I was immediately intrigued by this premise of the book with its involvement of Daphne du Maurier and a retelling of sorts surrounding Rebecca-one of my favorite gothic classics!

The author did well with the Malibu, gothic feel and of course the rich people behaving badly aspect. I never quite knew which characters to believe and trust which kept me on my toes. By the end I was left with some unanswered questions, and I'm still not sure what I think about it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the e-copy of this book.

I was drawn to this book for its allusions to REBECCA but the writing was reductive when compared to du Maurier’s and the characters less compelling.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

In a Nutshell: A retelling of ‘Rebecca’ without being an outright retelling of ‘Rebecca’. Offers an interesting ode to the original, but falls flat because of various reasons. Doesn’t live up to the potential.

Plot Preview:
Once-acclaimed author Olivia has been struggling with her third manuscript, ever since her second novel tanked. So when she gets a call from her agent about a ghostwriting job commissioned by a billionaire, Olivia is eager to sign the NDA and grab some much-needed moolah.
The “write-for-hire” task seems quite easy to begin with. Henry Asherwood, a “People’s Sexiest Man Alive” twice-winner and the scion of a wealthy business family, wants Olivia to read his grandmother’s journals, which apparently contain a shocking secret connecting her and Daphne du Maurier. But the more Olivia digs into the past, the more roadblocks she comes across. Soon, she finds herself living her own version of ‘Rebecca.’
The story comes to us *mostly* in Olivia’s first-person point of view.

Bookish Yays:
😍 The first sentence made me grin widely: “Last night, I dreamt I went to Malibu again.” The perfect way to connect the plot to Rebecca while still showing the shallowness of the people in this story! 😆
😍 There are some interlude chapters from the perspective of “the wife.” I found these interesting, as they offered a much-needed backstory for a character while still leaving us guessing about her identity. This “wife” is unnamed, just how the second wife from du Maurier’s book was.
😍 The Daphne du Maurier trivia, quite a few of which took me by surprise. I never knew there were actually cases of plagiarism against du Maurier! The research on the classic author’s life and career is excellent.


Bookish Mixed Bags:
😐 As an ode to ‘Rebecca’, this book intends well. In fact, as one character in the novel says, the connection to ‘Rebecca’ is quite meta. There is the original ‘Rebecca’, which Olivia is a huge fan of. Then there’s Olivia’s second novel ‘Becky’, which is a retelling of the classic from Rebecca’s own point of view. There is Henry’s claim that his grandmother’s journal contains her own experience, which is eerily similar to that of ‘Rebecca’. And finally, there’s the current situation of Olivia at a rich widower's house and having a crush on him when his wife had passed away under suspicious circumstances just a year before – à la ‘Rebecca’! It is a surreal experience to keep track of all the Rebecca-style arcs going on, but a part of me feels it went too far, making the plot generate feelings of déjà vu.
😐 The story stands on its own even while sinking under the burden of so many Rebecca-esque situations, with enough of novelty and twisty turns throughout. However, a few of the twists are so outrageous that I can’t understand whether to marvel at them or roll my eyes.

Bookish Nays:
🙄 Olivia is shallow, selfish, shortsighted, and stupid. Sorry. No way I can soften that blow! I don’t mind unlikeable characters as they add depth to a narrative. But unlikability is one thing; poor sketching is another. Olivia is easily among the worst-crafted main characters of recent years.
🙄 The other characters aren’t much better. Almost all of them have only one role to play, and even that role isn’t well-defined.
🙄 The repetitiveness, not just because of the multitude of ‘Rebecca’ situations, but also because of Olivia’s first person rambling that often goes on and on about the same topics. The middle section is especially boring as it keep running around the same circle.
🙄 The pace is quite slow, even frustrating at times. This, combined with the repetition, made the completion of the book feel like a huge achievement.
🙄 The miscommunication, which begins as interesting, but soon becomes farfetched and annoying.
🙄 Too much drinking. I am gong to mention over-consumption of alcohol as a negative now onwards. I am fed up of characters who subsist on alcohol and enhance their stupidity.
🙄 There is so much talk of attraction and anatomical features! (We hear eighteen times that Henry is People’s Sexiest Man Alive – Sheesh!) I can't stand characters who are so blinded by lust that all their brain power is focused only on the signals sent by their loins.
🙄 I am not a die-hard fan of the original classic, though I did like it quite a lot. This novel will be experienced differently (though not necessarily in a welcoming way) by du Maurier fans who might be looking to replicate the same high. But IMHO, Olivia is no match for Rebecca’s first-person narrator, the unnamed second Mrs. de Winters. The same applies for the duplicate versions of Maxim de Winters and Mrs. Danvers, who just don’t work as well in this book.
🙄 The ending redeemed my experience to a minor extent by not going where I was afraid it would. That said, it was still illogical. The epilogue was too rushed. More like a summation of the next year in the characters’ lives than a genuine epilogue.

