not much to say about this book tbh, as it didn't really do anything for me. 'sizzle reel' by carlyn greenwald follows 24-year-old luna who has just realized she's bi. an aspiring director of photography, she works as an assistant to a horrible agent who barely remembers her name. but when she's introduced to current a-list star valeria (who might also be queer???), she jumps at the chance to work on val's new indie movie. maybe working on the film will hit two birds with one stone: impressing the film's DP & potentially losing her virginity to val?

i think what this book struggled with most was too much time spent on luna's inner musings on her identity & feelings for val, and not enough plot. i found luna INSUFFERABLE, and not in a cute way, but in an "oh my god, get over yourself" way, which felt really juvenile for someone in their mid-20s. the instalove for valeria was a bit cringe, and the set up of a love triangle was introduced so early that i knew how the book was going to wrap up from the second chapter. the book's writing felt very gen-z in a way that was trying to be quirky & relatable, but honestly just missed the mark for me.

i applaud the author for writing a book about discovering your queer identity in your mid-20s, as we don't see these written as often, as well as for including nonbinary representation in the book. however, i think this story & writing just wasn't amazing, which was really unfortunate to realize.

Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This was a fun easy read, that contained some important conversations. It was nice to see a coming of age story featuring a slightly older character (24) and some of Luna's questions and fears around the validity of her bisexuality were pretty relatable. Ultimately I found Sizzle Reel became pretty centered around Luna's quest to loose her virginity and her whole character arc seemed to be around learning that sex could be more than penetrative sex, which i found repetitive and way too drawn out, I think this distracted from the relationships and friendships and fun setting which were the books strengths.

Sizzle Reel kind of fell flat to me. I quickly got annoyed by the main character and her definition of losing her virginity. I wish the tension between Romi and Luna had been fixed quicker. I felt that the tension there could totally have been resolved with a conversation after a little of the tension and still kept the storyline almost the same. I don’t enjoy the degree of miscommunication. I also felt like some of the sexualities and genders were sloppily done.

I did appreciate Luna’s baby gay awkwardness, because same. But ultimately I found this book to just be okay.

Thank you to the publisher for providing a gifted copy of Sizzle Reel, all opinions are my own.

This book was very... meh. I found myself struggling to finish it solely because I didn't care how it ended for anyone.

Things I did appreciate: late bloomer representation, a great discussion on consent/getting exactly what you want in bed that wasn't cringey, and bisexuality being acknowledged as a real thing rather than a cop out.

It really wasn't that bad of a book, just sort of forgettable (I honestly already forget all the character's names... I think Luna was the main girl?). Still worth your time if you like queer stories and cinema.

We love a messy MC! Luna decides that it's time to come out to her friends at 24 years old. The story follows her as she struggles with her sexuality (and the fact that people are stupid and don't accept it as valid) but she also struggles with her friendships and where her career is going. When all of that overlaps, she needs to figure out what it is she really wants out of life.
The highlight for me was Val, the love interest. I feel like she really balanced out Luna's sometimes selfish actions. While Luna is a fun MC to follow, she also grated on my nerves a few times with how she kept ignoring everyone's issues but her own. Then again, I loved how we got to see her anxiety play out, so take my criticism with a grain of salt.
Enjoyable, fun summer romance that works as a nice reprieve!

What a wonderful debut! First of all, this cover though?! So gorgeous. So bisexual 👏👏 The queer representation in Greenwald’s adult debut was son wonderful! I love later in life bisexual awakenings, and this story was exactly what it promised to be.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for the ARC of this novel. For a book called Sizzle Reel, there was a distinct lack of sizzle. Luna was not a great main character as they spent so much time in their head rather than talking to anyone. Anxiety is understandable but her character made the whole book feel so slow. It took so long to get through this and get to an ending which worked. Luna needed to be compelling and she just was not. Love the message of this book and more representation is needed but I cannot recommend this.

Sizzle Reel is a messy, queer, FUN romcom ride of a debut novel.

