What had the makings of a great sapphic book, fell a little short for me but wasn't totally terrible. I had so many high hopes for this and was just a little underwhelmed by the plot development and some of the character's actions.

I feel like this has the bones of a great book, but ended up falling short, but overall enjoyable. I think some of the writing was redundant, and leaned a bit YA given that it isn’t

this book ended exactly the way I knew it would…and I was still pissed about it.

Luna Roth just had her bisexual awakening and is determined to put her newfound sexuality to good use. When she catches the attention of actress Valeria Sullivan, sparks fly and Luna discovers what she’s been missing.

……which is why the ending made me SO MAD. Spoilers start here folks!!! So throughout the book it was hinted that Luna had passing thoughts about liking one of her best friends, Romy, who was very obviously in love with Luna throughout the book. This is why I wasn’t incredibly surprised when Luna ended up with Romy after a fall-out with Valeria. It’s not that I didn’t like Romy, I just didn’t feel the same chemistry between her and Luna as I did with Luna and Valeria. Luna’s obsession with the definition of virginity and what constitutes as sex was also an annoying point for me throughout the book.

I actually had fun reading this until the ending :(

I received an advanced copy of Sizzle Reel by Carlyn Greenwald from the publisher Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

What It’s About: Aspiring cinematographer Luna Roth has just come out as bisexual at age 24, and while her best friend and fellow queer Romy is excited, she’s having trouble flirting with girls and she cannot even wrap her head around telling her story. Plus, her cruel boss has used this to push that she (the boss) celebrates diversity. But then A-list actressValeria Sullivan walks into the talent agency and is interested in Luna’s cinematography and Luna leverages this for a job. Plus, if she is also gay, Luna might have her first kiss with a girl wrapped up too.

What I Loved: I was really excited to read this one. I actually genuinely enjoyed the side characters Romy and Valeria. They were both likable characters and put up with a lot of crap. I enjoyed them and was happy when they showed up.

What I Didn’t Like: Luna took a promising book and kind of wrecked it for me. I’m not queer, so please take my words with that in conception. There are several reviews from queer readers who raise similar issues to me, and I would encourage you to read them. Luna is a dislikable character who seems to be scheming like a high schooler to get her crush to date her while constantly talking about it to her friends and overthinking. Also to be fair she kind of plays her crush too and this is ignored. Also, you know the whole time the way the book is going to end and this makes Luna read as blissfully ignorant and unthinking to everyone. A lot of this could be considered as her being inexperienced and immature, but I feel like that's not fully it, however it is worth noting the character is written as inexperienced, still I don't think being inexperienced is really an excuse for some of this behavior. There are also some really troubling obsessions with sex and virginity that are weird.

Who Should Read It: People who like predictable romances where a lead is a bit naïve.

Summary: Recently out, Luna has the chance to get the career and get the girl.

I enjoy a story about an average person and a movie about falling in love. Luna is working as an assistant, but her goal is to be a cinematographer. She is also newly out, and she hasn't told everyone.

When she gets fired and is outted within the same week - she ends up working on the set of one of her favourite actresses and allies.

Although she is starting a relationship with Val - her best friend has been the person who answers and guides her in her journey

This is a book of discovery and best friend love.

This was super cute, and the cover is beautiful

This story started out very promising to me but slowly started shifting towards a direction that made me feel increasingly uncomfortable as a queer woman who also realized they were queer and came out later in life that pushed this book into 2.5 star territory for me. There is so much I could say about this book but also at the same time I feel exhausted by the characters, the story, and much of the dialogue. I understand the author was trying to tell a story of a character coming out later in life but, wow. The heavy internalized biphobia was a lot to deal with over and over again, so much so that I the impression I am left with coloring the book more than any sort of satisfying resolve and education and remorse and growth and relearning is internalized biphobia and the obsessive insistence that only penetrative intercourse counts towards losing virginity. The obsession "losing virginity" to begin with made the story read much more Young Adult than New Adult, which was not at all what I was expecting given the ages of the characters and the setting of the story. The trope the book ultimately ends up being is one of my favorite romance tropes to read, but in this iteration of the trope, the pivot from where the story was going did not work for me at all. I’m happy for the characters finding happiness but this journey was just not for me. I will round my overall score up to 3 stars from 2.5 because the rating doesn’t allow half stars and Carlyn Greenwald is mother for giving us that Hot Ones training scene. Never have I ever felt so seen in a romance novel and I love her so much for giving the culture that scene. Iconic. I really enjoyed how seamlessly Greenwald incorporated inclusive phrases so that non-binary, trans, queer people can feel seen, respected, and held space for in a romance novel and do it well I really appreciated.

