After his mother died, sweet, sheltered Mason Pinckney spent a homeschooled childhood on the sea islands off the coast of Carolina without a TV or exposure to pop culture. After moving Savannah and making friends, a night of drinking ends up with what’s supposed to be a one-night stand. Mason doesn’t recognize Zane Smith, a recent Oscar nominee for Best Actor. He doesn’t care about fame. Zane’s … Zane’s floored he’s found the only person in America who doesn’t swoon over him on sight.
Zane’s closeted for career reasons. The paparazzi’s stalking. Hollywood’s gossiping. Both Zane and Mason — and especially Zane — are hiding their true selves behind the masks others expect of them. But the two are determined to make the relationship work.
A story about finding yourself despite circumstance, difference, and division, this gay billionaire, mm movie-star romance will keep you believing in the power of true love, the meaning of friendship, and the importance of loving someone for their authentic self — no matter what the consequences.
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This is a really sweet book that follows the chemistry between Mason and Zane as they learn how to have a relationship and what works for them.
This book is so sweet. Zane and Mason are adorable. It’s less angsty than a normal Julia McBryant book, which is great, as sometimes you just want that sweet, feel-good romance, but it still has enough angst that you’re able to feel it.
Mason is so sweet and naive. I just want to hold him and shelter him from the real world because there aren’t as many truly innocent people there, fictional world or not. At this point, Julia McBryant has written enough books in this world that it feels real. Mason is an innocent baby who though he doesn’t have much world experience, he does know what he wants and thinks he finds it in the guy he goes home with. As improbable as that seems, you can’t blame a guy for dreaming.
Zane is a movie star, not only that, he’s a rising star. A recent Oscar nominee, he thinks he hit the jackpot when the guy he takes home doesn’t go all fanboy over him. And then it comes out that Mason doesn’t even own a TV and he has no idea who Zane is. Zane has found someone who doesn’t care about his fame, which means that his lonely existence is turned up on its head as he finds someone who sees him for him. It’s confusing and refreshing and allows the two of them to begin a relationship.
Zane and Mason come from two different worlds and it’s hard for them to be a couple when they have to hide. Secrets and lies put a strain on any relationship, one that concerns a famous person takes that up by a thousand notches. Zane isn’t the only one hiding, though his secrets are the most obvious. It’s painful for both of them and my heart went out when they fought so hard to stay together but couldn’t find the common ground. Because sometimes love isn’t enough. Not when so many things hang in the balance.
When we learn that Mason is holding things back and pretending it’s heartbreaking. Not because we’re learning that he’s hiding, but it’s how much it hurts him that hurts me.
I teared up when things starting unraveling for them. Because they tried so hard. Both of them have been so lonely, so lost in the world of their own making that finding their way out almost seemed impossible. Zane and Mason have to trust each other and themselves to admit that they have things they hold back so it doesn’t hurt them more. It’s painful to watch them stumble as they try to find their footing in their relationship and how to live openly in all things.
Outside of the emotional relationship drama that Zane and Mason have, Mason introduces Zane to what it’s like to have friends. I love Audie Currell from Something Wild and Perfect and All the Little Lights, he’s one of my all time favorite characters and I was so excited to see him in this book. He plays the perfect big brother to Mason, even though they’re the same age. He took Mason under his wing and along with Audie comes Calhoun and all his friends. They help Mason become a part of something. They don’t make Zane feel out of place just because he’s famous. The interactions Zane and Mason have with everyone else are fun and carefree. There are some surprises as characters have been living their lives outside of their books and I cannot wait to see what comes next because there are so many things I want to know after seeing where these characters are at this point in their lives. I’m glad there’s a large cast to love on because all of the characters need that, but it just makes me want all of their books now so I can understand why they’re the way they are now.
