I really wanted to like this book. It seemed so interesting and I was so optimistic and then it just... wasn't good.

So, here's what excited me about this book: the main character is a bisexual Jewish woman who is trying to make it as a cinematographer in Hollywood. Cool, right? That's what I thought. And a love interest who's a famous actress of undetermined sexuality? With a fun, cool, queer friend group? Sign me up.

And then everything that had so much potential just fell short. Luna is a bisexual Jewish woman whose bisexuality is somehow not complete yet because she hasn't slept with a woman, and whose Judaism is only occasionally mentioned when it's convenient to the plot, but never has any substantive meaning to her character. She's trying to make it as a cinematographer, but her boss is a total caricature of a terrible Hollywood manager. Her family lives nearby, but the only one who we ever really get to see is her younger brother, who has no character other than being a dudebro.

Valeria as a love interest wasn't great, although I did love her character. She was so supportive of Luna and such a good friend to everyone around her. and I almost want a book focused on her because she is the kind of character that I just want more time with.

The friend group just fell terribly short. I liked Romy for about ten seconds, then got pretty sick of how clear it was that Luna was interested in her without realizing it and how mean Romy was in regards to her feelings for Luna. If Romy had been the character that she was in the last 15% throughout the book, I would have liked her (and the ending) a lot more. And Wyatt? Come on. Why the hell did Romy and Luna stay friends with him? He was awful! Zero redeeming qualities!

The last 15% of this book was somewhat okay. If I had just read the first few pages and then that last part, I think I would have enjoyed this book a lot more. But the characters just weren't likable and the plot was just frustrating. So although I was so hopeful, this book really missed the mark and I was really disappointed.

Thanks to NetGalley and to the publisher for sending me an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was so intrigued by Sizzle Reel's description (and that cover is gorgeous!). However it was a hard read for me, I felt a lot of secondhand embarrassment for the characters and the love tangle she ends up in is so messy!!! But Sizzle Reel still certainly has it's place in the New Adult genre. I think I thought it was going to be less YA and more Adult Fiction than it ended up being and so I had the wrong expectations for the storyline and character development from the get-go. I think fans of the YA/NA genre will still really love it!

This is definitely a queer coming of age novel. Luna is a 24 year old Jewish bisexual woman who has just come out as bi and she’s navigating what it means to be queer and bi and navigating acting on her attraction to women. Luna is also a personal assistant who wants nothing more than to be a cinematographer one day.

Luna lucks out when after she loses her job in a rather embarrassing manner, a very attractive famous actress, Valeria Sullivan, who Luna has previously interviewed to be an assistant for (and has more than a small crush on) offers her a PA job on the set of her directorial debut. Soon after Luna and Val enter into a situation-ship of sorts.

Luna is MESSY, as one would expect of someone who has been navigating the world through the lens of heteronormativity until now. She’s insecure and unsure about sex, particularly queer/wlw sex and is often word-vomiting to her best friend, Romy (who is a non-binary lesbian), about her outdated or misunderstood ideals whilst trying to get a grasp on what different things mean (and honestly, we live in such a sex-obsessed, heteronormative world it’s not hard to understand why she has so many questions). There is clear friction between Romy and Luna whilst Luna is continually asking for Romy’s advice, insight and opinions that it’s easy to see where the narrative may be going.

The romance between Luna and Val is a little awkward and I wish the author would’ve done more showing as to why they were into each other beyond they were two queer women in the same vicinity who were attracted to one another. I also wish that the author would’ve sped up the pacing to have the big conflict closer to the halfway point than the sixty percent mark. I also believe a lot of the repetitive conversations about wlw sex could’ve been removed, as the narrative went on you could predict what Luna was going to say. Finally, I wish there would’ve been more scenes, maybe even flashbacks, showing the growth and progression of Luna and Romy’s friendship over the years to what it is now.