Thank you to NetGalley and Vintage for providing an electronic advanced reader galley in exchange for my honest review.

MY RATING 3/5 STARS
While I enjoyed my time reading this book overall, I think it had a hard time actually gripping my attention, so it took me quite a while for me to finish it.

Through the book we follow Luna who has recently discovered that she is bi and wants to explore this new part of her sexuality. Because of this she gets an internal pressure to have sex with someone who isn’t a man so she can lose her virginity.

To deal with her anxieties and struggles we see Luna going to a therapist, which I really loved as it was great to see her be able to articulate what she was going through. Additionally, I always think that it is great to see more positive representation around therapy and how that can help us.

I really loved Romy as a side character, and I would have loved to see and hear more about her.
Lastly, I think the ending of the book felt a little rushed, and I would have liked for the final outcome to be a bit more fleshed out.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for sending me an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Stunning debut! Absolutely a wonderful one as well too and I can't wait for more book by Carlyn! And I loved the writing overall!

This story was an okay read, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. I wasn't anticipating so many controversial topics to be included in this story. There were some very slow parts in the beginning and things I felt slowed the story down. Luna is an aspiring cinematographer, coming out in her 20s. Valeria is an A-list celebrity Luna ends up working with due to a very public, dramatic scene at her Hollywood Talent Management job that she witnessed. Luna is crushing on Valeria, her bestie, Romy is supporting their best friend through her coming out questions and revelations.
While Luna's character was kind of hard for me to connect with, I really, really liked Romy's character a lot as well as Valeria. I think it was just hard for me to connect with this story and Luna overall. I feel like a lot of the romance was lost with the other topics that are in the book. That might not be a deterrent for some readers, but this just isn't the style of romance novel that makes my heart fly. I hope this book finds its way into the hands of people who really enjoy this type of story.

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I got maybe a quarter of the way into the book and couldn't read it anymore. I wasn't a fan of the writing style and it reads like someone trying to be inclusive as a trend. This also felt as if they were going for an LGBTQIA checklist just to be sure they ticked off all the right hotkeys. There were scenes that didn't feel necessary and the wildly horny inner monologue was overbearing. It gave a whole new meaning to Thirsty AF and not in a good way. This book had so much potential and it fell so very flat.

This was a pretty good read, it did lose me sometimes throughout the book but I still enjoyed a decent amount of it. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

This was clearly the author's first book. It had an overall okay premise but the writing was choppy and unfocused, and some of the messaging about different aspects of LGBTQIA life felt incorrect, offensive, and sometimes just too stereotypical.

I really enjoyed this! It was not your typical romance novel and I loved that about it. I highly recommend this!

I wanted to like this one so much but it just fell flat for me. Luna was just not a likable character for me - her language -really who says allosexual! - her obsession with virginity, her refusal to accept any queer person’s definition of sex, her absolute narcissism and selfishness? All not good for me. If EVERY conversation you have with EVERY friend is about sex - that’s just a little weird.

I love coming of age books and I love queer sexual awakening books - but this unfortunately didn’t hit the mark, for me, on either. I enjoyed the Hollywood/film references and enjoyed Valeria’s character - though her “laid back cool but I’ve won 100 awards” thing kind of felt not genuine - and I enjoyed the “villain” characters, Steven and Alice. Well not so much enjoyed them but definitely felt their characters from the writing.

Huge thank you to the author, Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for the gifted e-book ❤️ #gifted. My review is comprised of my honest thoughts.