With their friends by their sides, Zane and Mason get treated as the people they want to be. If only it were that easy all of the time. When they both start opening up, when they start trusting each other enough to be honest with their feelings outside of the fact that they’re in love with one another. One reason why I love Julia McBryant’s books is that she writes these lonely characters who find one another when they need it the most. And while the love they share help them, they don’t use that love as a crutch, but a way to help better themselves so that they can keep that love.
This might be low angst compared to her other books, but Julia McBryant wrote a heartfelt story about two people who learn how to live as their authentic selves. While this might not be the most angsty of books, it still made me cry. I just wanted the two of them to continue being cute and sweet without real life getting in the way. Through it all, Zane and Mason learn how to be true and how to live and love without hiding behind the masks they’ve put up for so long. This book has one of my favorite endings ever because it’s as sweet as them and filled with hope that even though they struggled, they had a foundation to continue to build on. I would love to see more of them in the future.
Zane is a famous actor and Mason is a quiet poet who is clueless about pop culture. They meet at a bar, sparks fly, and their relationship evolves from there.
I love this world and I love this group of friends and Mason and Zane are a great addition to the universe. It was great seeing them interact with the characters I adore so much.
Mason is such a sweetheart. He has a the biggest heart and he’s so clever and kind. He’s the best. Zane is complicated and very lonely and he changed so much as the story progressed, it was wonderful to read. I really love how the author’s characters always feel so real. Relationships are not always easy, they need work and those two really had to work. I liked that.
A beautiful book, with great characters that made me very happy.
I received an ARC of this book for an honest review
OMG! I just love Zane and Mason.
Julia did such an outstanding job is telling their story that by the end I could feel their love for each other and just, sigh! I feel all mushy inside. Sometimes you just want a book with all the feels. No high angst, no massive drama, just the right amount of fluff to massage your heart and soul.
When Mason met Zane at a bar he had no clue that Zane was this movie star from California. Zane asked Mason to leave with him that night and so Mason did. They spent the night in a calm, quiet embrace that neither of them had realized that they needed until they found it with each other.
This book is a total must read for sure!!!
Everytime I read one of Julia McBryant’s books the next thing I know the world goes away as I get drawn into a wonderful well written story she builds around her characters, whether it’s about some of our old favorites or some new friends. Mason was out with the gang at a bar, and there he meets Zane and they hook up together. It’s kind of funny but Mason has no clue that Zane is a popular movie star, and totally in the closet, but after his last relationship, Mason swore he’d never go back there again. So now it’s up to them to decide how much they mean to each other and how much of themselves they are will to give, so they can be together.
This book was given to me as an ARC, all opinions are my own.
I love lost boys, I truly do, all the hurt and comfort that comes with them.
This book left me with mixed emotions, and for one of Isa’s biggest fans, I didn’t truly like her in this book. Because her meddling didn’t really seem to have helped, not truly.
I loved Mason, he was so sweet and innocent and perhaps naive, but he was the better of the two in what I ended up feeling wasn’t a very healthy relationship.
Usually Julia’s boys makes me feel so happy and emotional, they are so lost and so sweet in their own way.
But Zane didn’t bring that out in me, he had his sweetness and adorable moments where you would like to wrap him up in a blanket burrito and cuddle him close. His loneliness was eating him up inside.
Though while behaviour could be excused by hurt or being scared, he didn’t treat Mason right.
He attempted to make Mason fit in to his world until it was obvious it was harming him.
At the same time Mason brought out bad sides in Zane as well and the run and chase between them couldn’t be good.
I’m sure my opinion will waver if their story continues, she have a way of doing it and I keep my mind open for it.
My only thing that stood out during the book was the lack of difference between Zane and Mason’s dialects. I was missing Mason’s heavy dialect to come forth more than briefly.
So good! I absolutely loved Mason and Zane’s story! They are beautiful men with souls that have hurt and loneliness in them. When they come together it doesn’t instantly go away.
The brilliance of our authors talent is that life is messy and not so easy to always deal with but It doesn’t mean it’s not worth fighting to keep a relationship going.