All in all, I do appreciate the ambitious attempt of creating a layer-upon-layer version of Rebecca. Though convoluted, the novel does bring the tracks together somewhat neatly by the end. But the dumb and/or insipid characters, the overload of thoughts and actions connected to physical desirability, and the repetitive writing do not turn the potential promise into that memorable a reading experience.
This is my first Jillian Cantor work, and from all accounts, this seems to be her least acclaimed one. I hope my next tryst with her writing works out better.
Just in case you want to attempt this, it is better if you have already read the original classic. Else, you might not get many of the Easter eggs, and also find plenty of spoilers for the Daphne du Maurier book, which is a shame as the classic needs to be read by going in blind. I thanked my lucky stars that I had read ‘Rebecca’ earlier this year. Else, I would have been annoyed at all the spoilers.

2.25 stars.

My thanks to Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley for the DRC of “The Fiction Writer”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book. Sorry this didn’t work out better.

This is my first Jillian Cantor book & wow!!!!!!!! It started off with a slow build but once it took off, damn!!!!!!!!!!!! This was a very enjoyable read & not my last by this author

I definitely wasn’t expecting that ending and the twists that were dropped. I was glad that Olivia realized that being a ghost writer wasn’t something she ultimately wanted to do and got out of a weird situation. Rich people aren’t like us.

Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca was one of my absolutely favorite books in highschool and I remember it fondly so when I saw this was a retelling of sorts I knew I had to gove it a try . Also that I loved a book I read by the author last year .

Unfortunately this didn't hit quite how I expected it to . I didn't love the characters , they actually kind of killed it for me but I did enjoyed the writing, the setting and parts of the mystery.

The Fiction Writer by Jillian Cantor is about a writer who is hired to write about Henry Asherwood's family history with Daphne du Maurier. Olivia Fitzgerald is thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Henry, especially since she is so interested in du Maurier. While things start out okay with Henry, strange things start happening; and Olivia isn't sure she can trust him. This book really sucked me in at first, but it just didn't end up working for me in the end. Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

I am a big fan of novels that retell or reframe a classic- Ann Napolitano's Hello Beautiful (Little Women) and Curtis Sittenfeld's Eligible (Pride & Prejudice) are two of my favorites- so when I heard that Jillian Cantor's new novel The Fiction Writer paid homage to Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, I was intrigued.

Writer Olivia Fitzgerald is having a bad year. After the success of her first novel, her second novel (a retelling of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca) doesn't sell well at all. Her live-in boyfriend moves out, and her editor is not excited about her next effort.

Her editor says that billionaire and People's Sexiest Man Alive Ash Asherwood has requested that Olivia ghost-write a book with him about his grandmother and her relationship with Daphne du Maurier. The money is too good to turn down, so off Olivia goes to Malibu.

Ash is a widower, his wife perished in a car accident (was it an accident?) and he is reclusive. His housekeeper seems to be very attached to him and is hostile to Olivia.

While Olivia is becoming accustomed to life in Ash's beautiful ocean front home, Ash is pulling her more into his orbit. But when Olivia tries to get down to work discovering what exactly his grandmother and Daphne du Maurier's secret is, Ash becomes cagey and puts her off.

