A spoiler-ridden look at the romantic drama from author Ava Wilder
Hello again! I took a quick detour from the ARC’s I have in my queue to read this 2020 book from Ava Wilder, the author of a book I reviewed a little while back: “Will They or Won’t They”. I loved that one so much I wanted to see what else Wilder came up with.
This one is a solid 3.5 our of 5 stars, rounded up to 4.
TFW the main characters get together but there’s still 100 pages left in the book:
Dammit, now I got serious A Star is Born vibes. Garland, Babs, Gaga… take your pick.
I have a migraine coming on, so I’ll be all over the place with this. I’ll leave the rest under a spoiler tag just in case.
SPOILER WARNING FROM HERE ON OUT FOLKS!
So I’m a bit torn. Overall I did like this book, but the last 100+ pages still needed to happen, and with the main characters being famous Hollywood stars and Ethan with his drinking problem, I was getting reeeaaalll nervous. Thankfully it didn’t go full tragedy, but there were some rough parts, that’s for sure.
With that being said, because of the mindset I had coming into this book, the last third of it felt like a whole different book. Different vibe, different turn. It was a bit jarring. However, it wasn’t enough to get me to dislike the book. It was still a good story, I was just reading with bated breath to see if Ethan ended up in a garage, an ocean, or in a fiery car wreck. Thankfully, none of that happened. But I did want to give out that little warning about how the tone seems to change in the final third.
I gave the rating a round up instead of down because I did like the character growth with Ethan. It seemed like he was okay with drowning in the bottom of a bourbon bottle, but he managed to breach the surface and find solace. Do I like that it seemed to stem from his relationship with Grey? Ehhh, it’s a tricky thing. I’m usually not a fan of someone bettering themselves for their significant other, because it leads me to believe that they became too dependent on that person and that’s why they tried to fix themselves. Instead of doing it for themselves, I mean. I like how it seemed like he wanted to be better for Grey, but after they split for that year and a half it was good that he kept going with fixing himself; went to rehab, stopped drinking, got in a good place where he got equal joint custody of his kiddos. Good on him, he needed to do that for himself, not just for Grey.
Another big thing I liked was how he was holding on to this film he and his late BFF wrote together, only for it to not be a project that fit Ethan in that point in time. In the end he lets it go and focuses on another project that he and Grey eventually work on together. It’s a great symbolic way of showing the reader that Ethan is not just letting the movie go, but he’s letting Sam go too. Pretty obvious, but appreciated. Sam has been a huge part of Ethan’s life, before and after death. But Ethan needed to let Sam go to truly be happy and healthy, so that was a nice thing to see. And to see him redevelop the relationship he had with Sam’s parents. When Ethan blew them off earlier to get rip-roarin’ drunk I was so pissed, so I’m glad it was shown in the end that there were no hard feelings and they can have a relationship again.
I am a bit disappointed that nothing seemed to change or progress with Grey and her mother though. It was shown that Grey was resentful of her mother and how Grey basically had to be the breadwinner for the family at such a young age, and after all that there didn’t seem to be much of a resolution. Her mother was a very small part of the book, but a decent part of Grey’s issues.
Honestly I’m still salty at the way Ethan treated my girl Grey, but she’s a strong woman, so I’m hoping she made him work for that forgiveness between the end of the last chapter and the epilogue, that’s all I’m saying.
I loved Grey; I found her to be a delight. Strong woman, yet vulnerable and sweet. I’m a sucker for that kind of combo. While there were moments where she irritated me, I still had the visceral reaction “Must Protect At All Costs”. She’s still learning, y’all. But she’ll get there. Her love life was very “out of the frying pan and into the oven” with Callum and Ethan, but through the heartbreak she did well. She got her movie made with her BFF, my heart!
Also the part where she’s pretty sure Callum is a flat-earther gave me a good guffaw.
Did you read “How to Fake It in Hollywood”? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below, I’d love to hear from you!
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