How to Fake It In Hollywood
BY Ava Wilder
Rating: 4.5/5 Genre: Contemporary Romance Steam: Explicit! Publisher: Random House Publisher Thank you for my advanced copy of the book, all opinions are my own. Pub Date: June 14, 2022 Available: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | BookShop
How to Fake It In Hollywood Synopsis:
Grey Brooks is on a mission to keep her career afloat now that the end of her long-running teen TV show has her (unsuccessfully) pounding the pavement again. With a life-changing role on the line, she’s finally desperate enough to agree to her publicist’s scheme: fake a love affair with a disgraced Hollywood heartthrob who needs the publicity, but for very different reasons.
Ethan Atkins just wants to be left alone. Between his high-profile divorce, struggles with drinking, and grief over the death of his longtime creative partner and best friend, Ethan has slowly let himself fade into the background. But if he ever wants to produce the last movie he and his partner wrote together, Ethan needs to clean up his reputation and step back into the spotlight. A gossip-inducing affair with a gorgeous actress might be just the ticket, even if it’s the last thing he wants to do.
Though their juicy public relationship is less than perfect behind the scenes, it doesn’t take long before Grey and Ethan’s sizzling chemistry starts to feel like more than just an act. But after decades in a ruthless industry that requires bulletproof emotional armor to survive, are they too used to faking it to open themselves up to the real thing?
Content Warnings: death of a friend (off page), alcoholism, drug use, addiction, child abuse (off page, in past)
How to Fake It In Hollywood Review
This book ended up being not what I was expecting and definitely not in a bad way. I ended up really enjoying the book and devoured it in basically one sitting. Yeah, it sucks you in. I was expecting something more on the lines of You Had Me At Hola by Alexis Daria or Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade. It’s a much heavier novel than that, but don’t let it stop you from reading it! Just check out the content warnings and enjoy because it was so good!!
Loves:
Communication– the communication that both characters had was phenomenal. Sure there were some moments when they didn’t talk things through as much as they should have, but I understood the why behind those moments. However for the most part they acted like adults and talked things through!
Grey, Ethan, and Nora– I loved these characters. Each one felt like they were fully developed and utterly flawed in the best way. To be honest, Nora ended up stealing the show for me with her relationship with Ethan and Grey even though she was the ex-wife. Grey was such an interesting character too! She’d been in shows and worked her whole life which created a very interesting dynamic. Ethan was such a sad man. You seriously cannot hope but for the best for him the entire book.
Plot– This plot does not go the way you think it will. I had a pretty good idea of what I was getting myself into with this book. Spoiler alert, I did not. I’m not going to ruin any part of this novel, but just be aware it’s not going to go how you think it is. And honestly, that’s for the better. The ending is absolute perfection because of it.
Meh:
Side Characters– Look I just wanted more from them. I was really hoping we’d get a better interaction with Ethan and his children. Also some more from Grey’s family. It’s there but just isn’t fleshed out the way the rest of the story was. I get why it was probably done, but if I could change one thing it’d be that.
Long Story Short
Do I recommend this book? YES! It was amazing and I really enjoyed the writing. Everything flowed so well. Totally a book I would give as a gift to a friend. There’s just so much to unpack and also the steamy scenes were totally worth it. I really, really hope this is just the beginning of Ava Wilder’s writing career because I so want more books from her!
If You Liked This One…
I would highly recommend checking out You Had Me At Hola by Alexis Daria, which also has two actor leads. Not a fake dating situation but super steamy and similar themes! Additionally, Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade also features fake dating and one character is an actor that is pretty much a combo of Grey and Ethan. Spoiler Alert is also fairly heavy in places so it’s similar in that sense as well. For another heavier romance I’d recommend How to Fail At Flirting by Denise Williams as the title is close 😉 and the plot lines follow a similar trend!
