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HOLLYWOOD DIRT by Alessandra Torre

HOLLYWOOD DIRT

by Alessandra Torre

Pub Date: Sept. 7th, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5394-6909-4
Publisher: CreateSpace

A self-proclaimed “hillbilly” finds unexpected film stardom and romance.

“Southern women are unique; there is no disputing that.” So begins Torre’s novel starring 29-year-old Summer Jenkins of Quincy, Georgia, a small town with nearly 50 millionaire families who, back in the day, bought shares in a yet-unknown company called Coca-Cola. Summer and her beauty queen–turned­–bank-teller mother, however, are outcasts. They weren’t born and raised in Quincy, and an incident involving Summer, her wealthy ex-fiance, and a backstabbing bridal party still looms large in the minds of Quincy’s elite. Three years later, Summer longs to escape but lacks the resources until Hollywood comes to town. Superstar Cole Masten is producing and starring in The Fortune Bottle,a film adaptation of a novel about Quincy’s rags-to-riches history. He’s searching for an escape of his own after catching his movie star wife Nadia Smith in flagrante with her latest director and starting divorce proceedings with Brad DeLuca, a shark of a lawyer. Summer first befriends flamboyant location scout Bennington Payne and introduces him to the town—for a price—but when Cole arrives in Quincy and clashes with the feisty small-town woman in a spectacular fashion, he sees something he never expected: a leading lady. As Summer struggles to adapt to an acting job that could propel her out of Quincy for good, she fights her feelings for the cocksure actor, which are fast progressing from lust to love. New York Times bestselling author Torre provides both Summer’s and Cole’s perspectives, giving insight into the copious obstacles each is overcoming—as well as more than one steamy sex scene. Based on a real town, Quincy is a quirky, enjoyable character on its own. However, the first two-thirds of the book set up Summer and Cole’s inevitable relationship and then skims over many of their conflicts, missing an opportunity for rich exploration.

A fast, fun read that would have benefited from less setup and more action.