I wanted to love this one I really did… but between ALLLLL that movie theory talk and miscommunication I had the worst time trying to push forward.

A sapphic movie star who falls for a professor had the potential to be such a good book. But sadly the chemistry was not there for me between these two. Val and ??? (shit I already forgot the other persons name and I literally just finished it) just didn’t have the chemistry that I hoped for.

I feel like I was also attending their class because I learned way more about movie theory than I cared to. There’s also the problem of the miscommunication - JUST TELL HER THE ISSUE. literally the whole third act breakup could have been fixed with a simple convo. It really irks me when characters are this stupid.

Someone might love this one more than I did but unfortunately after taking LITERAL MONTHS to get through this one it just wasn’t for me.

2 stars
1/5 spice

Big thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinions.

Thank you to Vintage and NetGalley for the ARC of this novel. I had read the other book in this series as an ARC as well and did enjoy the writing. This was also good and a sweet love story. I did have times of annoyance with Val as she would self sabotage but she also has clinical anxiety that requires medications by the end of the novel and so I feel the need to give a bit of leeway. It is a romance so wraps up in a neat bow at the end but a good way to spend a day. 3 stars.

This was a cute, fast listen (I ended up doing the audiobook). I unfortunately do not think it was exceptionally memorable, but it was cute!

I had really high hopes for this book! I thought the premise was excellent and was excited to read it. Unfortunately, I didn’t come around on the main character until the end. I found her lack of awareness of the effect her actions had on others more due to a lack of self awareness than her struggles with her mental health. Her realizations of all of this were too close to the end. I would have preferred it slowly to unravel throughout the book. That being said, I did quite like the other characters and thought their development was fantastic. It just didn’t quite make up for how frustrated I was with Valeria for most of the book.

A enemies-to-lovers romance with a compelling mix of Hollywood and academia, Director's Cut makes for a fun read.

Valeria "Val" Sullivan is an academic turned Hollywood actor who is dipping her toes back into academia with a guest teaching spot at USC. There she meets Maeve Arko, her co-professor, who instantly judges her designer clothes and refuses take her seriously. As the semester continues, respect and attraction build, and Val and Maeve grow closer. But can this professor find a way to deal with the realities of fame?

I loved how this book rather seamlessly flows between the daily realities of a working actor, and the life of a professor. I felt drawn to both worlds, and I feel like the author did a great job of making it accessible while also shining a light on something I don't often see in romances.
Both main characters were refreshingly unique, as were the supporting cast of characters. I loved the pairing and rooted for them.

All in all, a little spice, a little romance, and a lot of fun.

How much did I love DIRECTOR'S CUT? It was bold and heartfelt, sweet, a little steamy, and just an overall great read. I really identified with Valeria. Although our lives couldn't be that different--she's a Hollywood starlet, adjunct professor of film, and emerging director--her struggles felt real and very relatable. She's facing the cutthroat press circuit, all who seem more interested in her sex life now that she's no longer closeted, rather than talking about her acting or directing accomplishments, and that was so rightfully frustrating! GAH. I just wanted to hug Val and also fight everyone who looked down on her or tried to make her feel trivial.

And oh, Val and Maeve. Such chemistry! I think I went in expecting a fun, light-hearted rom-com and what I actually got was something deeper with far more heart and emotion, and by the end I was crying happy years. Watching Val and Maeve take down their walls for each other, get past their misconceptions of each other, and begin to fall for each other, was truly beautiful. Carlyn Greenwald is a great writer and I was thrilled to realize that she has more books out for me to check out. Yay!

My one quarrel with the book was that it fell back on the miscommunication trope and a third-act breakup that you saw coming a mile away. There were so many times I wanted to tell Val to just TALK to Maeve, to trust her and trust what they had. Gah, that was maddening. But even that was all well-done enough that I'm able to give the book a solid four-star rating.

Filled with lots of character growth, DIRECTOR'S CUT is a great sapphic romance for fans of Hollywood romances with a lot of heart.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC!

I've always loved romance novels that somehow involve the film industry as well as romances set in academia, and I'd been looking for a sapphic read -- so I thought this would be the perfect thing to pick up. In the end, I think it was a generally enjoyable story, and I'd give it 3.5 stars if I could! The pacing felt a bit inconsistent to me and I thought the miscommunication was more stretched out than it needed to be, but otherwise fun overall.

I liked sizzle reel enough to give Carlyns next book a chance. But it just didn’t feel realistic to me. Love the film study of queer art but this wasn’t it for me

Thank you for providing me the opportunity to read this ARC.

