The camera-man creeps closer, and my loving boyfriend pulls me into his chest. “Keep your tongue in your mouth, or you’re fired,” he mutters, bending to kiss me. I never wanted to be famous. I’m perfectly happy working backstage at a late-night chat show, safely hidden off-camera. But when a paparazzo snaps a misleading photo of me and a bratty celebrity guest, my life is … celebrity guest, my life is ruined overnight.
Suddenly, the whole world is convinced I’m having a torrid affair with the snarly, stuck-up cinema star Jack Hale. And thousands of people hate me. Excellent.
To make things even weirder, now Jack is demanding that I pretend to be his fake girlfriend for two months, in exchange for a cool half a million. It’s an offer I can’t refuse, literally, for financial reasons.
Two months of swanning around on a sexy actor’s arm sounds like a good deal, but Jack isn’t going to make it easy. We don’t get on. At all. He’s cold, bad-tempered, rude to his fans, and convinced that I’m secretly in love with him.
Being stunningly hot and disgustingly famous doesn’t make up for being a prick.
But my behaviourally-challenged fake boyfriend is the least of my worries. Getting thrust into the public eye has made me a target. I can’t leave the house without being followed and harassed. Paparazzi are going through my rubbish and enraged fans are sending me death threats.
If I’m getting out of this alive, Jack and I are going to have to work together to play them all.
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Loved the tension in this enemies-to-lovers celebrity romance.
Super cute, entertaining, funny, and heartwarming read …. Skittles!
The Love Act is Zara Bell’s debut novel … and what a debut this is! It’s a terrific story about overcoming injustices of the past and staying true to one’s self. For me, the characters and storyline is what makes a book … and this did it for me.
Cassandra (Cassie) is a former actor who now works backstage on a TV show. She lives with her flatmate Robin, who is running a foundation for people with mental challenges.
Jack is an actor and is the son of a famous actress. He’s made it big in action films but has a strong desire for more substantial roles …. And for an authentic life without the press, fans, and crazy demands.
Both Jack and Cassie are caught up in the end game of a fake “shomance,” each for their own valid reasons … but are suspicious of each other’s motives. As the story progresses, each realizes that what appears to be real may be anything but … and visa versa.
The story, with the subplots came together in a fantastic ending, that I’ve re-read about 8 times so far. All of the loose strings came together in a realistic way that had me cheering for Cassie … and Cassie and Jack! … and the supporting characters are ones I hope to see in future books!
This book gets 5 stars for me due to the sheer number of re-reads that I’ve already gone through!
I received an ARC. This is my honest review.
The story follows the usual pattern. A fake romance that leads to real love. Their are a few barriers in between to add to the drama.Cassie is basically scared of her own shadow. She is a gifted actress but has debilitating stage fright. She stays behind the scenes as a runner and is content until she stumbles across Jack hiding out in the bins. A compromising picture casts Jack in a bad way and could destroy his chance on a new movie role. He is a super hero movie star and everyone wants a part of him. Jack is not a social person. He lacks trust and is not comfortable with strangers touching him. Cassie with her timidness and Jack with his antisocial behavior make a strange pair. Their encounters were painfully awkward and cute. We get to watch both characters gain strength and come into themselves. Cassie’s is more pronounced since we only get her point of view.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started reading Zara Bell’s “The Love Act” since she was a new-to-me author, but it turned out to be an excellent book that gave me all the feels. Main characters Jack and Cassie were incredibly sympathetic and well-developed, and I found myself laughing and crying right along with them even though the situation they faced wasn’t anything I could imagine encountering in my own life.
I love stories that feature grumpy heroes, which certainly seemed to describe Jack at first, but there was so much more to him than was initially apparent. It would have been easy to assume that he was nothing more than an arrogant, entitled jerk because of the level of fame he had achieved, but in truth Jack had some legitimate issues because of the way the media had treated his mother, also a famous actor. He had more reasons than most celebrities to mistrust and dislike the media, but he wasn’t very good at explaining those reasons to Cassie, which created a lot of problems between them.
Cassie hid a lot of things from Jack too, most notably her own acting career and struggles with anxiety. Her reasons for doing so were understandable, but it certainly didn’t help her and Jack to build trust in their relationship. They really seemed to dislike each other for most of the first half of the book. It took them quite a while to start opening up and getting to know each other, but once they did, they turned out to be very well matched. Jack and Cassie’s fake relationship soon became all too real, and while their path to happiness was far from easy, their struggles were worth it in the end.
Overall, I adored “The Love Act” and highly recommend it for all fans of contemporary romance and romantic comedy. I will be watching to see what Zara Bell writes next!
*ARC provided by the author/publisher via Hidden Gems Books. All opinions expressed are my own.