Tina's Reading Books

This was a light, fun and very wittily written romance.

Lainie Graham and Richard Troy are starring together in an historical play in London's West End theatre district.

They couldn't be more different. Lainie is an up and coming ingenue who is popular with the public in part because of her public break up with bad-boy actor Will Farmer. He cheated on her and all the sympathy is on her side.

Richard Troy is at the pinnacle of stage theatre fame. A privileged blue blood who is also a brilliant actor who is considered a bit of a dick by the public because of his disdain for publicity and his abrasive demeanor.

The problem? Richard's attitude it beginning to affect ticket sales.

The solution? Rehab with a romance with the very nice, very likable Lainie.

The reaction? Utter horror on both their parts.

But they are forced into it and so ---   faux-mance, here they come!

I really enjoyed this for a lot of reasons.

First, I loved that neither Richard nor Lainie are suffering from UST or get all tingly the minute they shake hands or lock eyes. Quite the opposite. Although they both are in the same play and are one of the four principal actors who are in each other's company quite a bit because they rehearse regularly, they are professionally in different stratospheres. Lainie is envious of Richard's talent and his supreme confidence. Richard.... well Richard's reaction to Lainie is akin to '...Aaand your name is again?' Lainie truly barely registers on his radar.

Second, even when they start in on their charade they are terrible at it. They are awkward and don't really actually like each other. Their body language is stiff. As actors they are really bad at acting like they are in a romance.

Third, their personalities are great. Richard is elitist and gruff and has no time for mere mortals. He is very method-y actor-y all broody and Byron-y. He is an utter bastard. I enjoyed the hell out of Richard. He wasn't written as mean, he was just...prickly. Lainie was very nice and decent. Which sounds boring because that makes her sound like twice baked potato chips. Except, she has some salt and vinegar added to her. She is sharp witted and makes funny jabs at Richard and pokes at his self importance right to his unbelieving face.

And fourth, when they finally become aware of each other as more than just these two people who are forced to be around each other it is because they like each other. They start to look at each other with interest because something about what the other said or did arrested their attention. And then the tingles begin.

Yup, really fun book.