Luna says a lot of things throughout the narrative that come off as misinformed/as if parroting things she’s heard other queer people say that aren’t always necessarily accurate or sensitive. I would’ve liked to see more character growth in this aspect of her understanding what she’s saying and righting/learning more about her misconceptions.

3.5 stars

⭐️ ⭐️⭐️✨

Thank you to NetGalley and Vintage for the E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

SIZZLE REEL is a celebrity romance, a coming-of-age tale, and a coming-out story all rolled up into one package (with a gorgeous cover)! Nothing is really going Luna Roth's way. She dreams of becoming a cinematographer, but she's currently stuck working as an assistant with a not-so-great boss. She's just recently come out to herself as bisexual, but she still doesn't feel quite ready to come out to most of the people in her life, and feels insecure about her lack of experience. When she meets A-list actress Valeria Sullivan one day at work, Luna believes she's found the solution to all her problems. Can she score her dream job as a PA on the set of Valeria's directorial debut—and, after she and Valeria grow closer, her dream girl?

SIZZLE REEL does a great job of giving each character their own distinct voice, and I enjoyed the lighthearted feel and writing style. The film industry setting was especially well-developed (especially given that this book started as a screenplay), and it was fascinating to learn about all of those different aspects! I loved the Jewish rep as well, and finding out a little about Luna's connection to her Judaism as it relates to her sexuality, her relationships with her family, etc. I would have liked to see even more of those topics. I also think the nature of Luna's personal journey felt true to her character—she isn't always likable, but she does feel very real, from her triumphs to her messier moments. However, I do feel like this story fell flat in terms of the romance. Valeria was a great character—a book about her and her story would have also been such an awesome read. She and Luna's connection was built up all throughout the book, getting readers invested, only for Luna to end up with someone else, who (in my opinion) was less likable and had less chemistry with Luna. As a result, I feel like neither the celebrity romance nor the friends-to-lovers romance aspect of the book was entirely well-developed, which was disappointing. Overall, I think SIZZLE REEL had a super interesting premise and there were some great aspects to the book, but others could have used more development in certain areas. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

This was such a disappointing read, especially because it was one of my most anticipated releases for this year.
The description is misleading, the characters are meh at best, and the mc has little to n actual growth.
It was messy and really hard to read, and I really hate that I couldn't enjoy it like it like I wanted to.

The story felt a bit one-note and the character development fell flat for me. I found myself not relating to any of the characters so it was hard to stick with it. However, I will say that the pace was quick enough to keep my interest though. If you like friends-to-lovers and stories with a happy ending, this could be a good story, it just wasn’t for me.

When I tell you I WANTED to love this book, I’m serious. As a bi girl 💖💙💜 myself, I was so excited to see some rep in a book. But that’s where the hype ended.

This book read to me like every bi stereotype ever. And if I had to read the MC have an existential crisis one more time about what was considered “sex” when it comes to girls, I was going to hurt someone.

The FMC was annoying and reading this book made me feel equal parts upset and gross at times. This was not the one for me.

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC!

I think I liked a lot about this book. It's funny and cute, very steamy and while I think some of the internalized biphobia was hard to read, I also didn't think it was particularly unrealistic. Unfortunately, some of the hardest people on us, in coming out, are ourselves.

The story is about Luna, an aspiring cinematographer, on a quest to pursue romance as a newly-out bi woman. I think that while a lot of things worked well, some of the romance arcs were a bit off for me. If the main character was going to pursue multiple partners in the end, I feel like the first relationship should've been the less developed one. I would've loved a bit more about Romy and Luna's friendship together, because I thought everything there was really interesting. In general, it felt like this book could've maybe been two books? I just wanted more time with the 'endgame' couple.

dnf'd at 20%.

i was really excited to read this book & i'm so sad that I didn't like it. the writing and pacing felt super messy, with a lot of characters introduced with no explanation, making it hard to keep up with the plot at times. the queer representation felt forced & the whole focus on virginity seemed obsessive & weird.

thank you to netgalley and the author for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

This coming-soon, coming-of-age, coming-out story takes place in the behind-the-scenes of Hollywood. Sometimes I can get really into a celebrity romance, but I wasn’t as hooked by the idea behind this one. At times I found it to be predictable, and I felt like I wasn’t supposed to see the ending coming, even though it was very clear to me. But at the end of the day, there’s not a lot of books with bisexual main characters, and the spicy scenes were hot, so still a solid 3 star read for me. Releasing on 4/18/23, add this to your TBR if chaotic protagonists and showbiz stories are your thing!