It is the bi awakening hot mess of a story I did not know I needed to read - it is full of allll the inner turmoil and drama one expects in the early 20s as they're figuring shit out. Or at least attempting to get somewhere somehow with the right people alongside you for the journey.

I consider this messy in the best way possible. I loved the FMC even when I wanted to shake some sense into her. The love interest and supporting cast also provided great depth to the story while not taking the focus off the three main characters. And I LOVED the filmmaking perspective and descriptions - it's really cool to read about the "how" behind the camera.

I highly recommend this book if that sounds fun to you and you love a good coming of age story.

I want to say thank you to the author and Vintage Books for a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Okay Sizzle Reel is everything I thought it would be and so much more. I had been hearing about this book for months, and when I got approved to review it I was so excited. As a queer person, reading Luna's coming out story and seeing her struggle through worrying about her parents acceptance, facing homophobia in the workplace, it all just hit so close to home.

And as an aspiring film maker, Luna's journey to be a PA in the film industry felt like it would be super interesting to me. One thing I wished for more of was more of Luna's journey into the industry, because it felt like it would be such a big plot point in the beginning of the book between conversations with her boss, internal conflict, etc, and it felt like it got a little sidelined for the sake of the romance. Which I will admit was a very cute one.

Things I loved: VALERIA, the issues that this book tackled, and the romance

Things I wish there were more of: Luna's job, not just how it was a stepping stone to get to Valeria

Thankyou to Net Galley, Carlyn Greenwald, and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for providing me this ARC

Luna decides to come out to her friends at 24 years old. As she struggles with her sexuality and the validity of it, she also struggles with her friendships, career, and familial relationships. When her friendships, career and relationship overlap, she must determine what she wants. It's a relatable story.

Read if you like: flawed/chaotic characters, Hollywood setting, celeb romance, love triangle, 90s romances (it kinda reads like one), coming of age, figuring out sexuality

👍
+ The best character in this book is by far Val, the actress the MC falls for. She’s so cool, thoughtful, and the person with the least personal agenda in the book.
+ I appreciated getting a glimpse into the lives of people trying to break into the industry for behind-the-camera work in Hollywood. The MC wants to be a cinematographer, and her way of describing how she would shoot scenes from her own life added an interesting perspective as well.
+ Even though the MC isn’t willing to hear it, there are some cool conversations about what sex is, how virginity is not a straightforward concept and how most people’s definition of it is very heteronormative.
+ If you like flawed and chaotic characters, this book might be for you. I do appreciate that the book highlights that we don’t have to have everything figured out to be queer, that we don’t have to be perfect, and that coming out is a long journey.

👎
- The main character made no sense to me. She’s 24 but acts like a teenager most of the time, she’s way too old to be this obsessed with being a virgin and this clueless about what sex is. She just came out to various people but doesn’t seem like she has put any thought into what being bi means to her. She’s born and raised in LA, is Gen Z, her best friend is sapphic, but somehow still seems like she has had zero exposure to anything or anyone queer. Also somehow has no perception of power dynamics and why it’s not good to have a romance with your boss.
- She was also extremely selfish. She uses almost everyone she comes across. And gets upset when they don’t just welcome being used.
- MC’s BFFs are kinda shitty too.

Overall rating: 2.5 ⭐

Thank you to Vintage Books and NetGalley for the eARC!

More like 3.5/5 stars. I liked parts of this. Luna is a mess and I liked reading about her coming out experience, but I also didn't like a lot of it. This isn't really a romance, it's more about Luna figuring out her sexuality and there is a love triangle that really takes away from the main couple.

I also had a hard time with how sex and virginity were discussed in this book. I know that Luna had to go on a journey to discover what all that meant to her as a bisexual woman, but it was a bit much to read about. It also felt a tad out of place since Luna seems to be well versed in sexuality and the queer community so idk why she was so obsessed with what sex actually was. It did lead to an interesting convo with Valeria, but why couldn't that have been earlier in the story?

