The premise of this Sizzle Reel was so alluring to me. I love a queer coming-of-age story and I’m also a big fan of a Hollywood setting so this felt like something that was going to be right up my alley. I only wish the execution lived up to my expectations. Instead of being the new favourite I had anticipated I’m walking away from this book feeling confused and frustrated.

Firstly, what I did like: Valeria! She is the star of this show. She’s so fun and fleshed out, she really felt like the only three-dimensional character to me. I loved her characterisation and her dialogue and wit were lovely.

I think most of my issues with this book are from the plot and the main character, Luna. I get that this was supposed to be about the chaos and coming of age associated with finding oneself. It’s totally expected that Luna’s a bit of a hot mess after coming out. It makes sense that this chaos puts the story into motion. However, I did not expect Luna to be a confusing chaos goblin for the WHOLE book. I mean... this really took the whole ‘chaotic gays’ meme to a new level. Right from the beginning of the book we’re supposed to believe that Luna has just come out and is smitten with America’s current sweetheart, Valeria Sullivan. But from that very same first chapter, we begin to get fed all these sporadic little romantic descriptions about Luna’s nonbinary bestie Romy. It was like the author was trying to breadcrumb bits of this love triangle into the story with little success. The whole story focused so heavily on Valeria, but then we’d get these randomly thrown lines about Romy when Luna’s focus and time barely spent with Romy. Instead of breadcrumbs here and there it was like every 50 pages or so I’d get 3 loaves of bread hurled at my head. It just didn’t feel smooth or realistic at all. The ‘tension’ between Romy and Luna was so lacking. Essentially this was a friends-to-lovers book in which the main character spends 90% of the story pining for someone else. I love a good friends-to-lovers story but I didn’t even sense a smidge of the trope until 85% in.

Overall, I just didn’t feel any of the emotions the author was intending I feel throughout the story. I know I was supposed to root for Luna and feel for her as she struggled to figure herself out and experiment with her sexuality, but I think the problem was that Luna was so focused on sex. She was so obsessed with ticking off ‘losing her queer virginity.’ Luna was just entirely too immature for my liking. At points in the story, Luna felt almost clinical and cold because she ignored all her emotions and gave up her chances at real self-actualization to seek external validation over whether or not what she and Valeria had done constituted queer sex. I mean she practically runs away from Valeria’s after their night together to ask Romy if she had ticked it off. She was so obsessed with fitting the criteria of queer that I feel the story misses out on giving us the real and raw emotions and turmoil that one should have during this journey. Especially reflecting on how the story ends, it feels really icky that Luna was so obsessed with having Romy validate her queerness. It almost felt like she was infantilising herself to Romy. In addition, I can see how this book could come off as offensive or belittling to bisexuals who do not share the same narrow definition of sex and virginity as Luna. For a book that tries and promises to be pretty progressive and often makes jokes about the character’s apparent wokeness, I think the stereotypes around virginity and the focus on cis-male appendages have the potential to be quite frustrating and hurtful for queer readers, specifically non-binary and lesbian readers.

Unfortunately, the ending just made me incredibly frustrated… which pretty sums up my entire experience with this book. The relationship that prevails wasn’t well-developed but rather felt rushed and forced, and frankly left a bad taste in my mouth. I really wanted to love this but all the parts that I did like ended up being nearly inconsequential and all that’s left in the end is the messy, chaotic parts.

I loved the story, the world building and meeting the different characters. I felt completely immersed in the story and couldn't stop reading it.

Sizzle Reel by Carlyn Greenwald

This is a coming out queer story within a coming-of-age story. Luna is going to become a cinematographer by paying her dues as a PA for a Hollywood talent agent. She is also in the process of coming to terms with her sexuality and had just come out to her best friends as bi. She meets, Valeria at work and is immediately enamored with the young Oscar winner. To her surprise, Valeria shows interest in Luna but as they get closer Luna's best friend Romy starts acting increasingly odd.

This is a love triangle and Valeria is center stage in the middle of it. Valeria wanted to come out in her own terms but gets forced out before she was ready to tell people about being bi-sexual. It was fairly decent story. I agree with others don't go reading this a current day coming out read it as a coming out story say 10 years ago. Where it was much harder for someone to come out and except there identity. if you go into this book understanding that it will be an enjoyable coming out book. For me even as an older LGBGTQ member this felt what I experienced coming out to people I cared about.

Thank you to Netgalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage and Anchor for a free copy of Sizzle Reel for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions in this review are my own.

