Pleasant read with some angst mixed in. Mental health rep with a focus on anxiety as well as health with IBS. Celebrity/Professor sapphic romance. The story can get a bit frustrating but I felt once things started getting more fleshed out, things made more sense and were more understandable. (And I didn’t want to put it down so I could get there!) I have not read Sizzle Reel, it is on my tbr, but I didn’t feel like I was lacking in any knowledge only a desire to read that one too.

Well written. Good pacing. Lovely spice that also includes great communication. Relatable characters. Recommend!

This book was really fun! The ending especially was SO FREAKING GOOD!!! I so appreciated the on page work we got to see Val doing to overcome past traumas and learn to be healthier going forward. Val & Maeve are absolutely adorable and Charlie was such a wonderful side character. So happy I got an eARC of this!!

3.5, rounded down.

Overall, this was a pretty fun book.

I liked all of the characters, and they all felt very distinct to me, which was great. Though I do wish we got more physical descriptions of them.

Maeve was probably my favorite, and I wish her neurodivergence was more explored. It was mentioned and then I was disappointed when nothing important happened with the information.

Val was very much a real, flawed character, and I appreciated that a lot. The biggest problem I had with this book though was her spiral and the resulting lack of honesty. Though realistic, it went on for long enough that, as lesbian actor myself, I was getting anxious about it and was losing empathy for her. The amount of time she spent in that state made me less excited to pick up the book, and that shows in how long it took me to read it.

I also think the pacing of the beginning was a little rushed, and the switch from not liking each other to flirting was a little abrupt for me.

But besides those qualms, I actually did enjoy this book, the last 15% especially. And I’m pretty satisfied with the conclusion of both Val and Maeve’s arcs. I also enjoyed the progress of the relationship once it was established. It was real and less driven by things that were just absolutely bonkers improbable; I feel like there’s not enough of these relationships in romance novels.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-arc!

I've said it once and I will say it forever, I love a celebrity romance. I love a sapphic celebrity romance even more. I really love that Carlyn's books seem very Hollywood-focused, so she literally always has a reader in me. The academia element that was introduced here was so interesting and was a fun new setting in the Hollywood-sphere. My only qualm with this book is I do wish that the tension had gotten to sizzle just a liiiiiittle longer before the rivals-to-lovers left the "rival" zone. That aside, I really loved this book. Maeve and Valarie are very well written and deeply complex, which makes discovering them individually and together so fun.

I read Sizzle Reel by this author at the very end of the year last year. This one is a stand alone but I think it definitely will make more sense to you if you read that one first. Valeria is a big part of it and we see her get her HEA in this one.

This was one where it was Val’s story and I think it borders on women’s fiction because she has to find out what exactly she wants to do with her life and figure some stuff out.

I liked the chemistry between Val and Maeve. We had a bit of rivals to lovers going on. Maeve was not happy to work with Val, but then they got to know each other and sparks really flew.

I will it was a bit slow for me. I kept feeling like I was waiting for more to happen. And there were points when I wanted to shake Val for her actions.

Overall, I give this one 3 ⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for allowing me to read an ARC of Directors Cut by Carlyn Greenwald.

Valeria, a celebrity who is trying to understand herself and her career in the aftermath of her very public coming out, is a visiting lecturer at an LA university, a job she may be qualified for, but is battling a strong case of imposter syndrome and judgments for those around her, including those of her co-professor Maeve Arko. As sparks fly, we see Val struggle to figure out her future along with her growing relationships with Maeve, as the pressure from the world, and herself makes everything that much more messy.

There was a lot I liked about this book. Seeing the internal struggles of someone with social anxiety, and the author making space for the characters to actively stand against many of the biphophobic comments and opinions we often see in the world was really refreshing and lovely to read, made my heart smile. Sometimes things felt a little repetitive and other times I felt like moments jumped ahead too quickly and I was left a little confused, but that did not detract from my enjoyment watching Maeve and Val grow (fair warning, there is a miscommunication trope). Definitely don't miss this lovely romance!

