America’s sweetheart, Lila Crayne, is going to appear in the adaptation of a lifetime, cast in the leading role in an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night. Working alongside her fiancé, director Kurt and best friend, Freddie, they plan to make this an adaptation of a lifetime, with Nicole getting the ending she ultimately deserved. Working closely with a psychologist, Dr. Jonah Gabriel to prepare for her role as Nicole who is dealing with mental health issues in the story. Together, the two of them are able to bring suppressed memories to the surface for Lila, and allows Lila to come to terms with the fact that her relationship with Kurt is abusive.
But, Jonah has ulterior motives. He has been in love with the gorgeous Lila since the two of them met briefly at Princeton many years ago, and he will stop at nothing to get what he wants. Sweet Fury ticks all the boxes in a psychological thriller and readers will be shocked by the twist ending and the truth behind the sordid events that bring Jonah and Lila together…or back together.
Sash Bischoff’s debut novel is bound to be a bestseller in no time at all. Thank you to Simon & Schuster, Sash Bischoff and Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I was so excited at the prospect of reading “Sweet Fury,” a psychological thriller, when the publisher offered me an ARC in exchange for my review. As an F. Scott Fitzgerald fan, I couldn’t resist the theme centered around the making of a film adaptation of “Tender is the Night,” with a feminine twist. It had a promising start with its prologue of a bloody corpse. Unfortunately, the book did not live up to its promise.

In the novel, Lila Crayne, a self-proclaimed Fitzgerald aficionado, stars in a film adaptation of “Tender is the Night” being directed by her fiancee, Kurt Royall, who is famous for another film in which Lila also starred. Lila will be portraying Nicole Rider, a mental patient of psychiatrist Dick Rider, who falls in love with the psychologically damaged Nicole, and marries her. The book blames his subsequent decline on Nicole. However, Lila wants to change the story to make Dick the predator instead of the prey, creating an image of Nicole as a strong female character who overcomes her past trauma despite being preyed upon by Dick.

The characters in “Sweet Fury” seem to parallel those in “Tender is the Night” when Lila seeks therapy with Jonah Gabriel, also a Fitzgerald fan, whose attendance at Princeton, Fitzgerald’s alma mater, coincided with a year in which Lila was a student. Jonah has been obsessed with Lila since he met her at Princeton, although Lila informs him that she doesn’t remember him. Throughout the therapy, Jonah tries to retain his professionalism, despite his obsession with Lila, but her lure seems impossible to resist.

The narrative alternates between long stretches of dialog involving the filming, such as speeches to the cast members at a pre-filming party, long sequences describing a scene being practiced and filmed, interspersed with long narratives with no dialog in which the past is described as well as the characters’ feelings explored. In between these long chapters are short ones of either Jonah’s therapy notes or Lila’s journal entries, detailing her physical and verbal abuse at the hands of her fiancee, which she created at Jonah’s request.

Despite the long, somewhat tedious chapters, the book was a solid four rating until the denouement, which devolved into the farcical. And the short epilogue was totally incomprehensible to me. I can usually overlook a contrived ending if it is satisfying, but this ending involved lengthy monologues, bizarre actions, and a sudden appearance by a secondary character. If readers can overlook these deficiencies, it could be an interesting novel. Perhaps I had higher expectations of a book which invokes my literary hero, F. Scott Fitzgerald. (On the plus side, it did make me want to re-read “Tender is the Night”).

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for providing me an ARC of the novel in exchange for my honest review.

Sweet Fury is a glittery reflection and a treat for those who love F. Scott Fitzgerald and his works. Lila is a famous actress who is set to star in a modern adaptation of Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night, to be directed by her wild and demanding fiancé. Lila begins therapy with the charismatic Jonah Gabriel to examine her past and gear up for the role. Sash Bischoff has written an innovative and complex book, full of revenge, backstabbing and unreliable characters, all with the backdrop of Fitzgerald’s world. Highly recommended! With thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for this ARC. My opinions are my own. @SashBischoff

Thank you Simon and Shuster for the ARC of this book for an honest review.
It took me some time to get into this book but once I did I was hooked and started flipping those pages to see what happened next. Trigger warning about sexual assault on women. The man in the book is obsessed with a woman he met in college and he will do anything to have a chance to be with her. It gets pretty messy (literally) as he tries to convince her to be with him. She has her own plan as things become very intense.
I would recommend this book keeping in mind it starts out a little slow and is very different.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for the ARC of Sweet Fury by Sash Bischoff! Sweet Fury is a well-crafted book starring Lila, a famous actress, who is literally starring in a movie that is supposed to be a modern take on the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, Tender is the Night. While making the movie, Lila begins to attend therapy with Jonah. He is tasked with helping her deal with both past and present trauma. When life seems to imitate fiction, and the reliability of the narrators begins to unravel, we see that this is a story within a story, both reflecting back to the original book. Overall, I thought this was a clever and purposefully dramatic book which I enjoyed very much!