I adored this book! Luna is very relatable, and I enjoyed seeing her interact with both Romy and Valeria. The ending was a bit predictable, but I liked it nonetheless. The book does read a bit YA, but as a lover of all genre-ages, it didn't matter much to me.

Thank you to the author for the gifted copy (totally forgot I had it on NetGalley also)

What had the makings of a great sapphic book, fell a little short for me but wasn't totally terrible. I had so many high hopes for this and was just a little underwhelmed by the plot development and some of the character's actions.

I feel like this has the bones of a great book, but ended up falling short, but overall enjoyable. I think some of the writing was redundant, and leaned a bit YA given that it isn’t

this book ended exactly the way I knew it would…and I was still pissed about it.

Luna Roth just had her bisexual awakening and is determined to put her newfound sexuality to good use. When she catches the attention of actress Valeria Sullivan, sparks fly and Luna discovers what she’s been missing.

……which is why the ending made me SO MAD. Spoilers start here folks!!! So throughout the book it was hinted that Luna had passing thoughts about liking one of her best friends, Romy, who was very obviously in love with Luna throughout the book. This is why I wasn’t incredibly surprised when Luna ended up with Romy after a fall-out with Valeria. It’s not that I didn’t like Romy, I just didn’t feel the same chemistry between her and Luna as I did with Luna and Valeria. Luna’s obsession with the definition of virginity and what constitutes as sex was also an annoying point for me throughout the book.

I actually had fun reading this until the ending :(

I received an advanced copy of Sizzle Reel by Carlyn Greenwald from the publisher Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

What It’s About: Aspiring cinematographer Luna Roth has just come out as bisexual at age 24, and while her best friend and fellow queer Romy is excited, she’s having trouble flirting with girls and she cannot even wrap her head around telling her story. Plus, her cruel boss has used this to push that she (the boss) celebrates diversity. But then A-list actressValeria Sullivan walks into the talent agency and is interested in Luna’s cinematography and Luna leverages this for a job. Plus, if she is also gay, Luna might have her first kiss with a girl wrapped up too.

What I Loved: I was really excited to read this one. I actually genuinely enjoyed the side characters Romy and Valeria. They were both likable characters and put up with a lot of crap. I enjoyed them and was happy when they showed up.

What I Didn’t Like: Luna took a promising book and kind of wrecked it for me. I’m not queer, so please take my words with that in conception. There are several reviews from queer readers who raise similar issues to me, and I would encourage you to read them. Luna is a dislikable character who seems to be scheming like a high schooler to get her crush to date her while constantly talking about it to her friends and overthinking. Also to be fair she kind of plays her crush too and this is ignored. Also, you know the whole time the way the book is going to end and this makes Luna read as blissfully ignorant and unthinking to everyone. A lot of this could be considered as her being inexperienced and immature, but I feel like that's not fully it, however it is worth noting the character is written as inexperienced, still I don't think being inexperienced is really an excuse for some of this behavior. There are also some really troubling obsessions with sex and virginity that are weird.

Who Should Read It: People who like predictable romances where a lead is a bit naïve.

Summary: Recently out, Luna has the chance to get the career and get the girl.

I enjoy a story about an average person and a movie about falling in love. Luna is working as an assistant, but her goal is to be a cinematographer. She is also newly out, and she hasn't told everyone.

When she gets fired and is outted within the same week - she ends up working on the set of one of her favourite actresses and allies.

Although she is starting a relationship with Val - her best friend has been the person who answers and guides her in her journey

This is a book of discovery and best friend love.

This was super cute, and the cover is beautiful

This story started out very promising to me but slowly started shifting towards a direction that made me feel increasingly uncomfortable as a queer woman who also realized they were queer and came out later in life that pushed this book into 2.5 star territory for me. There is so much I could say about this book but also at the same time I feel exhausted by the characters, the story, and much of the dialogue. I understand the author was trying to tell a story of a character coming out later in life but, wow. The heavy internalized biphobia was a lot to deal with over and over again, so much so that I the impression I am left with coloring the book more than any sort of satisfying resolve and education and remorse and growth and relearning is internalized biphobia and the obsessive insistence that only penetrative intercourse counts towards losing virginity. The obsession "losing virginity" to begin with made the story read much more Young Adult than New Adult, which was not at all what I was expecting given the ages of the characters and the setting of the story. The trope the book ultimately ends up being is one of my favorite romance tropes to read, but in this iteration of the trope, the pivot from where the story was going did not work for me at all. I’m happy for the characters finding happiness but this journey was just not for me. I will round my overall score up to 3 stars from 2.5 because the rating doesn’t allow half stars and Carlyn Greenwald is mother for giving us that Hot Ones training scene. Never have I ever felt so seen in a romance novel and I love her so much for giving the culture that scene. Iconic. I really enjoyed how seamlessly Greenwald incorporated inclusive phrases so that non-binary, trans, queer people can feel seen, respected, and held space for in a romance novel and do it well I really appreciated.