I DNF'd this around 20%, unfortunately. There is no other word to describe it other than cringey. The thought process is immature, the queer rep felt forced and confused, and the characters were all either insanely boring or painfully annoying. I had high hopes for it based on the synopsis, but this clearly was not written for a 30 year old queer like myself. Maybe a 15 year old?

I personally would not recommend this to anyone, but I really appreciate the opportunity to get an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Read the blurb, thought it sounded cute. Started the book and was bored. There are too many other books out there in the world for me to spend time on one I'm not feeling.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to be an early reader.

A sapphic bisexual romance in a film industry setting is all my heart desires but sadly, Sizzle Reel fell a bit flat. The very detailed plot description should have been an indication of it being messy as it tries to bring everything it can but ends up delivering very little. But not all is bad. Here is my review.

Character-wise, Luna isn’t the most appealing main character, however, I won’t hold that against her because that’s how I feel with plenty of romance leads. Her coming out as bisexual is a big part of her personality throughout the story, I get it. At times it is funny as if she has opened the doors to bisexual superpowers or something. Other times, it just felt annoying and as if she was a totally new person who doesn’t even want to be bisexual.

Then there’s the matter of the love triangle. On the one hand, there’s Luna’s celebrity crush with whom she shares very little chemistry. Their interactions are fun, and I enjoy them together, but the romantic part feels forced, which is a shame seeing as it takes up most of the story. It does that, to then amount to nothing. The second love interest is a friends-to-lovers moment which I am a total sucker for but never really pays off. I love Romy’s presence throughout the novel and oftentimes really identify with her, but to make her a love interest, it really needed more than a sudden realisation as it had very little room for them to explore that further. Especially, after focusing most of the book on someone else. The love triangle itself wasn’t a big surprise but Luna’s eventual feelings were a bit anticlimactic.

Maybe I should have read the synopsis better because the frustrating focus on sex and virginity is already clear there—my bad. The most important thing in the world for Luna as a baby bisexual isn’t really to feel truly accepted and take her time to figure things out, it’s to get laid. And the steamy scenes that were there were very uncomfortable. They get intimate in an Uber, out of all places, and Luna spends the entire book wanting to have “gay sex” in a heteronormative way, despite everyone telling her that “sex” isn’t a straightforward concept. Luna is a flawed character, and that’s fine, but she was far too annoying in moments like these.

When it comes to the overall story, I appreciate the film industry setting and getting to learn more about Luna working her way towards becoming a cinematographer. I honestly wish there had been more focus on that. There’s diversity aplenty, with a Jewish bisexual lead as well as cis and non-binary lesbian love interests and a whole bunch of hilarious queer humour and references. It feels over the top sometimes but to me, that might have been the slightly better part of the book.

Either the story should have been aimed at a younger audience or it should have been paced a lot better. I wouldn’t say no to another book by this author as there were a lot of relatable moments and queer media in general is always welcome. But this particular story was a miss for me and probably better suited for someone who doesn’t mind the quirks mentioned above.

im sad to say I was pretty disappointed with this book. I was so excited to read it. It was a very very slow burn. I enjoyed the spice and how every character had their own voice so the writing style wasn't the problem. but that last 15% totally ruined it for me, it came out of no where. i get what they were doing, but i felt like it had to be intwined a little more. I did enjoy the baby gayness.

Thank you to NetGalley and Vintage Books for the eARC, as well as the physical ARC, of Sizzle Reel in exchange for my honest review.

