This was a fun read. Not necessarily my favorite thing I've read. It was pretty predictable. However I enjoyed the MC finding herself in this coming of age sapphic rom com. I purchased it for my library's collection. Just didn't do much for me.

Unfortunately this book was not for me and I DNF'd at 29%. As a bisexual woman, I was looking forward to a new romance with a bisexual main character. However, personally I felt the book included a lot of generalizations and stereotypes about queer people that felt off putting and surface level. There was also a lot of focus on the desire to have sexual experiences that for me felt like it took up too much of the content, including the main character's internal monologue. Combined with the cinematographer lens that the story is told through, while a cool concept and interesting to some I'm sure, as someone who is not a big film analyst this didn't hold my attention either and after awhile many parts felt weighed down with detail for the scene. This story unfortunately just wasn't for me.

There were certainly pieces of this story that I enjoyed and found myself relating to. However, a lot of the commentary around sex and virginity just didn’t work for me. I understand that the MC was supposed to learn and grow but she just seemed so oblivious and unwilling to change her opinion.

When she finally did realize who it was she really wanted to be with I just felt like she did a complete 180 and was all of a sudden ready to commit and so much more mature than she had been for like 75% of the story.

I appreciate the queer cast of characters and the later in life coming out, but I wouldn’t say that this book is one I will be recommending.

Relationships aren’t easy. Realizing you’re not straight isn’t easy. Coming out isn’t easy, falling in love isn’t easy, distinguishing between lust and love and what’s exciting because it’s new and what’s exciting in itself isn’t easy. It’s all a mess and it can be scary and exhausting but damn is it worth it when it works out.

I came out in 1993 and met my wife a few months later so all this uncertainty is very much in the past for me but Carlyn Greenwald brought all these feelings back to the surface. The good and the bad. And she did so with a very cute book full of relatable characters, flawed and real.

Set in Los Angeles, the story begins with Luna Roth, a twenty-four-year-old aspiring director of photography with anxiety, newly aware that she’s bisexual, coming out to her best friends, straight boy Wyatt (whom she very briefly dated a few months ago) and nonbinary sapphic Romy. Soon after, she develops a crush on Valeria Sullivan, an Oscar-winning actress directing her first indie film. The attraction seems mutual and with the help of her friends, Luna tries to get closer to Valeria, for both professional and lusty reasons.

This is the second book I read in a relatively short period of time in which the MC is an assistant to someone who works with celebrities and falls for one of these celebrities. While I had found the first one a tad bland, this one made me laugh quickly and I liked the MC from the beginning.

I don’t know what about Luna makes her so endearing. Maybe her cluelessness as to what she wants and what she’s experiencing is so cute and relatable that my heart felt like it was growing as I was reading. I have to say, however, her idea of what constitutes sex and what doesn’t is disturbing. Her obsession with losing her virginity, whatever that means, made me uncomfortable at times but there’s enough I liked in this book to overlook it and focus on the positive.

Other reviewers felt too much time was spent in Luna’s thoughts but I rather enjoyed it. Because the story is told in first person and present time and because Luna is going through the very first days of acknowledging that she’s not attracted only to men, getting to read her thoughts and feelings as they progressively evolve made sense to me.

Sizzle Reel is a lot more complex and deep than it seems. And I love that. The execution is a bit messy but I like that it feels like light reading while pushing the lines. It’s also a love letter to Los Angeles that made me wish I’d visited all the cool urban sites it showcases.

I highlighted this book on my Booktube channel. The video can be accessed here: https://youtu.be/XY9DJfR6dmA

Coming of age stories are always fun to read. This LGBTQIA+ tale is parts understanding identity and forging a path for the future. Protagonist Luna Roth, aspiring cinematographer, comes out to her friends and is convinced to take a chance on a potential relationship with Hollywood actress Valeria Sullivan. This story felt genuine at every step of the way and was really engaging to read. I would recommend this to anyone who loves stories about people finding their way, and their place, in life.

This was a NetGalley review.