Read this book if you like: Hollywood, coming of age, LGBTQ representation, Jewish rep

Ugh. So many problems. I am ALWAYS looking for LGBTQ romance. I especially love bi MCs since I am bi. I wanted to throw this book across the room. The biphobia in this book is so strong. FYI, you can be bi AND only have had sex with one gender. There are countless conversations and even Luna's thoughts that are problematic. The characters are unlikable. I didn't love that Luna was using Valeria. I hate that half the book was a losing her "gay" virginity quest. It's definitely more coming of age than romance. It's like the romance was accidental. The blurb sounded so good. I'm very disappointed. This was not for me.

This book made me feel old. I love a sapphic romance but it made me feel absolutely ancient when I had to look up a couple of things. I wish authors wouldn't use acronyms and assume everyone knows what they mean. Other than that, it was cute I guess. I liked it but I didn't love it.

This was a fun read. Not necessarily my favorite thing I've read. It was pretty predictable. However I enjoyed the MC finding herself in this coming of age sapphic rom com. I purchased it for my library's collection. Just didn't do much for me.

Unfortunately this book was not for me and I DNF'd at 29%. As a bisexual woman, I was looking forward to a new romance with a bisexual main character. However, personally I felt the book included a lot of generalizations and stereotypes about queer people that felt off putting and surface level. There was also a lot of focus on the desire to have sexual experiences that for me felt like it took up too much of the content, including the main character's internal monologue. Combined with the cinematographer lens that the story is told through, while a cool concept and interesting to some I'm sure, as someone who is not a big film analyst this didn't hold my attention either and after awhile many parts felt weighed down with detail for the scene. This story unfortunately just wasn't for me.

There were certainly pieces of this story that I enjoyed and found myself relating to. However, a lot of the commentary around sex and virginity just didn’t work for me. I understand that the MC was supposed to learn and grow but she just seemed so oblivious and unwilling to change her opinion.

When she finally did realize who it was she really wanted to be with I just felt like she did a complete 180 and was all of a sudden ready to commit and so much more mature than she had been for like 75% of the story.

I appreciate the queer cast of characters and the later in life coming out, but I wouldn’t say that this book is one I will be recommending.

Relationships aren’t easy. Realizing you’re not straight isn’t easy. Coming out isn’t easy, falling in love isn’t easy, distinguishing between lust and love and what’s exciting because it’s new and what’s exciting in itself isn’t easy. It’s all a mess and it can be scary and exhausting but damn is it worth it when it works out.

I came out in 1993 and met my wife a few months later so all this uncertainty is very much in the past for me but Carlyn Greenwald brought all these feelings back to the surface. The good and the bad. And she did so with a very cute book full of relatable characters, flawed and real.

Set in Los Angeles, the story begins with Luna Roth, a twenty-four-year-old aspiring director of photography with anxiety, newly aware that she’s bisexual, coming out to her best friends, straight boy Wyatt (whom she very briefly dated a few months ago) and nonbinary sapphic Romy. Soon after, she develops a crush on Valeria Sullivan, an Oscar-winning actress directing her first indie film. The attraction seems mutual and with the help of her friends, Luna tries to get closer to Valeria, for both professional and lusty reasons.

This is the second book I read in a relatively short period of time in which the MC is an assistant to someone who works with celebrities and falls for one of these celebrities. While I had found the first one a tad bland, this one made me laugh quickly and I liked the MC from the beginning.

I don’t know what about Luna makes her so endearing. Maybe her cluelessness as to what she wants and what she’s experiencing is so cute and relatable that my heart felt like it was growing as I was reading. I have to say, however, her idea of what constitutes sex and what doesn’t is disturbing. Her obsession with losing her virginity, whatever that means, made me uncomfortable at times but there’s enough I liked in this book to overlook it and focus on the positive.

Other reviewers felt too much time was spent in Luna’s thoughts but I rather enjoyed it. Because the story is told in first person and present time and because Luna is going through the very first days of acknowledging that she’s not attracted only to men, getting to read her thoughts and feelings as they progressively evolve made sense to me.

Sizzle Reel is a lot more complex and deep than it seems. And I love that. The execution is a bit messy but I like that it feels like light reading while pushing the lines. It’s also a love letter to Los Angeles that made me wish I’d visited all the cool urban sites it showcases.