This is one I wanted to love so dearly. I came out as bisexual later in life as well so when I read the blurb for this book, I thought I’d find genuine love for it and relate to it on a deeper level. However, there were a lot of elements that just didn’t make this stick out the right way for me.

• the blurb is kind of misleading, what you actually get is a friends to lovers romance (which is obvious to everyone except the MC) but it doesn’t come to fruition until WAY late since the MC is with someone else the whole book
• the way the MC discussed sex and what it means to be a “virgin” - especially talked about in an antiquated way
• no chemistry between the MC and her final love interest
• Luna (the MC) is unlikable and it makes the story hard to enjoy

The second half of the book is definitely stronger, but it just didn’t hit the mark for me. 2.5 stars.

I don’t even know where to start with this review. I love Queer romance stories, but unfortunately this book was a flop for me. I had so many problems. The main character, Luna, was so chaotic. While I appreciate her coming out journey, her whole personality was very chaotic. She needed so much support from her friends for everything and she is a 24-year-old woman. If you need to take a Xanax to be in the same room as your crush, you probably shouldn’t be trying to date them.

I was also confused about the obsession with losing her virginity and her strong thoughts of virginity is having a sexual experience with penetration. She was so hung up on it and I just don’t really understand. When she came out as bi, and had conversations with her therapist and Queer women and Queer identifying individuals, I don’t understand why she couldn’t be more flexible.

This book also has very little plot. The whole book is basically Luna coming out and in her head about whether or not movie star, Valeria Sullivan, likes her back.

There is also a love triangle vibe to this. I don’t want to dive in to this too much due to spoilers but we don’t get the last piece of the romance puzzle till the very end and we have almost no interactions with the romantic leads. Less than 15% of the story is spent developing the true romance.

My last complaint is all the abbreviations for film things. I didn’t know what half of them were and kept having to google them which took me out of the story.

Overall, there was too much going on but not anything going on at the same time plot wise. Being a single POV story, it was a challenge to get through without feeling a connection to the FMC, Luna.

Things aren't quite going Luna's way: she's an assistant in a dead-end job rather than a rising star in the cinematography world, she's just barely come out to herself as bi and can't imagine coming out more broadly, and to add insult to injury she's convinced that she's the only virgin left in the world. Enter Valeria, one of Hollywood's new It girls...who happens to have a new project, and who is also tripping Luna's fledgling sense of gaydar.

Val is a highlight of the book—confident and funny and thoughtful. She's good at what she does, and she *knows* that she's good at what she does, but she's not precious about it. I also love that although there's a love triangle in the book, between Luna and Val and Luna's friend Romy, there's no bad guy here. So many love triangles in books end in "but actually, the wrong person is a terrible person!" which always feels to me like an unrealistic cop-out. And it's genuinely interesting to see Luna frame the world through the lens of a cinematographer: she looks at a moment and imagines it as a scene in a film, thinking about what she'd do with light and camera angles and focus.

In a lot of ways I think "Sizzle Reel" works best if you read it as being set not in the present day but a decade or so back. In the present day, we have Luna, who 1) is a raised-in-Cali liberal, 2) went to film school, again in California, 3) works in Hollywood, and 4) has a network of queer friends, including 5) her best friend and roommate, with whom she is used to discussing sex and romance. And in that context, I found it surprising that she has so little idea of how two women (or otherwise people without a certain piece of anatomy—they say "sapphics" a lot, perhaps to account for Romy being nonbinary) can have sex. It's more than ignorance, though; it's a real resistance to the numerous people who tell Luna throughout the book that there are more ways to have sex than "Tab A into Slot B."

Obviously there's nothing wrong with being a twenty-something (or older!) in 2023 still trying to figure it out. (A man once told me that it wasn't sex if there wasn't the possibility of someone getting pregnant, which is wrong on so many levels that I still can't even begin to sort them out. I asked what that meant about the multiple years I had spent in a live-in relationship with another woman, and he concluded that sex had not been possible. That was in 2019, so I think it's safe to say that more education is needed.) But...it felt like so much of "Sizzle Reel" keeps circling back to "Okay, now I've done this and this and this and this and this, but none of that counts because it wasn't Tab A into Slot B, and I'm so inexperienced!"

