I have adored each book in this series and this book is no exception. Enemies to lovers is a well loved but difficult trope to take on and Lucy Parker does it smashingly. The animosity is real but the turn around still feels authentic and didn’t make me feel uncomfortable with everything that had happened previously. I love the characters, both Sabrina and Nick as the main characters and their friends and family as supporting roles. I hope that Parker decides to continue this series because it brings me so much joy. Overall, this was a lovely book and I thoroughly recommend.

At several times during Headliners, our heroine Sabrina Carlton sarcastically wonders if her extremely bad luck is due to cosmic irony (aka the universe's method of laughing at her). Like Sabrina, I also attributed my present circumstances to the universe. Unlike Sabrina, it wasn't cosmic irony but rather cosmic fortune. This book is so freaking good that I paused every two chapters and profusely thanked the unknown entity upstairs for delivering this book to my tablet (all right, it isn't unknown. Thanks, awesome Carina Press publicist!).

A few things right out the gate:

1) This will be spoiler-free flailing. But if you want to read without knowing anything, then stop right here. I loved it. The end.

2) Unlike the previous London Celebrities books, I don't think Headliners works as a standalone. A lot of the conflict stems from events that transpired in The Austen Playbook, and I highly recommend that you read that first. Will you be totally lost if you haven't read The Austen Playbook? Well, no, but I think you would lose nuance and fail to appreciate character/plot development.

3) Aside from the first and last chapters, Headliners is set in London during December. I said this on social media already, but I'll say it again. I was lucky enough to once visit London near Christmas, and it was the most magical December of my life. This book is the closest I’ve felt to recapturing that magic. If the visual aesthetics of Last Christmas's movie trailer appealed to you, then this is what it feels like (I promise there is no ghost ruining the HEA. Headliners is 100% a comedic and endearing romance that ends happily).

However, it is NOT a Christmas romance. Since Sabrina and Nick are hosts of a morning show, they occasionally attend holiday-themed events (e.g., a Christmas whodunnit murder train). And they hunt down out-of-stock toys for the children in their lives. The festiveness is in the setting: snow, sparkly lights, yummy pastries, company holiday parties, a looming deadline that they need to get ratings up by Christmas Eve, charity events, and uncomfortable family relationships (hey, that last one is definitely a marker of the holiday season). But the actual holiday is not relevant. The book ends before Christmas! It's very much a story set in December but not focused on Christmas.

Okay, now on to the squeeing. This will be short because I want to keep it spoiler-free. If I ramble on too long, I don't want to accidentally ruin the magic of discovering the best parts of the book when you read it. Here are some spoiler-free and vague things that I love. It's going to be numbers again because I like numerical order and if I hit ten, I'll know I've talked too much!

1) Slytherin/Slytherin match-ups feed my soul. Ambitious career-oriented individuals who have really good reasons to dislike each other but begrudging have private respect? Perfection. Enemies-to-lovers is my favorite trope, and the level of humor and snark in every line kept it from veering into uncomfortable "oh, they really hate each other and not in a sexy way" levels. I mean, I want some hate, but I don't want loathing to the point of "oh no, nothing is going to solve this." I am not the biggest fan of hate-sex and that wasn't here. They only have sex once they have mutual admiration of each other and like each other! Yay, liking-each-other-sex! Though I will admit that everyone thinking that they were shagging (when they weren't) was hilarious. I'm down for imaginary hate-sex it seems!

2) I loved that they both individually expressed desires to not have children and instead be adoring aunts/uncles. They never have a conversation of "Oh, I don't want children" together but they both think it so much that I'm confident that they're on the same page. I'm always on board for characters who love children but realize that it's not a responsibility they want.

3) Nick really f'ed up big time in the last book, and Sabrina has excellent reasons for loathing him beyond professional rivalries. Not going into much detail, but I really appreciated how his backstory explained some of his actions and his eventual sincere apology. And not just to Sabrina, but also to Griff (the hero of the last book and Nick's ex-friend). It didn't feel contrite or unearned. Nick isn't perfect, but he isn't some melodramatic villain either. Sabrina realizing that fact is one of my favorite parts of the book.