I was hoping for a good sapphic romance, and this book delivered. It felt very organic for how Val and Maeve met and then became friends. Once they started falling for each other, they fell pretty fast. Normally this would bother me, but I'll let it slide for these two.

What does bother me is the miscommunication trope. I kept thinking "come on, Val!" Because so much could be avoided if she would have just spoke up. It kept dragging too and I just wanted Maeve to find out so we could squash it.

There's also talk of mental health in this book and past abusive relationships. I think this helped to explain why the characters were so hesitant in the beginning of their relationship. You can practically feel Val's anxiety leak off the pages. I think this really brought me into the story, that I could feel her emotions for how well written they were.

Lastly, Charlie really made this book for me. I would love more of his story.

CUUUUTE. Giggled and kicked my feet all the way through this. For all the film loving sapphics looking for a cute romance!!

Better than the first novel. Great mental health rep and how your mental illness can prevent you from enjoying the small and the big moments of life. The romance was really cute and stable, even though i'm a little skeptical about the elevated rivalry at the beginning!

I love reading Greenwald's romances—the opposites attract, star-and-academic, academia romance was a delight! And so fun to follow up with characters from her adult debut!

Although I enjoyed this book, I had a hard time connecting with the characters' voice and tone and felt that there was a disconnect in seeing the full backstory and emotions of the characters.

Another Greenwald that was a complete miss for me. It took me so long to realize that this Valeria was the same one from Sizzle Reel, she just felt like an entirely different character (I don't mean from a character development standpoint but an entirely different person) which was disappointing considering she was the only character I actually liked in Sizzle Reel. I wanted to love this but I just couldn't vibe with it to the point that I can't even tell you anything else I did or didn't like about this book since it was just so "eh" for me. Director's Cut solidified that I simply don't enjoy Greenwald's characters and unfortunately, I don't think I'm likely to pick up anything else from her. If you enjoyed the writing in Sizzle Reel and books about the tv/film industry and sapphic romance, then this one would likely be a hit for you.

Sincere thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

*3.5

This book is super cute. The romance is well written and the characters are not much originals but enough intriguing for me. I really love the Hollywood setting, it’s super interesting, but I like less the Academic setting, it felt flat to me.
However, I enjoyed reading it.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the arc!

I liked this book but didn't love it! I really enjoy the discussions about queer film theory, musicals, and general film studies. It was interesting and informative and I nerded out which was fun. That being said, the romance didn't suck me in as much as I wanted it to.

Did not really love the characters and the romance fell flat for me. I loved a lot of the subplots but not enough to give more than 3 stars. This was an arc via netgalley.

This sapphic rom-com provides an insider's look at the film industry through the eyes of a young, ambitious woman looking to follow her passion and reinvent herself professionally. While the premise is intriguing and the industry backdrop provides a unique setting, I often found the characters to be a bit annoying with points of tension or disagreement that were easily avoidable.

Sincere thanks to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Valeria Sullivan is an oscar-winning queer actress, and budding director. She takes a guest teaching job at USC with Professor Maeve Arko. Upon meeting Maeve does not seem to like Val, but Val can't deny the chemistry she feels with Maeve.

I listened to this on audio, and I thought it was a fun sapphic romance. I liked the conversations about the film industry and queer identifying people within it, as well as biphobia and homophobia. There are also discussions on mental health, specifically anxiety and depression that I thought were really well done. This is marketed as an enemies to lovers, but the enemy part is over so quickly I don't know if it could be called that. Val was hard to like in the beginning, but as we dive deeper into her character, we see that she is very layered. She's extremely insecure about her place in the world and is fueled by anxiety. She causes a lot of issues for herself in the third act, that could easily have been avoided if she had only talked to Maeve. She did go through a tremendous amount of character development, and I did really end up enjoying her character in the end. Maeve was a great match for Val, she was very level headed and able to calm Val's always anxious mind. The biggest complaint I have for this is that I wish it had been dual POV, I think that would have helped understand Maeve on a deeper level. I absolutely adored the relationship between Val and her best friend Charlie, I think their banter was so cute and you could tell they really cared for one another.

Overall, I thought this was a very cute sapphic romance that I had a lot of fun with.

This book was filled with a lot of my favorite things: a main character with a lot of anxiety, a wlw romance, and imposter syndrome in academia. The chemistry of the romance was off the charts and easy to root for. The struggles of the best friend and side characters in the story also helped further the depth by showing how difficult it can be to exist as a queer person in spaces that don't always accept you. I also appreciated seeing both a lesbian and bisexual woman involved in the romance and how well the author integrated the struggles of their past relationships. However, if there is one thing I hate, it's a miscommunication trope. This always makes a story drag for me or lessens the relationship as a whole.