Thank you to NetGalley and Vintage for providing an electronic advanced reader galley in exchange for my honest review.

MY RATING 3/5 STARS
While I enjoyed my time reading this book overall, I think it had a hard time actually gripping my attention, so it took me quite a while for me to finish it.

Through the book we follow Luna who has recently discovered that she is bi and wants to explore this new part of her sexuality. Because of this she gets an internal pressure to have sex with someone who isn’t a man so she can lose her virginity.

To deal with her anxieties and struggles we see Luna going to a therapist, which I really loved as it was great to see her be able to articulate what she was going through. Additionally, I always think that it is great to see more positive representation around therapy and how that can help us.

I really loved Romy as a side character, and I would have loved to see and hear more about her.
Lastly, I think the ending of the book felt a little rushed, and I would have liked for the final outcome to be a bit more fleshed out.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for sending me an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Stunning debut! Absolutely a wonderful one as well too and I can't wait for more book by Carlyn! And I loved the writing overall!

This story was an okay read, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. I wasn't anticipating so many controversial topics to be included in this story. There were some very slow parts in the beginning and things I felt slowed the story down. Luna is an aspiring cinematographer, coming out in her 20s. Valeria is an A-list celebrity Luna ends up working with due to a very public, dramatic scene at her Hollywood Talent Management job that she witnessed. Luna is crushing on Valeria, her bestie, Romy is supporting their best friend through her coming out questions and revelations.
While Luna's character was kind of hard for me to connect with, I really, really liked Romy's character a lot as well as Valeria. I think it was just hard for me to connect with this story and Luna overall. I feel like a lot of the romance was lost with the other topics that are in the book. That might not be a deterrent for some readers, but this just isn't the style of romance novel that makes my heart fly. I hope this book finds its way into the hands of people who really enjoy this type of story.

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I got maybe a quarter of the way into the book and couldn't read it anymore. I wasn't a fan of the writing style and it reads like someone trying to be inclusive as a trend. This also felt as if they were going for an LGBTQIA checklist just to be sure they ticked off all the right hotkeys. There were scenes that didn't feel necessary and the wildly horny inner monologue was overbearing. It gave a whole new meaning to Thirsty AF and not in a good way. This book had so much potential and it fell so very flat.

This was a pretty good read, it did lose me sometimes throughout the book but I still enjoyed a decent amount of it. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

This was clearly the author's first book. It had an overall okay premise but the writing was choppy and unfocused, and some of the messaging about different aspects of LGBTQIA life felt incorrect, offensive, and sometimes just too stereotypical.

I really enjoyed this! It was not your typical romance novel and I loved that about it. I highly recommend this!

I wanted to like this one so much but it just fell flat for me. Luna was just not a likable character for me - her language -really who says allosexual! - her obsession with virginity, her refusal to accept any queer person’s definition of sex, her absolute narcissism and selfishness? All not good for me. If EVERY conversation you have with EVERY friend is about sex - that’s just a little weird.

I love coming of age books and I love queer sexual awakening books - but this unfortunately didn’t hit the mark, for me, on either. I enjoyed the Hollywood/film references and enjoyed Valeria’s character - though her “laid back cool but I’ve won 100 awards” thing kind of felt not genuine - and I enjoyed the “villain” characters, Steven and Alice. Well not so much enjoyed them but definitely felt their characters from the writing.

Huge thank you to the author, Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for the gifted e-book ❤️ #gifted. My review is comprised of my honest thoughts.

Read this book if you like: Hollywood, coming of age, LGBTQ representation, Jewish rep

Ugh. So many problems. I am ALWAYS looking for LGBTQ romance. I especially love bi MCs since I am bi. I wanted to throw this book across the room. The biphobia in this book is so strong. FYI, you can be bi AND only have had sex with one gender. There are countless conversations and even Luna's thoughts that are problematic. The characters are unlikable. I didn't love that Luna was using Valeria. I hate that half the book was a losing her "gay" virginity quest. It's definitely more coming of age than romance. It's like the romance was accidental. The blurb sounded so good. I'm very disappointed. This was not for me.

This book made me feel old. I love a sapphic romance but it made me feel absolutely ancient when I had to look up a couple of things. I wish authors wouldn't use acronyms and assume everyone knows what they mean. Other than that, it was cute I guess. I liked it but I didn't love it.