Either way I liked seeing Luna grow and change, but thought the romance with Romy was rushed and it was a shame that we spent so much time with Valeria when that's not who Luna ends up with. I felt like we didn't get to know Romy enough for me to be happy with the ending. If this was just a fiction novel I would've been okay with it, but this being called a rom com and being marketed a romance...well in my eyes, it's not a romance because of that.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

While this was overall a solid read for me and I really really appreciated the Jewish representation (especially within a queer contemporary book), I ended up being fairly disappointed by this overall. I'm not sure exactly why but I had a hard time getting through this and overall did not feel that connected to the story. While it wasn't done badly, I didn't love the love triangle aspect of it and did not find the characters to be that compelling or likeable. Additionally, while I didn't like the love triangle aspect I think I would have disliked it even more if I hadn't caught on to Valeria not being the only love interest. If I hadn't realized I bet (and based on others reviews it seems that this is true) that it would have found it to be very abrupt and odd shift especially because we spend so much of this book with Valeria.
I also found the spice to be very out of place? I'm not sure why exactly but this is not a book that I expected to have explicit scenes for some reason and as a result I tended to skip past them. I also thought this was especially true given Luna's weird ongoing obsession with sex and what virginity means throughout the book. While I feel that this is an important discussion to have and it can be very complicated and confusing, it felt like it came up too many times and became too repetitive and also infiltrated the sex scenes at times , making it kinda uncomfortable at times to read.

Overall I think this is going to be a 2.75 star read for me that I am rounding up to a 3 for this review.

This was a nice enjoyable read! I think there were definitely flaws in the writing and a lot of pop culture references which isn't always my favorite thing, but overall I was able to get through it and I did enjoy it. I love to read about the entertainment industry in general so that is always a plus for me. Romy was definitely my favorite character, I think she's very enjoyable to read about and is different from a lot of other non-binary characters we see now.

This was a solid 3.5 star read for me. I really enjoyed the story, however there were a few things that kept me from giving it the higher rating that I had originally hoped to give.

I really enjoyed the relatable feeling of queer panic and constant questioning that you go through when you come out, as we watch Luna experience her first days after realizing she is bisexual. It felt incredibly realistic in the beginning, However as we progressed, it started to feel... different. I did not love all the emphasis that was put on the logistics of losing your virginity - it would have been one thing if that was just like a little bit of the bi-panic / "baby queer" mind process during the book, but it came up quite frequently, and through the ENTIRE book. it felt redundant and unnecessary, almost distracting from some of the other aspects of the book.

Overall, I enjoyed this read, and would recommend to those looking for a sapphic, gay panic, hollywood rom-com! Thank you Netgalley and Carlyn Greenwald for providing me a copy of this arc in exchange for an honest review!

I really struggled with this book, because I just could not tell what the aim of the story was. Was it a romance? If so, it didn't come across in a way that had the reader rooting for the end pairing, because throughout the whole of the book, the main character was pursuing a relationship with somebody else. Or was this book about Luna confirming her sexuality? Because if it is, I don't think the way the book is written is a very good representation for that. There was a hell of a lot of internalised biphobia going on with the main character, that just seemed to never end. The side characters also all felt very one-dimensional; I did really like Valeria, and I would've loved if she had ended up being the end-game love interest after all, because she was fantastic, but everyone else was just meh.

My favourite trope is friends-to-lovers, but this book does a terrible job of conveying that trope. We focus on a completely different relationship for literally 80% of the book, only for there to be a sudden turnaround and for Luna to think to herself, "oh maybe I actually like my best friend instead, let's go see if it will work out with her". It just made the book feel really clunky and disjointed.

The premise of this Sizzle Reel was so alluring to me. I love a queer coming-of-age story and I’m also a big fan of a Hollywood setting so this felt like something that was going to be right up my alley. I only wish the execution lived up to my expectations. Instead of being the new favourite I had anticipated I’m walking away from this book feeling confused and frustrated.

Firstly, what I did like: Valeria! She is the star of this show. She’s so fun and fleshed out, she really felt like the only three-dimensional character to me. I loved her characterisation and her dialogue and wit were lovely.

