Hollywood Ending by Lucie Simone

www.luciesimone.com

Released: September 2010

Hollywood Ending is Lucie Simone's first published contemporary romance novel.

Trina is barely making ends meet in the vicious world of Hollywood, California. While trying to land her ultimate dream job, Trina meets her sexy neighbor Matiu and falls head over heels in love with him. However, Matiu appears to be repelled by Trina and purposely tries to avoid her. In all actuality, Matiu is attracted to Trina in return, but is focused solely on business, especially considering he has plans to return to his native New Zealand after gaining experience in the movie business.

Eventually, Trina and Matiu decide to sit back and let fate take control of their crazy and twisted "love" situation, especially after  they learn that their love (lust?) for one another just can't be ignored.

Trina is super cute and I'm sure many readers will relate to her in more ways than one. Matiu, on the other hand, has less redeeming qualities. For such a seemingly strong character, Trina doesn't seem to mind that Matiu is borderline psycho and obsessed with her - and not in the cute, endearing, flattering way, but more in a possessive, creepy, stalker way. If I were in Trina's shoes, I would think Matiu was crazy, and I would stay far, far away!



Hollywood Ending is also host to a few silly and outlandish catastrophes - at one point, the sexy and strapping Matiu endures a heart-attack (did I miss the part where he was obese or had type 2 diabetes, or what?!), and Trina participates in pointing out an identity-theft criminal from a police line-up. So...I totally wasn't aware that the LAPD had the budget for allowing identity-theft victims to single out their perpetrators in a line-up, but I'm assuming Simone did her research.

From a romantic perspective, the chemistry between Trina and Matiu lacks any true feeling. Simone has a great way of telling us the characters are attracted to one another, but I failed to see a genuine connection between the two. Perhaps if Trina and Matiu had relaxed and just had fun with one another without over-thinking the "relationship" aspect, the romance would have had a greater, lasting impact (or "Hollywood Ending").

Lucie Simone has also written Picture Perfect, A Taste of Italy, and The Waterdance. She has also helped Nancy Scrofano publish True Love Way.

Click on any of the images below to review the book in more detail on Amazon.com.



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