit of herself along the way. Danny, while biracial, has been afforded certain privileges because of who his father was, while Kaliya has seen nothing but struggle and doors slammed in her face.
What struck me most about this book is how great the world-building is (this story could only take place in Los Angeles and reads like it - brava!) and the emotional heft, especially in the second half. There's a heart-stopping scene between Danny's mother and Kaliya, and the climactic reunion between our couple at the end after the third act break-up is one of the best I've read in a long, long time.
Quibbles and my pet peeves aside, this was such a great read and a wonderful debut. I'm already crossing my fingers and hoping permission is granted for me to score an advanced copy of Ariel's upcoming second book.
Final Grade = A
1 comment:
"Second chance romances can be very tricky to write because the author has to straddle the line of having the couple breaking up for credible reasons and still make them redeemable so that you root for them getting back together."
On top of my personal baggage (generally can't do "divorced couple get back together"), this is one of the main reasons why I'm leery of second chance romance. It takes some excellent writing and characters with some depth, growing over the course of the book, for me to believe two people who split in the past can have a real shot at a future together.
Will check this one out.
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