This is a cute coming-of-age LGBTQ+ romance. The main character, Luna, comes out as bisexual to her close friends. This story involves her journey of wanting to advance her career in the film industry and also losing her virginity. There were a lot of terms I learned from this book that I haven't even heard of before. The writing was a little all over the place and didn't flow as much as I would have liked. However, I did like the overall story and really enjoyed the celebrity aspect of it.

3 stars
Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for this ARC.

Unfortunately, I wasn't a gigantic fan of this book. There were things I liked; I enjoyed the representation in this book and the opportunity it gave me to have a larger understanding of some LGBTQ topics. I enjoyed the setting (California/Los Angeles) and some of the tropes/discussions that were had between the characters.

However, there's unfortunately a longer list of things I wasn't exactly a fan of. I really didn't like the characters; Luna was just so incapable of making literally any decisions for herself. She was constantly leaning on and bothering others, and she was just absolutely unable to make her mind up about anything. I really disliked the ending, I feel like it was too easy and that it all happened way too quick. I felt like some of the arguments and topics discussed were really repetitive. I was also irritated by all of the camera/production talk. This is something I would've liked to learn about and read about, but there were so many abbreviations used that most of the time I had no idea what the characters were actually talking about.

I don't want to be completely negative because I can tell the author worked hard on this book. There were just a lot of irratating things for me that made me frustrated at times. I would still recommend this book to anyone who enjoys LGBTQ stories, romance, books about Hollywood, etc. and I do feel like it can be appreciated by others. It just wasn't a personal favorite.

I really enjoyed all of the representation this book offered; bi-sexual, non/binary, etc. it’s always very exciting to see all identities represented in books! However, I did feel like some of the language was misleading or incorrect. Overall, I thought it was a fun, coming-of-age romance that was enjoyable to read.

I see what the author was trying to do but found it all a bit stilted. The characters seem to all rush into things and it was very messy. Maybe I just wasn't the target audience but it wasn't really for me!

*Thank you to NetGalley for providing this digital arc of Sizzle Reel in exchange for an honest review

I wasn't sure whether I should post a review of this book or not because, to be honest, I had only reached the second half when I finally decided to abandon it. It just wasn't for me and I found enough problematic content in the part of the book that I managed to read. Please, be aware of my partial knowledge of the novel before continuing to read this.

Sizzle Reel was pitched as "an unputdownable queer coming-of-age rom-com about life and love in Hollywood" (from the GR page) and, well, there was queerness, but it wasn't nicely portrayed, and the book certainly was funny at times (when it wasn't offensive), but not engaging enough. First, about the lgbtq representation, I'd like to say that I wasn't very happy about what was done in that area. I think there are some harmful stereotypes thrown here and there and comments about virginity and sexuality that aren't acceptable, like the fact that to identify as bisexual you have to have slept with both men and women or that having sex with a woman isn't real sex. I also felt like the only non-binary character in the book was not treated with respect and that the disrespectful comments weren't addressed properly. Plus, the outing scene at work was unnecessary and, once again, harmful.

On top of all, the chemistry between the protagonist and the two love interests was non-existent, and the "love triangle", boring and poorly executed. In the beginning, I was rooting for the roommate and main character to be more than friends, but... they lost my interest very soon.

Finally, I had a hard time engaging with the plot and couldn't connect with the characters (especially Luna, because she was childish and annoying most of the time).

A cute, lgbtq romance, following a twenty-four year old trying to pursue their dream in Hollywood and figure life out. Huge points for the author mentioning Jenny Nicholson on the very first page.

This was an interesting read. It came off more YA than I was expecting and didn't give me the representation and joy I hoped for. I was looking for a coming-out story full of strength and wonder but unfortunately, this one did not follow through. It was actually very harmful and continued to perpetuate harmful stereotypes. Hopefully, others enjoy this one better than I did.

i ended up giving this book 3 stars because while the story was nice and the book itself was well written and easy to follow, i had a couple of issues with it that i couldn’t really get over. the main thing for me was the main character’s obsession with losing her virginity and her insistence that this can only happen through penetration. this is such a harmful and heteronormative view on virginity (which is already a made up thing in the first place) and for that to be front and center in a queer book just didn’t sit right with me. i don’t think the author herself actually has this view or supports it or anything like that, as other queer characters in the novel were always trying to educate the main character, but despite this the main character didn’t really end up changing her perspective throughout the book. i think it would be better to have had her unlearn that belief, especially as a big theme throughout the book was her exploring her newly discovered queerness. i think if it had been written that way, not present at all, or even just a little thing in the book i would have enjoyed it more, i just couldn’t get over it with it constantly coming up. this is also just my opinion as an overly critical sociology student haha, so if you read the synopsis and thing you would enjoy the book i still would recommend giving it a try!