Olivia decides to investigate on her own, and discovers that Ash has not been truthful with her. What is he hiding and what is his real purpose for bringing Olivia to Malibu?

Fans of Rebecca will enjoy The Fiction Writer on a deeper level, and the controversy around Daphne du Maurier's novel (other people claimed that she stole their story) adds an interesting aspect to the story. Pairing a nice copy of Rebecca with The Fiction Writer would make a great gift for the classic literature lover on your holiday list.

Thanks to Harlequin for putting me on their Fall 2023 Blog Tours.

I did not enjoy this as much as I thought I would. I thought it moved a little slow and could be a little repetitive. That said I did enjoy the mystery and the book within a book aspect. I was thrown by the ending and how it was tied up.

Sometimes you just shouldn’t mess with the original. Olivia Fitzgerald’s first novel was a massive success. Her second, a retelling of Daphne du Maurier’s “Rebecca,” (titled “Becky”) was not. It flopped. Big time. “Last night I dreamt I went to Malibu again” just doesn’t have the same sinister overtones as the original sentence, “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.”

When I read author Cantor’s first line, I almost put it down. Then I remembered that this story is a contemporary re-telling, and a re-telling itself, of du Maurier’s classic novel. With that in mind, I plunged ahead.

Olivia’s having a bad year. “Becky” was a disaster, her boyfriend of nine years dumped her, and she has no clue what her next book will be about, if anything. Even her agent doesn’t want to talk with her. But he does call with a lucrative ghost-writing offer.

“Henry ‘Ash’ Asherwood, a reclusive mega billionaire, twice named People’s Sexiest Man Alive,” wants to hire her, for $50,000, to ghost-write a book for him. He simply adored “Becky." It seems, according to Ash, that there is a connection between du Maurier and his grandmother and a salacious claim. He insists that Daphne stole his grandmother’s manuscript and published it, the manuscript that became known as “Rebecca.”

At first, Olivia doesn’t want the gig, but her curiosity gets the best of her, and she hops on a plane for California. When she arrives in the land of the rich, famous, and beautiful, she is treated like royalty, but Ash never seems to want to get to work on the book. First, he claims the story and proof are in his grandmother’s journals, which he has sent out to be translated from their original French.

That is the first lie that Ash tells her about the journals. Again, Olivia’s curiosity gets the best of her, and she starts researching Ash’s grandmother and wives. She cannot find a trace of them anywhere online.

Sometimes it is hard to keep up with what is happening, and the people in Ash’s life. The housekeeper was also a bridesmaid from his marriage to Angelica; the discovery of Rose, the third Mrs. Ashwood; the fire at Malibu Lake, eerily reminiscent of the fire at Manderley. And much more.

Taut, tense, and creepy, “The Fiction Writer” is a perfect read for a stormy afternoon. The Fiction Writer gets 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

"A sultry and mesmerizing novel that transforms the iconic Malibu coastline into the perfect gothic backdrop, The Fiction Writer will have the reader second guessing everything they thought they knew about the fictional Asherwood family as well as the real-life Daphne du Maurier."

The beginning had me hooked, but I lost interest as we progressed. This book was mysterious and I would recommend it for fans of Rebecca.

Thank you to Jillian Cantor, Harlequin Trade Publishing, and NetGalley for allowing me to read a free ARC in exchange for an honest review. Thanks also to Justine Sha for inviting me on the blog tour. I'm sorry unforeseen circumstances prevented me from participating as I had planned.

Aaaaaand perhaps that's for the better, because DNF 45%. I cannot stand Olivia, and I want to punch Ash in the face. She's letting this grade-A asshole billionaire yank her chain for no reason except he's hot and she's horny. Um, no. Have some dignity, woman. But he might give her a lot of money! Hey, I get it, I got bills, too, but either get it in writing or gtfo.