4) The shadows of parents, both dead and alive. Ooof. This was painful to read but so excellently drawn out. Nick and Sabrina have different but complicated relationships with their fathers (and mothers, too). They both suffer from gaping wounds of grief, regret, and bitterness. And things aren't 100% solved and tied up neatly into a bow, but I was really satisfied with how they confronted the past and came to Important Revelations. I realize this paragraph explains nothing but that's what trying to be spoiler-free is, unfortunately. Just know that I really appreciated the exploration of parental relationships. Not only for Nick and Sabrina, but for minor characters as well (I cried buckets during the scene when Sabrina is talking to REDACTED about her dead mother). F'ed up parental relationships and grief are on full display in Headliners. I'd go so far to say that it might be the main theme.

5) The morning show was brilliant. Utterly brilliant. I wasn't sure how I'd feel now that London Celebrities wasn't focusing on theater anymore, but IT IS SO GOOD. Every new day brought new hilarious segments and guests. I'm biting my tongue now because I really want to give examples, but I won't. Read it, y'all. You'll thank me between giggles.

6) Can I just say how much I endorse the London Celebrities Cinematic Universe? These books mostly work as standalones, but it is also SUCH a treat for readers who have read the entire series. From cameos of previous MCs to minor allusions, it's all there for eagle-eyed fans. At one point, I shrieked when there was a mention of a familiar opera singer (the mother of a previous MC). It's exciting to realize that even though we've left the theater, they all run around in similar circles. And it's not just old characters that I love. With every new introduction of an intriguing secondary character, I'm praying for a new book. Headliners introduced a few rugby players and the LCCU's equivalent of The Great British Bake-Off. Now I want those books, too (as though I'm not already crossing my fingers for a million other books. I want Charlie's story really bad!).

Okay, I'm already at #6 and show no signs of wanting to stop. Which means I really should stop because my fingers will soon overrule any spoiler-free caution. I really freaking loved this book, which isn't surprising this series strokes my id perfectly. I hope you'll love it, too.

Disclaimer: I was given a free e-ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I have interacted with the author on social media, but these are my honest feelings about the book.

Nick Davenport and Sabrina Carlton are petty rivals on and off tv, but there’s good cause for it…up until the point where both their careers are suddenly in jeopardy. A twist of events forces them to co-host the dreaded early-morning show which no one bothers with, since it’s not quite the ‘serious’ stuff compared to what they used to do, and with the list of grievances sitting between them, neither’s looking good at all. This status quo doesn’t look like it’s about to change, until mishap after mishap spring the comedy into the story and Nick/Sabrina find themselves in various compromising positions which make everyone else think that they are public enemies but secret shaggers.

I’ve never felt so rewarded by a Lucy Parker book as I have with ‘Headliners’. (To be fair, I had a good feeling about it when I read the blurb and got started.) I can’t entirely remember what transpired at the end of the last book even, but as a standalone, ‘Headliners’ functions perfectly legitimately. Characters from Parker’s previous books who have already found their HEA do flit in and out however, and if you’ve not read the rest of the books, there’s a bit of an insider-wink-wink sort of joke that you could miss out on.

Still, Parker crafts a holiday rom-com with so much panache and style and comedy—it’s hilarious to read how one thing after another befalls the ill-fated couple as they wear out the enemies-to-lovers trope to the fullest. In the previous books, I’d always found a particular sort of imbalance when it came to quirk, dialogue and characterisation, but ‘Headliners’ seemed to have perfected these somehow: not too many quirks, snappy and funny dialogue and spot-on ‘Love-Actually’ type characters. Might be a bit of a bias here, but I’m voting this as Parker’s crowning glory.

Appreciate writing and premise. Characters treat each other as adults. Feigen and father subplot seems tacked on. Overall a highly enjoyable read easily recommended to others.