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the advanced copy of this book.

Sizzle reel was a nice and easy read in between som pretty thick fantasy novels I’m working through. I enjoyed the fast pace and fun writing style, but occasionally got hung up on the cringy language use and fixation on penetrative sex. I think it’s great that we’re discussing it but it got to a beating a dead horse level of repetition. I think a lot more could have been done with building on Romy and Luna's relationship. It was entirely obvious that they’d end up together but I didn’t feel there was a ton of substance going into their relationship.

Romy is cool and enby, they’re clearly super close, they live together…. So they have to end up together? I just didn’t feel like they had actual chemistry but mainly because they didn’t talk outside of discussing Val and Luna or work.

I appreciated the content and representation, but the plot fell short for me.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. Pub date: April 18, 2023

TL;DR This is a book with queer characters but is NOT positive queer representation. Harmful stereotyping and language. I cannot in good faith recommend this to anyone.

This is a YA coming out coming of age tale that missed the mark. Essentially the MC spends the entire book basing her queerness on her definition of her own virginity because she can’t wrap her head around non-penetrative sex being sex. It’s weirdly like an “all sex is sex” manifesto, even though…duh.

Definitely geared to Gen Z (or younger) readers, this is Hollywood/industry-lingo heavy and has its share of problematic stereotyping. I found the characters immature and unrelatable, with so many frustratingly contrived situations that could’ve been avoided with a conversation…or listening to the conversations that were had.

While I do believe the author was attempting to be inclusive, this book uses some incredibly harmful language and stereotypes that are not acceptable.

Examples include:
- Straight sex being the only "real sex"
- Needing to sleep with a woman to "really" be bisexual
- the term "allosexual"
- outing
- the idea that you need to have sex to be whole

Overall, this book does not have positive queer representation and as a result, I would not recommend picking it up.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

You know, I never really understood the whole Gen Z/Millennial split until I started reading this book and I was just hit with this wave of, "Wow, this book was not written for me." Which is fine, but it does mean that I DNF'd this book pretty early. There was already a lot of talk about virginity and when I went to look at the reviews, I confirmed this book was not for me. It's a love triangle, but I already know who our main character should choose and I don't really care to read about her thinking she's in love with someone else. However, if you came out later in your life, like, say 24 as bisexual and have somehow NEVER realized that biphobia is a thing (genuinely, what?) then maybe this book is for you!! Also virginity is a social construct and you do not have to have penetrative sex to not be a virgin.

Okay, I know that above paragraph sounds harsh, but truly, I know that this book does have an audience. It's just... That audience is not me. I'm old and cranky, but not old enough to appreciate The Build Up so, c'est la vie, I suppose.

I appreciated the Jewish and LGBTQIA representation and exploration of the MC’s sexual identity as a bi-sexual as it helped me learn how sapphic relationships work. However, unfortunately, I struggled with the pacing of the story and found myself bored. It was hard to feel emotionally invested in the story and the journey of the characters.

The book is set in LA and there were also themes of Hollywood and cinematography that other readers may enjoy along with these tropes:

✨ celebrity romance
✨ friends to lovers

𝚁𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐: 4⭐️
𝙶𝚎𝚗𝚛𝚎: LGBTQIA+ romance 📚

𝙼𝚢 𝚃𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚜:
While this book had a few issues the romance was sweet.

𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚒𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎:
Romantic comedies
Coming of age
Cinematography
Celebrity romances
Friends to lovers
Self discovery

𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙸 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎𝚍:
Jewish rep
Bi rep

𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙸 𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚗’𝚝 𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛:
Felt more like a YA
Some topics got repetitive
I had a few issues and was annoyed with a few things in the book
Didn’t love the love triangle