Two high-octane tales from Hollywood.
SOAP-STUD: the rise to TV fame of a hunky lifeguard from San Diego.
BLUE-MOVIE GIRL: the rise to infamy of a mixed-race girl from Arizona who yearns to be an actress but settles for a career in porno.

I really enjoyed this duet. It really pulled me out of a reading slump. Will recommend to others.

🎬🎥Great start but couldn't maintain the spark🤔

3-3.5🌟stars
Both novellas in this duet started well, with a clipped fake bio writing style that reminded me of Alexander McCall Smith, one of my favorite Scottish writers of contemporary fiction. I liked the dry wit, irony and tongue in cheek humorous edge. Both stories focus on the early lives to young adulthood of two kids born with physical attributes that captured notice and inspired them to head for Hollywood.

But, sadly, the author lost me, particularly in Soap Star Stud, when the story devolved into a gossipy long list of Hollywood and television stars, films, convoluted soap plots and behind the scenes tales. I couldn't keep the characters straight. It was like Entertainment Tonight on steroids. And then, like a sharp cliff, John/Jason's story abruptly ended before he met Joylene/Kate, the MC of the second story.

Blue Movie Girl was a tad better, but in the end, both stories stopped without a true conclusion, hinting that the two MCs would come together in a nebulous third story. So, this was all just an extended teaser for, presumably, the main event. So not what I wanted or expected. And I really questioned the author rewriting the lives (or rather, abrupt deaths) of film icons like James Dean and Marilyn Monroe so they lingered.

Had I known both stories would end on cliffhangers I would not have invested the time to read them, though the author does have an acerbic wit I really like.

Kudos for author's writing ability, low marks for making it a teaser rather than a full story and the overabundance of characters .

Thanks to BooksGoSocial and NetGalley for sharing a complimentary advance copy of the book; this is my voluntary and honest opinion.

Back story oh how the two main characters grew up and to their early career paths up until they meet.
Setting everything in context ready to move forward

I wasn't sure what to expect as I started reading this book, but I'm glad I stuck with it. I found both stories to be entertaining and even funny. I liked the way David described their backstory and how that influenced where they wound up as the story unfolded. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

This is much more fun than even Kenneth Anger's Hollywood Babylon books and those La-la land documentaries about tinsel town that aired in the 1990s rolled up together. This doesn't mean that it's old-fashioned in style - I'd call it vintage, in that it is stylish, beautifully written and full of marvellous comedic moments, whilst harking back to the heyday of Jackie Collins and Harold Robbins - days when sex seemed more fun and less angst-ridden. Godolphin is an English writer, but with such an utterly convincing voice that one would think he was a longstanding Hollywood pro (forgive the innuendoes, not intended) preparing to spill the beans of what he has observed on set and in the trailers... He also gets what happens when stop at nothing ambition flowers in small-town America; there is also a wistfulness here that recalls Hopper's bar scenes.