I think most of my issues with this book are from the plot and the main character, Luna. I get that this was supposed to be about the chaos and coming of age associated with finding oneself. It’s totally expected that Luna’s a bit of a hot mess after coming out. It makes sense that this chaos puts the story into motion. However, I did not expect Luna to be a confusing chaos goblin for the WHOLE book. I mean... this really took the whole ‘chaotic gays’ meme to a new level. Right from the beginning of the book we’re supposed to believe that Luna has just come out and is smitten with America’s current sweetheart, Valeria Sullivan. But from that very same first chapter, we begin to get fed all these sporadic little romantic descriptions about Luna’s nonbinary bestie Romy. It was like the author was trying to breadcrumb bits of this love triangle into the story with little success. The whole story focused so heavily on Valeria, but then we’d get these randomly thrown lines about Romy when Luna’s focus and time barely spent with Romy. Instead of breadcrumbs here and there it was like every 50 pages or so I’d get 3 loaves of bread hurled at my head. It just didn’t feel smooth or realistic at all. The ‘tension’ between Romy and Luna was so lacking. Essentially this was a friends-to-lovers book in which the main character spends 90% of the story pining for someone else. I love a good friends-to-lovers story but I didn’t even sense a smidge of the trope until 85% in.

Overall, I just didn’t feel any of the emotions the author was intending I feel throughout the story. I know I was supposed to root for Luna and feel for her as she struggled to figure herself out and experiment with her sexuality, but I think the problem was that Luna was so focused on sex. She was so obsessed with ticking off ‘losing her queer virginity.’ Luna was just entirely too immature for my liking. At points in the story, Luna felt almost clinical and cold because she ignored all her emotions and gave up her chances at real self-actualization to seek external validation over whether or not what she and Valeria had done constituted queer sex. I mean she practically runs away from Valeria’s after their night together to ask Romy if she had ticked it off. She was so obsessed with fitting the criteria of queer that I feel the story misses out on giving us the real and raw emotions and turmoil that one should have during this journey. Especially reflecting on how the story ends, it feels really icky that Luna was so obsessed with having Romy validate her queerness. It almost felt like she was infantilising herself to Romy. In addition, I can see how this book could come off as offensive or belittling to bisexuals who do not share the same narrow definition of sex and virginity as Luna. For a book that tries and promises to be pretty progressive and often makes jokes about the character’s apparent wokeness, I think the stereotypes around virginity and the focus on cis-male appendages have the potential to be quite frustrating and hurtful for queer readers, specifically non-binary and lesbian readers.

Unfortunately, the ending just made me incredibly frustrated… which pretty sums up my entire experience with this book. The relationship that prevails wasn’t well-developed but rather felt rushed and forced, and frankly left a bad taste in my mouth. I really wanted to love this but all the parts that I did like ended up being nearly inconsequential and all that’s left in the end is the messy, chaotic parts.

I loved the story, the world building and meeting the different characters. I felt completely immersed in the story and couldn't stop reading it.

Sizzle Reel by Carlyn Greenwald

This is a coming out queer story within a coming-of-age story. 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.

This is a love triangle and Valeria is center stage in the middle of it. Valeria wanted to come out in her own terms but gets forced out before she was ready to tell people about being bi-sexual. It was fairly decent story. I agree with others don't go reading this a current day coming out read it as a coming out story say 10 years ago. Where it was much harder for someone to come out and except there identity. if you go into this book understanding that it will be an enjoyable coming out book. For me even as an older LGBGTQ member this felt what I experienced coming out to people I cared about.

Thank you to Netgalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage and Anchor for a free copy of Sizzle Reel for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions in this review are my own.

I adored this book! Luna is very relatable, and I enjoyed seeing her interact with both Romy and Valeria. The ending was a bit predictable, but I liked it nonetheless. The book does read a bit YA, but as a lover of all genre-ages, it didn't matter much to me.

Thank you to the author for the gifted copy (totally forgot I had it on NetGalley also)