I was intrigued by the mystery but Olivia is so frustrating, the pace so plodding, that I don't care enough to stick around and find out more. Angelica's excerpts come across as whiny. I'm not sure what to think about Charley; she doesn't strike me as a good agent.

Anywho. Things to do, better books to read.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for giving me a free eARC of this book to read in exchange for my review!

4+ stars

I quite enjoyed how most of this story unraveled, although I will admit I was slower than I should have been to catch onto some details/hints. It wasn’t totally what I anticipated, but I think that was a good thing, and I certainly had fun with this book. It also has a beautiful cover, and while I of course don’t base all of my judgments on that alone, it (along with the title) certainly helped to capture my attention initially.

I will just come out and say it - this latest novel by Jillian Cantor was not for me. In the past I have found myself to either love her stories or find them sub par and sadly The Fiction Writer fell into the latter category. Having never read Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, I wasn't lacking in comprehension of Cantor's plot and the parallels between the stories but I couldn't share in the love and respect of such a classic novel.

The entire time I was reading, I had the sense of being off kilter and not fully trusting Ash in the way that Olivia seemed to. It wasn't that Ash's personality was so charming, more that Olivia is a fool for missing so many "red flags" in the budding relationship. Maybe that was Cantor's point but it simply did not resonate with me as the reader.

When Olivia Fitzgerald’s literary agent calls her with an offer, what she suggests is enticing. After all, Olivia’s life is anything but golden at the moment. Her long-term boyfriend has moved out, her third book was never picked up by a publisher, and her fourth is giving her a major case of writer’s block. So hearing that someone has inquired about hiring her to ghost write a book for the eye-watering sum of $50,000, Olivia says yes before her agent even finishes the question.

Before she knows it, Olivia has hopped on a plane and flown to the other side of the country. There she meets with the reclusive billionaire, Henry “Ash” Asherwood. Every bit as handsome as the two Sexiest Man Alive titles he’s won from People Magazine says he is, Olivia is intrigued to know what this write-to-hire gig is all about. So when he reveals that his grandmother, Emilia, just so happened to know the famed author of Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier, her interest is well and truly piqued. Especially when her soon-to-be employer mentions a well-hidden secret that relates to the two women.

This book was flawless in its writing and kept me engaged from the beginning. I love Jillian's writing style and this was no different. I thought it was awesome that she is dipping her feet into another genre as I've seen her write historical only. This mystery was a nice shake up and came out great.

I really enjoyed this spin on Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, which happens to be my all time favorite book. This was so well done, I loved the premise, thought it was well executed and it kept my attention the entire time. I read this in one sitting and loved how it all ended. I listened via audio and overall this is one I loved and highly recommend.

Thank you to Park Row for the digital copy to review.

🕸️ LAST READ of 2023: GOTHIC THRILLER EDITION 🕸️ featuring “The Fiction Writer” by Jillian Cantor! Giving me ALL of the eerie, unsettling and atmospheric vibes!!!

BOOK REVIEW: 🖤🖤🖤.5/5

Olivia Fitzgerald is a struggling writer whose first novel was a HIT, but then her second novel was a disaster. Her second novel “Becky” is a modern day retelling of “Rebecca” by Daphne Du Maurier and did not receive the acknowledgement and reception that she was hoping for. Now she is struggling with writers block and avoiding her agent who is on her back about her third novel that she has hardly started.

One day Olivia’s agent calls with an exciting opportunity to GHOST WRITE for a very high paying sum! This is exactly what Olivia needs right now … but she has NO idea what she is getting herself into. She finds out that she has been hired by a billionaire to write about his family history and mysterious ties to author Daphne du Maurier. Olivia starts to go through the Great Grandmother’s diaries and finds herself tangled up in a web of deep dark secrets, obsessions, lies and hidden manuscripts! WHAT ELSE is this family hiding?? And WHAT ELSE is lurking within this family history??

Thank you kindly to Jillian Cantor, Park Row Books, Harper Collins Canada and Netgalley for my gifted digital copy in exchange for my honest review! This book is out NOW and is perfect for readers who enjoyed the classic novel “Rebecca”!