Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced digital copy of this books. I stopped reading at 25%.I just couldn't get into it as the main character was unlikeable.

CONTENT WARNING: biphobia, homophobia, public outing, misgendering

When I discovered that this was a book about a bisexual, Jewish character in Hollywood, I didn’t really have to read more to know I wanted it. But … maybe I should have read a little deeper into the plot summary. Because I seriously wanted to love this book so much, but it just wasn’t the best fit for me, and I was incredibly disappointed.

Luna is a late bloomer—she didn’t start hooking up with guys until she was older, hasn’t lost her virginity, and only came out as bisexual at the start of the book, at the age of 24. I could identify with her on so much of that, but she quickly lost me. She’s the type of character who is constantly in her head, and while I do think that mental health representation is so important to have in books, I also know that for me personally, I struggle with reading the thoughts of someone who has Generalized Anxiety Disorder. I can’t even imagine how difficult it must be to live with the disorder, if simply reading a character’s thoughts in a book is stressful and draining for me. It does elicit plenty of empathy from me for Luna (and anyone else who has this disorder), but at the same time, this isn’t the kind of brain that I want to spend a lot of time hanging out in, if that makes sense?

More than the anxiety, I was frustrated by the way that Luna fixates on certain things, turning to one specific person for support and ignoring not only everything that person says to her, but also not taking into account anything that is going on with that person or their own feelings. In this case, that would be her nonbinary friend Romy. It’s clear from early on that there is going to be a love triangle situation, which I have no idea how I missed, but absolutely isn’t a trope I enjoy in most books. But I couldn’t help also feeling more empathetic towards Romy for having to put up with Luna constantly pushing Romy’s concerns, thoughts, and feelings aside to ask questions that she’d only ignore the answers to. Like her constant fixation on losing her virginity, and what that means with a girl.

The book spends a decent amount of time talking about the social construct of virginity, what different people consider “sex” to be, especially in a sapphic relationship, coming out, accepting one’s queerness, and perhaps what I found most interesting, a discussion on gender identity and how someone who identifies as nonbinary might feel most comfortable using different pronouns, rather than simply they/them. I felt like this was the strongest aspect of the book, especially where one character outs another inadvertently, as it happens in several different situations, and there’s also a discussion about revoking consent which is respected and handled beautifully. Luna’s Jewish heritage also comes up here and there, and I loved seeing it just pop into the story as it does.

The story takes place in Hollywood, and I wasn’t quite expecting things to be as technical as they were. There were a lot of abbreviations used, and I didn’t quite understand what they all were, so a lot of the time I just felt lost, but I also found myself having to go online at the end of the book to even find out what a sizzle reel was, since it’s never actually used in the book, so I found myself too curious to leave it unanswered.

I felt like Valeria was hands down the most interesting character in the book, and while a lot of the story felt like it was slow-moving, I’d definitely read another book that focused more on Valeria’s story, because she was a fun and intriguing character, and I would love to see her get her own story (preferably not another love triangle, though). Overall, the relationships between Luna and the male characters in the story felt really flat—the conversations she had with her brother felt like what I’d see in a YA book, but on the young end of the spectrum, while Wyatt just seemed to be there to further the plot and didn’t really function as a full character in his own right, which was disappointing. I was truly hoping to love this book and rate it higher, but I think it just wasn’t the right fit for me, and everything felt a little too predictable. Plus, all the Gen Z speak went a bit over my head and left me feeling … really old.

I didn’t love this book. I stopped reading it around the 50% mark. It was boring and preachy about the character. I’ve read Goodreads comments that say the same thing and chose to not finish the book.

So I have like super mixed feelings about this book. On one hand "yay bisexual coming out story", which we totally need more of in the world, and on the other, the main character was almost insufferable. S It's the constant, and I mean CONSTANT internal and external conversation about how "you aren't gay unless you have gay sex", "you're not bi if you haven't had sex with a woman", ect ect..

I need significantly more steamy sapphic romances in the market, this one was A++. A first round purchase for libraries looking to widen the scope of their romance collection.

rep: jewish bi mc
romance: f/f + f/nb

okay. I understand (kinda) how the author wanted to present this book. It focuses on Luna who is completely a mess and questioning everything about her sexuality. This comes with a TON of internalized homophobia/biphobia/acephobia all that. Not even internalized, she openly expresses it with her VERY OUT & QUEER LESBIAN NONBINARY BEST FRIEND. The insensitivity is wild and isn't touched on until the end.

