SYNOPSIS

Kaliya is annoyed with her job as a receptionist for a major film studio. She wants to make movies and this position was supposed to be a stepping stone, but she keeps getting overlooked. And then, her ex boyfriend, a movie director, walks into her job to pitch a movie. Upon seeing her, he offers her a position as part of the production crew.

What could happen?

RECAP AND REVIEW

This is a romance book told in the first person from Kaliya’s perspective. It is a second chance romance, and there’s miscommunication at play here, warning in advance. The tone of the story was more hopeful and reflective to me.

Seven years ago, in college, Kaliya and Danny were dating and seeing where things go. They got pretty close, even in the midst of Danny’s father’s death, up until a series of events happened that made them both individually take steps back.

Now, reconnected, they work together with the knowledge of what they used to be. The movie they’re working on is about Danny’s parents, his white father, who was also a director, and his Black mother, falling in love during Jim Crow era. Producing this movie has been Danny’s dream and Kaliya knows how much it means to him, while Danny can’t believe Kaliya hasn’t had the opportunity to work on movie yet. (She calls him out on the fact she doesn’t have the connections and name power he does).

I would honestly say this book is primarily about the movie and Kaliya’s journey and secondarily about the romance, even though it’s a romance book. Danny is in a relationship when they reconnect. The romance aspect between the two leads is a slow burn, and it takes over half the story for them to acknowledge to each other the possibility that more is still there and talk about what happened between them.

I don’t even remember them having too many “close calls,” where they were crossing the lines of his relationship, if you don’t count lingering stares and Danny creating space for her. From my understanding, only a few people picked up on their attraction, and one of those people only truly understood how deep Kaliya’s feelings went while they were on a date with her. However, I would say that their emotional connection might’ve crossed some boundaries and it’s a point of contention in Danny’s relationship.

We get flashbacks of how Kaliya and Danny met and some of the moments they shared together. I personally felt the chemistry and the love they have for each other in their conversations, but again, most of it isn’t acted on in the present until closer to the end. Once it is acted on, there’s a lot of teetering between “will they, won’t they.”

There were also times I felt like Danny didn’t do enough and even though he had good intentions, on more than one occasion he wasn’t able to follow through for one reason or another. I kept wondering what it was that tore them apart and the reveal, the use of miscommunication, wasn’t satisfying for me as a reader. They were young then though, so I do get their hesitancy to speak up about how they were hurting and what they were feeling, even if I didn’t like it.

I also thought this book went on a little long, and was annoyed by the third act break up, but I can also get the author’s and Kaliya’s desire to be where she wanted to be in her career before pursuing more romantically. I wasn’t as annoyed by this as the miscommunication.

OVERALL

Overall, I give this a 4 out of 5 stars. Though there were things I didn’t like about this story, I do think what I liked made up for it.

I liked the author’s writing style. I thought the movie’s premise was interesting as well as Danny’s backstory in regards to his parents. I found Kaliya’s journey with her career and being overlooked though she was very qualified genuine. And even though I think it dragged on, there are parts in the end of Kaliya’s journey that made the story worth it for me.

I think if I went into this book thinking of it less as a romance, I would’ve had a different reaction and given it five stars. I just didn’t find it super romantic, even though they had chemistry.