Thank you for the opportunity to read the eARC for Directors Cut. Unfortunately, it ended up being a dnf for me. The character Gwyn was not a good friend and reminded me of an ableist (ex) friend who found my disabilities exhausting and I couldn't read that right now. I also didn't enjoy Sizzle Reel because of how the characters were written, so this author just might not be for me.

I really enjoyed reading this book, mainly because I'm so into celebrity romances, which in this specific book is different from the typical ones.
The book has important topics to me, such as coming out and mental health (separate and together)
I'll read more books by the author in the future 🥰

Such a sweet and easy sapphic novel! I really enjoyed watching both characters develope and their love story unfold!

Thank you Knopf for inviting me to review Director's Cut by Carlyn Greenwald.
Director's Cut is a big win, a great romance but also mostly just a great book, strong writing, great characters, and a surprisingly in depth more than a romance plot. I think it's a win even for readers less into a romance read because it has a lot of strong themes.

This was a big surprise win for me! I knew I would like it, academics meets Hollywood, yes please, but this book is a lot more than that, it is smart, it is loving, and it is full of strong secondary characters, strong notes on mental health and life not just in Hollywood but also life feeling pigeonholed by sexuality and identity. Greenwald's writing drew me in and I was fully engaged with Val's story, with the world building, and with her struggles. I also really loved that this book leaned into the teaching plot so in depth, I got so much out of that part of the story, the genuine appreciation for ideas, for teaching, for intellectual conversations, and the behind the scenes knowledge about movies/musicals and theory. The other standout was the details about fears, anxiety, physical health, and past harmful relationships, the importance of a safe therapeutic space, and mostly about being honest with oneself and with loved ones.

Director’s Cut is the latest sapphic romance from Carlyn Greenwald. What a gorgeous cover! I loved her debut, The Sizzle Reel, so I was excited to read this. Director’s Cut follows Val, an actress and director in Hollywood who also happens to have a PhD. When Val gets an opportunity to teach students at USC, she leaps at it. Val isn’t sure what she’ll do if her film doesn’t succeed and is eager to explore other options. Her co-teacher is the unimpressed Maeve, who believes Val hasn’t really earned the position. Yet as Val proves she deserves to be there, Maeve and Val grow closer. What happens when Hollywood intrudes on their classroom?

Val and Maeve have a lot of sizzling tension between them, which I loved. I enjoyed how it took Val some time to prove to Maeve that she was truly invested in the class and not just as a gimmick for her career. There is fantastic LGBTQ+ rep throughout, including side characters. I loved Charlie and his friendship with Val. Val has some mental health challenges to work through before she is ready to be in a true relationship, especially relating to anxiety. The lack of communication at the end frustrated me, yet I understood why Val did it. Greenwald’s writing is witty and relatable. I’m looking forward to seeing what she writes next! Readers looking for sapphic romance, a celebrity MC, mental health rep, and sizzling tension should check this book out.

Thank you to Carlyn Greenwald, Vintage, and Netgalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

For publisher: My review will be posted on Goodreads, Instagram, Storygraph, Amazon, Barnes & Noble etc.

Thank you to the publishers for the ARC!

I want to start by saying I found this to be a pretty well-rounded book. It finished with no questions left to be answered. What I did find rather difficult about it structure-wise was how we are rather thrown into the world making it confusing to keep up with who was who, etc., but it did eventually mellow out rather well.

Character-wise, I loved Maeve and Val. Going into the book, I assumed it would just be a "care-free" romance, but Val ended up being such a complex character.I loved seeing her delve into her mental health and seeing anxiety talked about in a way that was so open and free of judgment. I especially loved Maeve's character as I could see parts of myself in her having her sexuality belittled in a sense. I loved seeing their relationship develop naturally. Reading it felt like their relationship wasn't really rushed and I really liked how the intimate scenes didn't seem like they were there just to spice up the book; it felt natural and you could see their relationship develop even then. One of my only complaints was about the miscommunication. Without giving any spoilers, I just feel like the miscommunication lasted too long on Val's end and made it rather aggravating to see her put it off for so long.

Overall however, I really loved this book and am glad to have had the chance to read it. The theatre lesbians are going to go crazy for this.

This has been AMAZING. I loved every second of it. Seeing how passionate were both Maeve and Val about their careers and how neither had to give it up for the other was fantastic.
I really liked the pace of the book and it's writing.
I could fully understand how Val's brain worked so even though I would have acted different in certain situations I never got upset with her or her way of handling things.
I love found family stories and even if we couldn't see how this chosen family became what it is, it still felt precious.
The only thing is that I would've loved a little bit more spice, but that's just my preference.