So I'm left with something that is interesting but frustrating. Again, maybe best read as though it takes place a decade earlier, or as though the characters are—in a non-creepy, of-age-to-consent, smaller-age-gap-than-exists-in-the-book way—rather younger.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Bullet pointing this "review" because I have emotionally abandoned this book and just cannot be bothered.

*I was into this for first 10%, despite the terrible choice to write in first person present tense.
*The blurb is extremely misleading. This is a friends to lovers romance. By the time I realized this was what was happening, it was too late for me to enjoy it, and my expectations and wishes wanted the MC to have a different love interest.
*The MC and her love interest have no chemistry.
*The plot where the MC is obsessed with losing her virginity (she is not a virgin, and the nuances of queer sex and virginity were never discussed to my satisfaction). The MC's views of lesbian sex were really irritating and this continues for most of the book.
*The behind the scenes view of Hollywood was mostly just depressing and not very fun.

I have more thoughts but again, can't be bothered. A lot of my reaction to this book was personal preference, but the poor marketing definitely led me to have expectations that were never going to be fulfilled by the actual book.

I want to start by giving a huge shout-out to NetGalley, the author, Carlyn Greenwald, and Vintage Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC (which explains why it’s so well edited!), for providing me with this ARC. Also, thank you for advertising it. I got an email from NetGalley specifically recommending this book to me, otherwise I’d never have heard about it and my life would be poorer for it.

Sizzle Reel is a well-written, adorable, Queer, sapphic romance novel peppered throughout with pop culture references (mostly relevant for those millennial and younger). Carlyn Greenwald writes about art, cinematography, photography, and screenwriting like she knows what she’s talking about. I didn’t fact-check that, I’m just assuming, and that’s just fine. Whether she has expertise in those fields or not is irrelevant: she does the job as a writer of convincing the reader she knows her stuff.

She uses newer terms for Queer relationships, sexualities, and identities, so the older gay crowd might feel a bit left behind or put-off by that. These things change, darling, as they should.

As for the rest of you (the cisgender-heteronormative crowd), you may or may not enjoy this book, depending on how open and flexible you are with your sexuality, your tolerance level, whether you’re a bigot, and your placement on the Kinsey scale. It wasn’t really written for you, and that’s okay. We get to have nice things, too, k?

The main character and protagonist, Luna, is a newly realized bisexual. At the start of the book, she hasn’t yet come out to anyone, and as the book progresses, that changes. We get to see how that affects Luna as the story goes on. (Another main character is nonbinary and sapphic.)

Luna is a little problematic sometimes. It’s all good in the end, but there is a section where she gives the impression of being very self-centered, self-absorbed, and selfish. During this section, she seems not to care about anyone’s needs or wants but her own. However, it’s worth noting a few things here: she has anxiety, and as most people under 40 can tell you, it makes you very stuck-in-your-own-head by design. That’s literally how it works. It’s a realistic depiction of her state of mind. She’s also only 24 and I know I wasn’t the most empathetic person out there when I was that age. We get stuck in our heads, and it feels like the world is ending and all that matters is that nothing is going according to plan and OH MY GOD WHAT DO I DO NOW because there’s no tutorial for life. She’s also a “baby gay” and new to romantic relationships altogether, so maybe she could stand to learn a few things about being more compassionate towards the people she cares about. And she does get there! For me, it was a heart-warming transition, and I was cheering her on the whole way.

Pretty much anyone who read the synopsis can guess which way the coin will land in this “will they or won’t they?”, “friends and roommates or lovers?”, and “glamor versus girl-next-door” kind of tale, but I’m here to say that it is very much worth the read. I realize I got to read a free copy, but it’s also temporary and won’t exist forever, so, in order to hold on to all the fuzzy feelings, to learn how to write better sapphic romance, and out of solidarity, I’m going to buy myself a copy of this book, too.