Review: Director’s Cut by Carlyn Greenwald ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75

Thank you to NetGalley and Vintage Books for the opportunity to read this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. Director’s Cut is the story of Oscar-winning actress Val Sullivan, who is struggling with the fact that her public persona is dominated by focus on her recent romantic drama rather than her professional merits and upcoming directorial debut. To add a more academic role to her growing resume, Val decided to co-teach a course on movie musicals for a semester at USC… with an extremely hot, queer co-professor Maeve Arko. Maeve is immediately cold toward Val, thinking her only interest in teaching is to boost her ego, and Maeve is surprised to discover Val’s passion and dedication to teaching.

I loved the romance between Val and Maeve in this story, they were an instant match and had fiery chemistry. Their love story was super sweet, and I was truly invested to see their dynamic grow as two driven, successful women. I was happy to see that neither woman had to make themselves a smaller version of themself to achieve their happy ever after. Lovers of movie musicals will delight in the banter and anecdotes that fill Val and Maeve’s lesson plans.

My only comment/critique is my dislike for the miscommunication trope as the driving force of conflict in a story. I am rarely able to feel the depth of this type of conflict and ultimately find that the emotional stakes don’t hit as hard as they are meant to.

This was such a fun, sapphic romance! 💘 Director’s Cut will be published June 11th 2024!

I hate myself for even saying this, but this book kind of disappointed me and I really wanted to love it. I was in fact bored with this one. I guess it's because it's single POV.

It's not that Valeria is unlikeable, its that she makes everything into this one big deal and get overly anxious without ever communicating her feelings. As in she keeps going in circle if Maeve actually likes her or would like to date a celebrity without actually talking about it with her. I just got every frustrated and wanted it to end.

Overall it was cute, I was just bored.

I got an e-arc of this book on NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I guess this is my year for sapphic Hollywood romance novels! Initially, I really liked the setup of this, of Val and Maeve co-teaching a class on movie musicals and cult classics and having that be their meet cute, but I feel like too many things got thrown into the pot of their relationship. There's a weird intro of "oh she hates me because I didn't come off as professional" (because Val wore designer clothes?) that sets them against each other that segues into "she got off to my sex scene in this movie and now I'm getting myself off thinking about that" which, maybe it's just me, but there's a lot of layers of separating character from person that made it feel uncomfortable and not at all sexy, then they're suddenly cool with each other, but both have a lot of past relationship abuse and trauma, and that's before we even get into the fame question, Val's thoughts on pulling back from Hollywood, her directoral debut, Maeve's academic career, and both of their futures, all of which factor heavily as obstacles to be overcome.

And then there's the fact that Val's unmedicated anxiety becomes a huge major part of the plot and tension and triggered so many miscommunications, which is one of my very least favorite tropes. As someone with medicated anxiety, it meant that almost all of her decisions and actions in the latter half of the book made me extremely uncomfortable (and made me wonder what her long-time therapist was doing). Kudos for an impactful depiction of anxiety and those decisions, I guess? But the root of them just didn't match anything else set up or how Val had been set up as a character either.

As the class is a major part of a third of the book, we do get to hear a whole lot about musicals, but it also kind of goes nowhere and leaves you wondering why it was in there other than Greenwald really wanted to get those thoughts across and namedrop a bunch of movie musicals. Instead we get in-depth on things like that and absolutely skimming over things I wish had gone into more detail, like Val and Maeve's early relationship, or Maeve actually getting used to being with someone famous. It all just felt a bit slapdash and rushed, and mixed with Val activating my fight responses, I never really got to a place where I enjoyed this.

For some reason this didn’t click for me- the characters had some sexual chemistry but it felt so very fast that it never resonated . Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the arc

I absolutely loved reading this queer romcom, my highlights were out of ontrol, and I spent a lot of time either laughing or blushing in mutual agony alongside Val and Maeve as they find one another smitten. Their lives couldn't be more different and while Val doesn't know what she wants out of everthing, she knows she wants Maeve and she knows her fame may might upend them. We go on a journey of laughter-inducing anxiety as Val sorts out the right steps for both herself and her relationship hopes. Of course, it takes a bit of time to get there, so along the way we meet a cast of queer characters, Val's Jewish family, students, and then some.