It took a little longer than I'd like to really get into this book, but eventually I did, and for the most part after that, I enjoyed it, with the occasional taken out moments, but overall, as far as the romance went, I did enjoy myself by the end, and believe if you can wait it out, you would also come to enjoy it.

Not gonna lie it took me a bit to fully get into this book, but after finishing it I am glad I didn't give up. Even with the book being from Valerias POV you see still see a lot of who her friends, family and Maeve are. Carlyn does a beautiful job of showcasing high anxiety, and the benefits of getting help isn't a bad thing. Valeria struggles with not portraying the traumas from her ex onto Maeve, and its a lot of inner dialogue of Valeria trying to figure out who she wants to be. Watching her accept asking for the help she needs, and finding what makes her truly happy is a beautiful story. Its a book that as someone with high anxiety its nice to relate to in a sense, and can't help but fall in love with everyone in the book. Read as an arc from netgalley

This book was cute, the romance was swoony at times, and the setting was fun and summery. It is safe to say that I enjoyed my time reading the book because there were definitely a lot of aspects I liked. However, I don’t see this lasting as a favorite. There was a lot of miscommunication between Val and Maeve which is my least favorite trope, and I felt that for majority of the book the story felt a little rushed. I would definitely be interested to read more from this author later on though, because of the parts of this book that I did enjoy!

Valeria is an award winning actress and director, but her career isn't where she wants it to be. She takes the opportunity to be a guest professor at USC, but she clashes with her co-professor. Maeve is getting closer to achieving tenure, and she doesn't want to let a Hollywood actress like Valeria get in her way.

Both women want to do the best at their job, but they have more of an animosity, at first, than a partnership. They are teaching a class about movie musicals, and it made me so happy! All of the references to songs and musicals was so much fun. I love musicals, and it made me want to sign up for their class!

As they start to work together, Val and Maeve spend more time together outside of the classroom, and sparks start to fly. I love a steamy, office romance, and this book delivers!

The book has steamy, open door scenes, sapphic romance, workplace romance, Jewish rep., and anxiety rep. There are discussions of biphobia and homophobia, and these topics were handled with care.

Overall, I enjoyed how Val and Maeve worked together, and they supported each other. One thing I didn't like was the miscommunication. As I was reading, I felt myself wanting to yell at Val to just talk to Maeve more and tell her how she was feeling.

This can be read as a standalone, but I recommend reading Sizzle Reel before Director's Cut because it gives you more about Val's backstory.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was cute! While not the typical style of writing I tend to gravitate to in romance, I still enjoyed the story and characters, and would absolutely recommend grabbing this as you head to the pool or beach this summer.

This was such a sweet and thoughtful read! Fans of Emily Henry and Abby Jiménez would also like this story and romance. I was rooting for the couple in this book, and appreciated the sections related to anxiety and mental health issues. I wish there were more details about the movie Valeria directed, but overall I loved this story and tore right through it!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Confession time: Greenwald’s debut novel Sizzle Reel, which is set in the same universe as this one, didn’t really do it for me. I enjoyed the author’s narrative voice and the Hollywood setting, and thought it had some important things to say, but the romance plot left me cold and felt ultimately underdeveloped. I didn’t think I’d pick up one of her books again…but, I mean, c’mon. Look at that cover! And I was excited to see Valeria, a character I really liked from Sizzle Reel, finally get her own HEA.

I was SO pleasantly surprised by how much I ended up absolutely LOVING this book. Greenwald’s strong narrative voice is consistent throughout, and the way she writes Hollywood through the eyes of a big-time star (as opposed to a production assistant in the previous book) was really good and felt incredibly authentic. I loved Valeria even more in this book—her passion for both film and academia, her relationship to her gay-best-friend-slash-former-beard Charlie, her candor about the difficulties of being an openly lesbian woman in Hollywood, and her passion for better queer representation in general. One of the things I really liked about Sizzle Reel was the way it wove in discussions of biphobia and the unique challenges that come along with being a bisexual woman; Director’s Cut does this just as deftly with the topic of how Hollywood handles queerness.