So what's the issue? It's the constant, and I mean CONSTANT conversation (internal and external) about how "you aren't gay unless you have gay sex", "you're not bi if you haven't had sex with a woman", "the only real sex is straight sex, gay sex doesn't count" blah blah blah. It's exhausting. I know Luna is struggling with the heteronormative structures of society but I promise you there is a better way to handle it. It's excruciating to have to dump all these homophobic/biphobic thoughts onto her non-binary best friend, Romy, and then immediately shut Romy down when she criticizes her. I don't think Luna actually ever acknowledges that her thoughts are wrong or hurtful, just accepts that her sex won't include penetration.

I wish I was joking.

Oh and the fact that she "wants to have sex like every other allosexual person on Earth." Essentially, "allosexual" is a controversial term used to describe people who are not asexual or people who don't experience sexual attraction. My problem with this is that it completely excludes people who fall under the asexual umbrella and DO experience sexual attraction (i.e. demisexuals). I understand the author's intentions with the sentence, but please do basic research on a term before you use it in a published book. Or even sensitivity readers!

Luna's whole quest in this book is to have sapphic sex to confirm her sexuality. That is it. It's not even a romance because all the romance that happens is in the last three chapters of the book. The book would work AMAZINGLY as an f/nb best friends to lovers book that it tried to be at the end.

I was so excited to read this book and just disappointed.

P.S. there is a very dramatic scene of public outing at the beginning. It comes out of nowhere, so please be aware of that before reading!

Regardless of my feelings, thank you so much to the publisher and netgalley for the chance to read and review this early!

Luna is going to become a cinematographer by paying her dues as a PA for a Hollywood talent agent. She is also in the process of coming to terms with her sexuality and had just come out to her best friends as bi. She meets, Valeria at work and is immediately enamored with the young Oscar winner. To her surprise, Valeria shows interest in Luna but as they get closer Luna's best friend Romy starts acting increasingly odd.
I enjoyed reading this and felt like it was well written for a debut author. There is a lot of angst on Luna's part which made it feel more like a YA story than I was expecting. I liked Romy and Valeria both and there were a lot of fun interactions amongst them. A lot of this book though was Luna's internal dialogue though and it felt a bit much. There was also a really big focus on what constitutes sex and virginity from Luna that I really didn't understand and took away from the story in my opinion. Overall it was a good book but it wasn't quite what I expected.

Thank you to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor, Vintage and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this arc

Sizzle Reel was sizzling with steaminess and queer chaos! A great romcom for sapphic and non-binary disasters everywhere.

If I could swallow this book whole I would. Luna is such a fantastic main character. Her struggles with coming out, exploring her sexuality, understanding the concept of virginity, and reckoning with her career troubles are so relatable and we’re written in such a well thought out and caring manner. The love triangle was exquisite and full of all the dramatic moments I love without all the immaturity and toxicity that comes with the trope. Fantastic book!!

Sizzle Reel by Carlyn Greenwald was a book that I thought had potential to be one of my favorite reads of the year but unfortunately fell flat and missed the mark on many things. From the insta love and a supposed love triangle that had zero chemistry that had me rooting for our side characters relationships over our own MC’s. As a person who does film i thought that i would love this but the plot but sadly i did not there is nothing to it and it just lacked in many places.

I received a copy from Netgalley for review.

So I have like super mixed feelings about this book. On one hand "yay bisexual coming out story", which we totally need more of in the world, and on the other, the main character was almost insufferable. I almost DNF'd this book several times throughout the story, because Luna was just the worst. She was somehow stubborn, non confrontational (derogatory), chaotic, too eager to implement and didn't listen to a single piece of advice that anyone INCLUDING HER THERAPIST gave her. While I appreciate representation (I also identify as bisexual), the cost of reading this was a lot. There's rampant external and internal biphobia that Luna doesn't really work through at all until like the last few pages and all of her questions and gripes just magically disappeared. Idk it was off putting. She never really learned to step up for herself which was irritating as heck.

Overall though, I think there will be people that really enjoy this. It's not necessarily for me to re-read again.

It was sweet at times, but very predictable and I had a hard time being sympathetic to Luna’s struggles. More often than not she felt like a brat. Overall, this wasn’t bad but I’m not sure I’d recommend it.