I’m pretty new to the world of romance novels, “kissing books”, smut, and Queer fiction. I shouldn’t be, but I am, so I’m not sure of all the terms or tropes that are used to describe situations and themes. But I know this book is exceptionally well-written and it’s really something special. I got to 100% completion and kept tapping right, hoping for another page to populate my Kindle’s screen, because I just didn’t want it to end. I loved these characters; they felt authentic and genuine, fleshed-out and real. They felt like people who could be real, who I want to be real, and who I actually want to know, so I can genuinely wish them well in their future lives together. It’s just so sweet.

On to the smutty bits: it’s not very explicit, but it’s definitely NSFW (unless you work for R29, Everyday Feminism, The Mary Sue, Bustle, or somewhere else pro-sex and feminist like that). However, there’s not a whole lot of it. I think there was enough-ish… was I left always wanting more? YES. But is that a sign of a good sapphic romance novel? YES!!!

The courtship period was long, but it was WORTH IT. It was like a mostly tasteful slow burn. There’s connection, friendship, attraction, and love. There’s maybe a bit more about jobs and Hollywood-type work than I thought I was signing up for, but honestly, it’s a trade-off I’d make again any day. Oh, and I just reread her little bio in the book and she is “a film school graduate and former Hollywood lackey, [who] now works in publishing”. Maybe she’s a real life, or even better version of the main character. It’s nice to imagine so, anyway.

Even though I wouldn’t consider this a genre in which I ordinarily feel at home or that I feel immediately drawn to, this book welcomed me with open arms, and I must give it a definite 5 out of 5 stars.

Rachel Lynn Solomon, one of my favorite authors, posted about how much she loved Sizzle Reel on Instagram, and I knew I had to go to NetGalley to request it right away. I was thrilled when I was approved.

Sizzle Reel hooked me immediately. The first chapter opens with narration from Luna about how attracted she is to Rachel Brosnahan as she gets distracted by how much her therapist looks like the actress. I love how real and funny this introduction to Luna is. This moment immediately lets the reader into her head and sets the tone for the reader for the rest of the story.

Romy is a delightful character. She is loyal and caring, and a little bit nerdy (she creates a list of essential Sapphic Films Luna has to watch). She devotes a huge amount of time and energy to supporting her friend, Luna, in her process of coming out and giving Luna relationship advice. It frustrates me that Luna does not reciprocate this support and care. When Romy gets an exciting career opportunity, Luna has to talk herself into being supportive. Romy is certainly a fully fleshed out character complete with crises, but sometimes Luna seems to forget that.

On the other hand, Luna’s relationship with Valeria doesn’t sit right with me. As a celebrity, Valeria has power over an assistant like Luna. It makes sense that Valeria becomes a professional mentor for Luna and helps push her career forward. However, as soon as their relationship becomes romantic, the power imbalance becomes problematic. I am relieved that the novel does acknowledge this.

Greenwald does a phenomenal job of painting pictures for the reader. When Luna describes a shot she wants to create, the reader can almost see it play out. The vivid descriptions of the old LA Zoo really jumped out at me.

“The Zoo itself was, obviously abandoned, leaving cages open to hikers, who would slip into the labyrinthian halls and enter the enclosures. Graffiti, most of it satanic, covers the walls like a coat.”

Greenwald paints a picture for her readers that make them feel transported along with her characters.

I get excited whenever I pick up a book with Jewish representation. There are a few Jewish references in Sizzle Reel – Luna references a a “Hanukkah present” and she talks about how her parents love Wyatt because he has a “Jewish pretty-boy look.” It is clear Luna’s Judaism matters to her, but it is not the focal piece of her identity to the story. This feels like a very accurate portrayal of a secular Jew.

I thoroughly enjoyed Sizzle Reel, and I look forward to seeing what Greenwald does next. Her characters and settings jump off the page and draw the reader into the world of the novel.