And the romance. The romance was SO good. Greenwald writes the intensely simmering chemistry of the early days of a relationship as proficiently as she navigates the more lived-in and conflict-prone waters of an established relationship. Valeria and Maeve were SO good together. I can’t remember ever getting this attached to a couple in a romance novel before. I loved how realistically the author wrote the transition from Maeve being totally unimpressed with her to gradually softening to…well, no spoilers (but you can probably guess). Also, while not the spiciest romance novel I’ve ever read per say, the sheer chemistry between these two characters had me literally sweating. I will not elaborate except to say don’t be like me and mainline this on an airplane where you’re crammed close to other people…who could ostensibly look over your shoulder at any point and see the screen of your Kindle. The only reason I didn’t give this book five stars is that my old nemesis, the third act conflict, frustrated me quite a bit; but, credit where it’s due, I felt that, unlike a lot of other third act conflicts that have frustrated me, this one felt authentic, realistic, and actually had what I felt was a good reason behind it.

Consider me a convert. I hope Greenwald writes more in this universe; I want more of these characters!

This was so good! Women in suits? Yes, please!

I had just finished a queer Hollywood romance story when I started reading this one, and oh man, it did not disappoint. The chemistry between Val and Maeve felt authentic and as someone who lives in LA, I recognized some of the setting which is always fun. I also enjoyed the discussion on work, sexuality, and the miscommunication trope. Did I mention the suits? Anyway, definitely would recommend!

I really enjoyed this book as it provided a nice light break from the type of books I usually read. It had a good plot and I enjoyed each of the characters in it. It definitely had some steamy parts to it but it was also balanced out with sweet romance parts. I even learned a few things about film along the way! I would recommend.

✨Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to be an ARC reader for this wonderful book!✨

Here are my honest thoughts on the book:

I absolutely loved reading this novel🥰. I thought that Val and Maeve had really great character development. The topics around past relationship traumas and anxiety felt authentic and just REAL.

Charlie was such a great character I absolutely loved him and hope there is more to his story! I haven’t read Sizzle Reel yet, but now I’m itching to get my hands on a copy!

While I don’t have much background knowledge on the film industry, I felt that this book was easy to follow when the topics were dove into throughout. It actually made me want to look more into the movies mentioned!

Highly recommend reading this for those who love sapphic romance with a little bit of spice🌶️🏳️‍🌈

cute, sweet, sapphic romance. i really felt for the couple so much and the vibe was cool. thanks for the arc. maybe a new nice big book

I loved Carlyn Greenwald’s last book, Sizzle Reel, and I was so excited to continue reading about the journey of these characters. While Sizzle Reel is focused on Luna, she becomes a side character in Director’s Cut in order for Greenwald to tell Valeria’s story.

I am a musical theater nerd, and I had so much fun reading about the syllabus for Valeria and Maeve’s class. It is a class analyzing movie musicals including West Side Story and La La Land. I even thought through how I would answer all of the questions on the midterm exam outlined in the book. I snickered at the snide comments about the Dear Evan Hansen and Les Misérables movies. This is absolutely a class I would have loved when I was in college.

I also love good Jewish representation in romance novels, and I enjoyed the references to Valeria and Maeve’s Judaism. Valeria tells a story during an interview about unintentionally becoming a drug dealer for her younger cousins at a Passover seder. Valeria’s mom also gets very excited when she guesses Maeve is Jewish based on her last name. I appreciated that there were references to their religion without it taking over the whole story.

More and more romance novels I read have bisexual representation, and I am all for it. Maeve and Valeria have a beautiful conversation about what it means to date as a bisexual person and the difficulties and judgments that can come with it. Maeve makes it clear that the conversation makes her feel heard and validated, and it is just such a lovely moment. More representation like this please!

Of course, good mental health representation is also so important to me. Valeria is in therapy and her longtime relationship with her therapist is very important to her. Director’s Cut also addresses the difficult decision to go on medication. At first Valeria is hesistant to go on medication and tries a supplement instead, but Valeria’s sister lovingly encourages her to explore medication. Mental health treatment is a deeply individual and personal decision, and Greenwald handles it with such care and nuance.

One of the things I loved about Greenwald’s writing in Sizzle Reel is how real it feels and that holds true in Director’s Cut as well. She brings you into Valeria’s head in a way that makes you feel as though you’re talking to your best friend. Valeria is a famous director and actress, but Greenwald depicts both the good and the bad that come with fame (especially when it comes to dating). The reader becomes intimately aware of all of her feelings and insecurities. It makes it easier to empathize with Valeria even when she messes up because you are so immersed in her world and her reasoning behind her actions.

Greenwald’s work is fun, funny, and thoughftul. I loved Director’s Cut and cannot wait to see what is next for Greenwald and her characters.

This was cute and fun, and I really enjoyed the main character's voice. My biggest complaint isn't really about the content of the book, but just that the Hollywood trope has been a little overdone and I didn't find anything unique about this specific one.