The more time I've had to ruminate on this book, the more I'm leaning firmly into the camp of this being more women's fiction than a romance novel, especially because it revolves more around the self-discovery journey of the FMC and learning the intricacies of her sexuality rather than making a romance the focal point. (Full disclosure: our lead spends about 80% of the book crushing on and making moves toward one person, only to realize at the close that she's been in love with her best friend all along.) There's also a lot of weird insistence on Luna's part that she must still be a virgin if you've never had a very specific type of penetrative sex (and apparently fingering doesn't count?) — I'll admit to being somewhat aggravated by Luna's mindset on this, which never seemed to waver in spite of her non-binary BFF very patiently explaining to her that this heteronormative framing of virginity is... pretty outdated? I don't know. I think this would've been better served as a friends-to-lovers book — the Valeria storyline, in many instances, detracted from the impact of Luna and Romy finally getting together. There's a strong understanding of the film industry and the people in it, and overall the book has a great narrative voice, but there were just things plot-wise that I couldn't get on board with.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

DNF @ 27%

As a queer woman myself, I wanted to like this book so bad, but I just couldn’t get into it. The plot fell flat to me. The characters didn’t have enough depth. And for our newly bi main character, every aspect of queerness seemed to revolve around sexual intercourse and sexual experiences in general and that’s just… not it. It just wasn’t for me. But I do appreciate very much the chance to have gotten to read and review it.

3.5/5 stars

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was definitely much more of a coming-of-age novel than a romance one. The start feels a bit slow and a lot of film industry terms were dumped, which made it hard for me to get into (could also just be because I'm not an expert in that area...). The romance takes a while to really start, but I think when it did, it had the right amount of tension with Valeria. However, after that it sort of started to slow down and focus more on other aspects of her life, so that's why it feels more like a coming-of-age story.

This book also deals with important topics such as (internalised) biphobia and the social construct of virginity. Sometimes it feels more like the things the characters say are the first thing that comes up on Google. The main character also starts to get a little annoying here, because she seems unwilling to listen to anyone.

All in all, it was a quick and easy read and I did have fun, but it has a few issues as well.

100/10 loved.
The exploration of a bisexual identity by a 20 something virgin was exactly what I needed. Lots of internalized and even external homophobia/biphobia being sifted through AND the anxiety representation was incredible. There were so many things I loved about this book, therapy, best friends, coming out, quitting jobs, hot actresses, exploring LA while also exploring sexuality, ugh yes loved. Pls read.

1/5 stars! This book should have had a couple of trigger warnings for some of the content and was just a huge miss for me. I felt like the descriptions of characters' sexual identities were misrepresentative and tropey for what would show up first when you google the term, rather than the wide array of ways different people may identify within a category. Sometimes the main character sounded like she was holding up a sign at a protest and other times like she was so naive she had no understanding of her identity. It just did not work as a story for me at all.

I received an advance review copy for free through NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily

This title fell a little short for me, It was one of my most anticipated reads of this year and I was so excited to receive an early copy but it did not live up to my expectations. I did still enjoy the novel so I wouldn't say it was a waste of time. It kind of just felt like a gender studies text book instead of a queer rom-com at points. I understand using inclusive language and trying to teach the reader more about queer culture and ideas but it felt too preachy and unnatural for me. Felt like a twitter/tiktok account turned novel. This is coming from a bisexual reader as well.

Sizzle Reel is fun, humorous, and lighthearted—an interesting take on the coming of age troupe, mixed with everyone's favorite splash of romcom. I loved Carlyn's writing style and enjoyed going along on this ride with Luna who was just trying to figure out her life during this young age. It is a bit slow to get to the root of the plot but once I grasped an understanding of the direction of the story, I really enjoyed it. I would highly recommend this one, finishing it in just one sitting.

Thank you Carlyn Greenwald, Vintage, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of SIZZLE REEL!

I had high hopes for this one--a late-blooming bisexual with the Hollywood insider scoop sounded fantastic! Unfortunately, this book and I did not end up vibing well for multiple reasons.

Reason #1: Despite having decidedly adult content, the actual writing read like YA.

Reason #2: This ended up feeling like more of a quest for the protagonist to lose her virginity--which she plans to accomplish by getting hired by the woman she has a crush on? As in, she wants the job so she can hook up with her boss??

Reason #3: The bisexual rep I was so excited for actually felt kind of problematic to me. Immediately after coming out, Luna starts to sexualize every woman she sees. Her supposed bisexuality felt more like the desire to sleep with everyone in this book. It felt like it was playing into some of the negative bi stereotypes. Besides which, Luna didn't actually feel bisexual--I wasn't convinced she was into men at all, considering that the book's entire focus is on women and that she apparently has had zero positive sexual experiences with men.

Reason #4: Portions of this read like a queer book for straight people. What I mean by that is that there are multiple scenes where Luna's friend Romi is just explaining how queerness works to her--for instance, Luna asks how sapphics have sex, and Romi explains. Luna is an American Gen X. She's grown up with the internet. She just came out as bi. Yet she seems to have no idea about things that a quick Google search--which I expect that most young people exploring their sexual identity would do--would answer. The explanations felt gratuitous, as if they were there for the benefit of a straight audience who wanted to know all the details they don't feel comfortable asking.

This book might be perfect for someone else, but it wasn't for me.