There's a lot happening in this novel, especially in the first half, but once Val and Maeve connect the book picks up speed and drama. It's a classic push and pull romance, one that's quite relatable as you get older and things like careers take the front seat. I connected to the story and ams oglad it introduced me to Carlyn Greenwald, because I'll absolutely be reading her prior novels now.

Highly recommend picking this one up!

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

Director’s Cut is a romance story, it talks about how it is like to be LGBTQ in the spotlight and the struggles that come with that when your famous, it is a Hollywood romance mixed with Academia.

I throughly enjoyed Val and Maeve’s relationship throughout the story from them to having assumptions about each other when they first meet to them getting together. The two things I wish the book had more of was more of Val and Maeve before they got together, and more of Maeve’s pov after Val tells her the news (spoiler free). I love the banter and the friendship between Val and Charlie they definitely give off siblings vibes, I loved how they could banter one moment and talk about something important the next. And I wish I could’ve seen more about them in their younger years.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book, it gave me a good laugh, and I would definitely read it again!

Directors Cut
By Carlyn Greenwald
2.5 Stars

I was excited to receive this book as I loved the blurb/premise. Unfortunately, this didn't work for me. From the first chapter, the writing (to me) was rushed and choppy. I found it distracting and throughout the book, I found myself thinking "wait, did I miss something?" and would reread passages.
Due to this, I never felt the characters developed or engaged me.

I loved this book! Sizzle Reel is one of my favorite sapphic romances but I felt so devastated for Val at the end... so this book was perfect! Maeve and Val are so compelling and sweet— I was not expecting to get so much Les Mis movie commentary but I wasn't mad about it. Anyway. Carlyn Greenwald I love you and all your messy gays <33 I hope Trish gets a love story soon!

Sometimes I think maybe I'm just a deeply boring person, and then I remember that I have a better time reading other contemporary romances than I had reading this one, and I realize it's not me. I'm not the problem. There's nothing wrong with this book, per se, it's just boring! And I read regency romances for fun! Those are supposed to be stuffy buttoned up boring books about boring courtings with a dash of dramatics at balls and disappointing of parents when you don't want to get wedded to your cousin! This was more boring than that. It just dragged and dragged until the very end and I went, thank god I'm done! I requested it on Netgalley because woohoo lesbians! I don't see enough sapphic books and I also need to read more anyways, but this one was one I was upset I didn't dnf. I pushed through and it was just not doing it for me.

Sigh. The premise of this one sounded so fun, but I struggled to get through this one. For me, Val was just not a likable character. I was hoping over the course of the book, that she would redeem herself, but for me, she didn’t. Conversely, I felt Maeve wasn’t developed as a character at all! So for their relationship to be plausible, I feel we, as the reader were not given enough. Now, the character of Charlie, I found to be what I needed to bump this to the 3 stars for me. He was great! I would read a book about Charlie finding love and success in a heartbeat! If you really love a good sapphic rom-com, I would definitely say to give this a go, but while there have been sapphic rom-coms I’ve loved, this was just not one of them.

I absolutely loved this book! Director's Cut follows a famous actress while she co-teaches a college course with her love interest. Both of the main characters are well developed and I couldn't help but devour this book in almost one sitting. I cannot recommend it enough!

An entire book all about Valeria was literally my dream so I instantly knew this would become a favorite. While reading sizzle reel isn't completely necessary to enjoy this story, I highly recommend. The previous knowledge of Valeria and how she got to her starting point for this story only makes her character growth more impressive. The world and characters have me wishing I could live in LA with all of them. There is a bit of a slow start for me but the characters and world are well worth the early development.

This is the first book I have read by Carlyn Greenwald. Great addition to queer rom com books. Similar to Jennifer Dugan.

This was an amazing book! I didn't like how quickly Val and Maeve got over their conflict, but that seems to happen a lot in sapphic romance, so I don't think it's something specific with the author. The two mains were really well written and I loved both of them. I think the books handles coming out and mental health awareness amazingly. The writing felt very smooth to me. Overall, it was an amazing read.